Without disclosing any names I’d like to solicit this forum’s advice.
I have a training partner who frequently develops GI issues on long runs when exerting himself at below LT threshold level at, say, PE 3 +, for prolonged periods. For instance, this person always has bowel cramping and diarrhea during the run portion of HIMs. Having personally reviewed this person’s Garmin data I noticed this condition coincides with an elevated HR. Consequently, I believe it may be due to blood shunting in the gut. (That said, I am not a doctor so who really knows?) As a precaution, this person modifies his diet for several days prior to an endurance event, i.e., reduced intake, elimination of dairy products, etc., but has failed to achieve any relief.
Next step is to consult a GI internist; however, it’s difficult to find a such a specialist who is also an endurance athlete. I am certain this can be fixed. The question is how to go about it.
Kindly respond with constructive suggestions only. No jokes, please. This is a serious matter. Many thanks.
Last race, a half marathon, was this past Sunday morning at 6:15 am. Dinner was Saturday at 5 pm. Chicken soup and small bowl of pasta. Breakfast on race morning was at 3 am: a little oatmeal, banana and cup of coffee. Sipped Gatorade til the gun went off.
maltodextrin does this to lots of people it is the main sugar in Gu and many drinks (including infinit).
I would have him try homemade stuff - like honey, homemade electrolyte solution: sugar, salt, salt substitute and water…
see if that does it on training runs. if not you have your answer.
If not, fiber might help. I am about to do some consulting with a company that makes a new fiber - currently being marketed for weight loss but I think it has potential for endurance athlete’s nutrition needs…Once I iron out details of what I am doing with them your friend might be a good test case…
I have found that taking Immodium chewable tablets about 1 hr before the run (while on the bike) really helps keep my stomach and GI system stable during the run. It took me three races to figure it out. FWIW, I generally use Gatorade Endurance, Water, PowerGel or Hammer Gel (w/ andw/o caffeine) and Cliff Bars (w/ and w/o caffeine) for HIM and IM distance races.
Obviously nutrition is very important and highly individual.
I’ve gone through some similar Gi problems. The one problem with me giving out advice is that I made numerous changes, and I don’t know which one did the trick but I haven’t had similar problems in a while.
1st No fiber close to race time
2nd No HR spikes
3rd Peeing frequently and on demand
4th more salt tablets
To be honest, I think it had to do with the 3rd and 4th things. I almost feel like looking back, whenever I’d have GI issues it was because my bladder was too full and so I was pushing water out elsewhere, or maybe just the pressure of a full bladder on my intestines. I don’t know but those four things seemed to help.
Just for reference, I used gus with caffeine without problem. It seems just as many people have problems with refined sugar as go with maltodextrin so I don’t know that I would blame the Gus right off the bat.
I’ve had GI problems in the past, primarily during racing and like one of the OP’s responses, I’ve made a number of changes. A couple of comments/questions:
1)Is there a correlation between higher temps and higher GI issues?
2)Is there a correlation between more in-activity (training or racing) solid food consumption and higher GI issues? Liquids/gels will generally cause less distress
3)You’ve mentioned the GI problems occur at a certain PE, does it also occur after a certain duration?
Things that have helped me in recent years:
-No/low fiber in the days leading up to the race or “epic” training day
-Salt
-more liquids/gels than solid foods, especially in warmer temps
-allow at least 3 hours of time after a meal before a hard workout
-work up to high intensity in a workout rather than jumping right in to it
I’ve made every mistake over the years. Its good to feel like I have pre-race, in-race, and post-race preparations appropriately dialed in.
That type of GI distress can often be related to dehydration which seems counter intuitive. Try drinking a lot more water, not during the race, but all the time. Also, just plain going to hard on the run, especially on a hot day, is an excellent way to bring it about.
I think that when you are running harder than your body wants to or is used to it finds a way to get you to stop running so fast which it feels is a threat to it, and cramping, crapping, pain etc is an excellent method to get you to stop running. This is just my theory, I could be totally wrong.
I’ve had GI problems in the past, primarily during racing and like one of the OP’s responses, I’ve made a number of changes. A couple of comments/questions:
1)Is there a correlation between higher temps and higher GI issues?
No
2)Is there a correlation between more in-activity (training or racing) solid food consumption and higher GI issues? Liquids/gels will generally cause less distress
No…distress with lower solid intake and with gels.
3)You’ve mentioned the GI problems occur at a certain PE, does it also occur after a certain duration?
Yes, definitely increases with duration but haven’t had him test LSD to see if reduction in PE would alleviate prob.
Things that have helped me in recent years:
-No/low fiber in the days leading up to the race or “epic” training day
-Salt
-more liquids/gels than solid foods, especially in warmer temps
-allow at least 3 hours of time after a meal before a hard workout
-work up to high intensity in a workout rather than jumping right in to it
I’ve made every mistake over the years. Its good to feel like I have pre-race, in-race, and post-race preparations appropriately dialed in.
I have had bad stomach cramps racing at the 1/2 IM and IM Distances and I linked it back to taking in 2 much Maltodextrin, once I went back to simple sugars I felt better
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I have had bad stomach cramps racing at the 1/2 IM and IM Distances and I linked it back to taking in 2 much Maltodextrin, once I went back to simple sugars I felt better
This seems to be a common conclusion. Thanks.