Many times when I run over 10 miles, the rest of the day I have cramping in my legs and especially my feet.

This has been alleviated by putting my legs up on the wall after the run…you can read about that here, or watch the YouTube video. But I will still get cramps even up to a day later in my feet.

I thought it must be an electrolyte balance issue, but was surprised when I did research. Dehydration and electrolyte depletion can be an issue, but not necessarily the only thing causing the cramping.

Muscle overload can also be the culprit. Marathon training has upped my mileage quite a bit, and I know my legs are not working as efficiently at the end of a long run.

I can even hear they aren’t, by the sound of my shoes hitting the pavement. When I am running with good form, I can barely hear the footfalls. I know I’m not running correctly if I’m “clomping” (is that a word?).

Age is also a factor in how quickly our muscles fatigue, and at 50 they have been carrying me around for half a century!

The nerves in our body decay as we age and that will affect the muscles. Older runners will already be prone to cramping because of that, so adding muscle fatigue and overuse to the mix makes us prime candidates for a nighttime charley horse.

Magnesium is very important to keeping cramps at bay, so taking a supplement or eating things like avocados, bananas, spinach, almonds and oatmeal can keep our levels higher.

Putting my legs up against the wall after a run, doing calf stretches (shown here) and foam rolling (here) can help stave off the cramping one can get even a day after the run.

If the cramping is due to dehydration, obviously drinking more will help with that. I use my intervals app to alert me on long runs when to eat and drink. I use an electrolyte tablet and homemade sports drink to replace salts, potassium, magnesium, calcium and chloride.

Interestingly, you can actually drink too much water and dilute your bodies balance. This condition is called hyponatremia and means insufficient salt in the blood. People have actually died from too much water.

Soon after I started writing this post, a woman who ran the London Marathon ended up in a coma from hyponatremia. You can read her story.

UPDATE

I’ve noticed as my training has continued that I am having less cramping. This leads to me to believe the issue was related to running more miles consistently and getting my body used to the idea.

After the marathon, I will be taking a short break from training mode and then will begin training in early July for a half marathon in September.

I would like to run another full marathon in November (not sure where yet, just aiming for doing another one about 6 months after the Buffalo Marathon).

This will hopefully keep my body used to more mileage so that I can keep the cramps at bay. If not, I will look into magnesium supplements to keep any depletion in check.

Training Runs: 3 weeks before Marathon

The runs this week felt really good…I am starting to see my speed increase the more I run. The warmer weather has really helped my morale as well.

My new favorite route when I run 8 miles is out to Bird Island Pier and back. I love going in the mornings when the rest of the world is mostly asleep, except for the fishermen I see along the way.

The last run of the week was on a day that saw rain for most of the night, but I was convinced it was gone when I left for my run…especially since the sun was shining and the sky was blue!

I was wrong. About 3 and a half miles from home it got suddenly darker and the rain started POURING! I don’t mind running in the rain so much, especially if I have already been out there for a while.

It wasn’t too bad, until I came to a bridge that lifts to let large boats pass. The bridge lifts up, let’s the boat through, and then lowers. Which is a pretty slow process.

I came upon the bridge as it was coming down, so had to stop and wait. That is not fun. I was getting colder as the rain kept coming down. The area is pretty industrial, and I could see the semi-truck drivers wondering what kind of crazy person I was!

As soon as I could get going again, I warmed up quickly and the rain stopped.

I was happy to be getting in the hot shower that day!

What about you? Run in the rain or no?