Sorry for the indelicate subject matter, but where else to go for an answer? I get nervous before big events (IMCDA coming up) and can’t relax enough to have a b.m. in the days before the race. In the past I’ve handled this by taking a laxative about 3 nights before the race, then going to liquid or non-fibrous food. However, I’m not sure I’m getting enough or the right kind of calories before the race, and I don’t feel cleaned out race morning.
caffeine in the form of tea cleans me right out the morning of the race. I get so nervous that everything just flows…kind of the opposite of you I suppose, but caffeine should do the trick. At least it does for me.
M~
When I get nervous, like before a race, my stomach goes haywire. At my last race, I made 5 trips to the port-o-johns/toilets from the time I woke up at 4am until my wave started at 7:56. Yes, 5 times.
Here’s what I figured out a couple of years ago–and believe me it does the trick. You figure that ingest a lot more “sugar” (lets keep it basic and just call it sugar) on IM race day. Plus you have been tapering the last 2 weeks so you prob. haven’t ingested an excessive amount of gels or gatorade. So all of a sudden you starting eating a little more carbs, gatorade loading, etc. Add to that nerves. Most people are feeling pretty irregular. I find that taking an Immodium the morning before the race and the morning of the race just even things out and keeps you regular. Esp. during the race when you take in a bunch of sugars and you don’t end up feeling “crappy” after the race:)
Try it during your next long training day or two. I hope the guy with the 25 gels taped to his top tube a couple of years ago LP reads this!
Can’t help you there. My system goes into daily “clean out” mode every morning. Side effect of colitis. Not pretty. In fact I dread the idea of early races jsut because of this – it takes until about 8:00 for my system to calm down.
I find this thread interesting, I have 3 b.m.s a day, within 30min to 1hr after eating a main meal, yet it seems that most folks have trouble with this. The morning one is like clockwork too. I haven’t had a non-b.m. morning pre-race in years. Coffee works the best for sure, but even for me I find that if I just eat breakfast, my bod wants to tidy things up a bit.
If you do laxatives, don’t do it more than 3 days before-it has a carry over effect. I found that out the hard way on my first marathon. >>crap, run 5 minute miles to catch my buddy >>crap, 5 minute miles. ABout 5 pit stops as I recall.
Just eat a big baked yellow squash the night before.
i’ve found that with certain eating habits i’ve been making 2 bowel movements a day, on race day i normally eat lite but still feel the urge to go anyways, my metabolism is real high anyways.
