Hi Beam!
i’ve got no medical training, and i’m an idiot. my advice is probably useless, at worst it’s dangerous. But i’m prone to cramp (quads + hamstrings mainly). and seem to have fixed myself.
(Based on my own experience of what seems to work or not for me)
Salt. you’ll need potassium and sodium + others i forget about, are you using elctrolyte drinks?
if i start cramping, i’m more or less screwed until i can get some salts, drinking water only seems to make it worse – i guess i’m further diluting my already low salt levels.
i’m a tight ar53, so i make my own electrolyte drink from a 50/50 mix of table salt (sodium), and lo-salt (potassium), and mixing 1 teaspoon into a litre of water. at this level it doesn’t taste too weird.
i don’t bother with any of this on short rides (20k or less) but have found it effective for those longer rides, and/or hot sunny days.
it seems to work for me.
no doubt, a member of the salt-police will be right along to remind us how dangerous too much salt can be, any minute now…