Cramp

I've had cramp a couple of times after rides - usually driving into the outskirts of Edinburgh after a Glentress trip is the timescale for it kicking in.

But it hasn't affected a ride like it did at the Penrith Merida MTB Marathon where it was a serious limiting factor. Reading up on cramp, it seems it isn't fully understood exactly why it happens, but there are a number of contributory factors:

• Temperature
• Hydration
• Fitness/fatigue
• Electrolyte imbalance

The first two aren't really factors for me, but I'd readily concede that fitness IS - and was almost prepared to accept that until I was fitter, cramp might be a perpetual problem.

Then I found out about Elete Water - mainly because their UK distributor Fine ADC have (had) an office in the same campus as my work office and James there gave me a few of their sample packs.

I used these during training rides over the next few weeks - I knew it wouldn't be a great test because I wouldn't normally get cramp then, but I wanted to be sure it wasn't going to cause any new problems.

... which it didn't. It has a salty-ish taste concentrated (which is not how you use it) but when diluted even in plain water there is no taste. I tended to add it to my DIY sports drink instead of the salt component.

The big trial came at the Merida MTB Marathon in Aviemore. I started to use Elete a couple days before hand in water throughout the day, and added it to the juice and water in my hydration pack on the day. I also took a small runners water bottle with concentarted juice and Elete Water in it so that 100ml of this would make 1litre DIY sports drink when topped up at the water/food refill stations.

I can't pretend that I had absolutely no cramp problems in this event, but they were massively better than at Penrith. My conclusion is that Elete Water dalt with the electrolyte imbalance part of my cramp problem ... now I just need to deal with the fitness part (which includes stretching) to get rid of it altogether.

Confirmation of that came when I did the same route again a couple of weeks later with Neal. Using Elete as before - and with a pace/gear choice that protected a niggling knee problem - I had absolutely no cramp during or after the ride.

It's not an inexpensive product - especially when you start buying the bigger bottles - but you use very little of it per litre of water. I got a couple of the little dropper bottles initially then a big bottle as you can (apparently) refill the droppers from the big bottle which is handy to take out on the trail with you for top-ups. I actually got a good price (esp with £1 P&P) from UK Bike Store but you should check for yourself.