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14 MAY 2026

Late on the run at Challenge Penticton in 2014, barely holding on to second place but only a few minutes, I started to feel my hamstring begin to tighten and quiver—the nascent signs of a coming catastrophic cramp. Holding off Simon Cochrane in 3rd required a kind of hobble-hop-run to the finish line, running ugly but hanging on my spot. My hamstring felt like a slack-line under tension: wobbly and precarious. I hobbled to a chair in the finish chute and sat down relieved—I’d managed to finish before the cramps had taken me out of the race.

Over 60% of triathletes and between 20-70% of cyclists cite cramps as a significant obstacle to achieving their goals. You and me and are not unsual—we are normal in our struggle with cramps. In the last 40 years, however, we’ve been sold an incomplete truth: that simply focusing on hydration and electrolyte balance will save us, but research in the past 15 years says different.

Today we’re gonna talk about what a cramp is, what the various causes of cramps are (spoiler: NOT just electrolytes and hydration), and what, finally, you can actually do about them.

What IS a cramp in the first place?

A cramp is a “sudden, painful, involuntary contraction of one or more skeletal muscles.” The kind of cramp we’re talking about is called an “Exercise Associated Muscle Cramps,” or EAMCs. EAMCs tent to strike actively working muscles that cross two joints, like your hamstrings, quads, and calves…the three muscle groups most likely to cramp. EAMCs also tend to show in the latter half of events, which is our first clue in our project of splitting the causes of cramps from just hydration and electrolyte issues. Cramps tend to show up in the final quarter of the race, as anyone who has raced at the edges of their abilities knows palpably. If cramps were only due to electrolyte and hydration problems, we’d see cramps intensify steadily over the second half of the race as you dehydrate at a constant rate. Instead athletes are generally OK until the final quarter of the event and THEN begin suffering cramps. Our solution will entail something other than electrolyte losses and dehydration.

Our second clue comes from one of the fixes for cramps: light stretching of the affected muscle. You can’t stretch fluid and salt back into your muscles, and light stretching directly affects the motor units of the muscles in question—it sounds like there is a link between cramps and muscular function (or dysfunction).

Let’s go and see what the actual story is...[read more...]​

Sweat Testing Now Available in Bend!

Wouldn't it be great if you could know EXACTLY how much sports drink and sodium you need to stave off cramps and fatigue while optimizing performance?⁠

Well, you can.⁠

Bend Triathlon Club Head Coach Joe Beckerley joined me for a Precision Fuel and Hydration sweat/sodium test this weekend and we put some real numbers to Joe's anecdotal report: Moderate to heavy sweater and plenty of salt in that sweat.⁠

The results?⁠

Joe loses a modest 1.2 l/hr of sweat, but each of those liters contains a whopping 2,300mg of sodium!⁠

That's a lot. Average is ~1000mg/l of sweat. Joe will need to aggressively supply sodium in his races.⁠

We settled on drinking 1 liter an hour on the bike or 1 1/3 standard bike bottles, each with 53g of carbohydrate and a whopping 1510mg of sodium. ⁠

He's going to supplement that liquid with 50-60g of carbohydrate from gels and chews.⁠

Want this kind of clarity in your fueling? Campfire is now a Precision Fuel and Hydration Sweat Testing Center, based in Bend, OR. ⁠

Our next testing day is 5/23 from 9am-2pm at Bend's Juniper Swim and Fitness. ⁠If you want to you can book directly here, but I've only got 4 spots!

Book your spot at the link above OR simply get in touch with me here the group. Alternatively you can always email me here.

Happy sweating!
Chris

As always, thanks for reading.

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