I just did CA Half… coming off the bike and into the run I started to have massive stomach problems. It hurt bad, cramping, huge pain. I basically drank Gatorade (probably too much, should’ve drank more plain water) ate a couple cliff bars and two packets (4 servings) or enervit on the bike. Pain lasted for about 6 miles, subsided but came back… accompanied by a symphony of gas. Was it just gas?? Anyone else experience such problems? Maybe it was something in my oatmeal in the morning? I should probably do more “long” bricks as well.
My buddy had the same thing happen to him on his first half last fall. It seems like it is “just gas”. But, it is debilitating…it just ruined his run. He made it to the end, but it wasn’t pretty.
I get this periodically, and kept looking to the energy/electrolyte substance of the day to blame. For me, maybe it is simply that I was going harder than I really can for the time/distance, and my gut’s peristalsis begins to shut down, then the sugars begin fermenting…and gas is the result. I’ve found that I can eat almost anything as long as I’m not exercising too hard, and I’ve probably been wrong to blame the electrolyte/energy substance.
It’s easy to see how everyone has some complaint about some substance (for me, I was just CERTAIN it was Accelerade that I couldn’t tolerate, now, I know was wrong), and that there is no consensus on what works and what doesn’t, because once you step over that time/effort line, you are going to have this problem…and it’s easy to blame the product instead of your excess effort. Not to say that some people can’t tolerate some products, it just shows why there seems to be no consensus on which products work and which ones don’t.
However, in this month’s Triathlete magazine, there is some info about which carbohydrates tend to have the most and least gastric irritation, as well as info on protein and fat intake requirements and/or no-no’s during exercise. Don’t forget electrolytes in the mix, they have a big role, too. Your gatorade/water mix may have been off kilter, as you said. It gets complicated, and the harder you go, the closer to optimal you’d better be, or WHAM! it will nail you, and once it does, it is really hard to recover during the race.
Did you eat anything during the race that you didn’t experiment first in training?
If you did then that could be part of the problem, or it could be you weren’t able to absorb all the energy you ate/drank because of a higher/lower HR. I’ve never done a half, but from what it sounds you ate a whole lot and might not of had the time to take it all in properly.
i’m guessing that you tried to consume too much. i don’t use enervit but aren’t those packets like 400 calories each? plus 500+ calories worth of clif bars, at least a couple hundred calories of gatorade, and it looks like you’re talking about well over 1500 calories. unless you were riding for well over 3 hours, this is probably more than your digestive system could handle. now if i’m wrong on the energy density of enervit then you can disregard all of this. but if i’m close, i think that’s the issue.
i think the best results in long distance racing come from keeping it simple, and not mixing many different products. a lot of these new fangled nutritional products tend to cause problems in long distance racing.
it’s valuable to find the upper limit of caloric intake you can tolerate, particularly for ironman racing. but going significantly over this is bound to cause distress.
The calorie breakdown:
4 servings of Enervit: 960
2 Clif bars: 500
~ 56 oz of gatorade: 350
A whooping 1810 calories!! Too much. FYI, I’ve used all the above on long rides in the past, but slightly less calories over 100 miles of cycling (spread over a much longer period of time)… I dunno what I was thinking not checking my calorie intake.
Sweet Georgia Brown, that’s a lotta calories!! FWIW, I’ve found the suggested guideline of 400 calories per hour to be about right for me. Any more than this and I consistently get that sloshing belly / overfull feeling.
Yeah! I had the same problems, only it wasn’t just “air”! After a great bike split, it seemed my sole aim in the run was making it from one porta-potty to the next. From miles 2-8 I visited 5 of them! It was awful! But after that (since NOTHING was left in my intestines) I felt great and was able to run the last 5 miles with no problems whatsoever. My friends have been telling me that I ate too much fiber the day prior, but interestingly I tried Accelerade on race day for the first time (and drank 2 bottles of it). Do you think it could have been the harbor water - it looked pretty gross…???
I had the same problem last Sept during a 1/2 IM. I did a little research and it appears that it was my choice of nutrition combination. I was using Hammer Gel exclusively, but drinking it with too much Gatorade. I spoke with the folks at Hammer Gel about it, and what they told me was that the simple and complex sugars (hammer being complex) if mixed will for many people cause the exact problem we both experienced. My 1/2 also had a 2 loop run and the first loop was miserable. I only drank water for the 1st loop, then starting the second loop… KABOOM, gas gone, able to run again. Unfortunately some poor woman behind my got the brunt of the explosion. But they suggested I use an electrolyte supplement, and if I want a sports drink to mix the hammer gel with water. So for Eagleman this year, it will only be hammer gel and the electrolyte tabs, of course I will be trying this combo next month while I’m stuck in the Nevada desert for 3 weeks. Did you try your combo in training without any problems?