preventing cramps?

[KSH]

I live in Texas... and I have been riding in weather 100 and below on ride of 20 to 60 miles.

Here is what I do:

1) Ice Cold water in my Camelbak.

2) 1, 24oz Polar bottle with water (frozen overnight).

3) 1, 20oz Polar bottle with Gatoraid (diluted, and frozen overnight).

4) Peanut butter crackers to snack on.

5) A clif bar to snack on.

6) Shot blocks in a bag on my bike, I eat one of those every 15-30 minutes.

And when I did my 60 mile ride and it was really hot and my calf started to act twitchy... I went and ate some straight salt. Gross, yes. But I never cramped up.

[Geonz]

Straight salt - delicious!! (Suck off them pretzels, slurp...)
Bananas, too.
Gatorade but I can't drink it straight either.
And I back off, big time. The first thing to go when it's hot is my motivation - somewhere down in my legs. Mental motivation I will argue with, but when the mind is ready to go and the legs won't on the third request, I stop asking and go the speed the legs request. (Which has got me thinking I may have made a mistake riding the heavy bike - normally it's an appropriate workout-inducer for a level 2 ride, but it's ... whew! it's 83, I'll be *warm* and not happy, but I won't fuse with the pavement...

[rheidis73]

Thank you for all the info. I am going to try some of your ideas. (Actually, I am going to print the page, so that I can have it as a referance)