Wow……I’m on a roll. I’m excelling in the stupidity category this week. Seems I’ve been doing one crazy thing after another lately. I had just finished posting about yesterday’s walk from hell , when out of the blue, I developed the worse leg cramps EVER !!! I mean the kind where your whole lower body convulses, you can’t breath and it feels like your legs are going to snap off backwards. The first contractions started in my hamstring muscles , in both legs !! at the same time.!! After 5 agonizing minutes of massaging these muscles, my calf muscles started to spasm. Only this time it took me more than 3 hours to get them stretched out enough so they would stop contracting.
Talk about excruciating pain! Bar-none ! Those are the worse cramps I’ve ever had! My calves were so sore ,that when I woke up this morning, I had difficulty walking around the house. Now , nearly 12 hours later, they still hurt, though their not contracting anymore. Well, the sad thing is……I’m pretty sure I brought this all on, myself. What do you think?
First of all , I never hydrate enough, even when I exercise hard. Secondly, I was stretching muscles that I hadn’t used much before ( racewalking exercises) But, the stupidest thing I did ,was to take a diuretic yesterday afternoon because I had some edema on my lower legs.
So here I am, dehydrated to begin with, and probably hypokalemic ( low potassium) from the steroids and albuterol , Then I go out and work my leg muscles extra hard, then I take a diuretic …………..Need I say more?
Seems I’ve broken every golden rule for walkers and runners. I think I’ve finally met my stupid goal for the year. You know whats really scary though? I worked in the medical field for 27 years !
BTW… My excuse for the not drinking enough during workouts ,is that it makes me feel bloated and when I’m bloated, its hard to breath. I actually have to force myself to drink liquids on a schedule. Of course I never keep that schedule.
