Sidestitches -- Did I Overbike?

Triathlon Forum
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I did Key West Oly Tri last weekend. It was a super fun race with a great venue. It was only my second olympic distance race as I primarily race sprints. This was the end of my second season – 25yo.

The swim was a little rough because of the swell (yes, in Key West), but wasn’t too bad. I got out of the water and hopped on my bike to see how much time I could get bike. Well, I went hard, but not puke-pace hard, but I pushed. I gained some time and launched myself into 4th. I had 3rd in my sight for about 4 miles, but I could never end up getting up there. I figured, it’s cool, I’ll catch him on the run.

Nope.

I got off the bike, slipped my running shoes on and POW – the sidestitches. I was anticipating holding a 6:20, but could only muster 6:45. I tried breathing a little deeper, and it seemed to help a little, but I don’t want that to happen again. I have a ton of theories on what it could be and the only way to be sure would be to try them all, but I would love to hear the ST knowledge on this.

Possible Causes:

**Overbike **-- I just went too hard on the bike. I failed to maintain a steady pace and burned way too many matches. See my garmin file for power data. Avg power: 286w, FTP: ~300w (based on trainerroad virtual power. This was my first ride with the power2max meter).

Nutrition – I do primarily sprint distance racing, so I don’t really do much nutrition other than my long, slower rides. I had a really hard time chewing the shot bloks, I would force myself to choke one down every 15 minutes or so. Halfway through the run, I felt a little weak and it felt like it was moreso a nutrition thing (however, that’s 100% speculative). It was a hot race, but is 18oz water too much?
Breakfast: 1/2 a bagel, T of almond butter, coffee;
On the bike: 4 shot bloks (black cherry), and ~18oz water.

Position – I don’t really think it’s this, but when I searched, I found people mentioning that a closed hip angle has a tendency to lead to cramping issues. I posted a Critique my Fit thread of ST earlier this year if you’re curious about my fit. http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ositioning_P5060571/

All in all, it was a good race, but I could have put down a much better run. For instance, my tempo runs were normally a warm up/5mi @ ~6:20/cool down. It was hard, but it didn’t kill me. I was just assuming I could transfer that over coming off the bike.

Thanks for the help!

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Side stitches are often causes by having too much in your stomach. Try front loading your nutrition on the bike so that you can stop taking in anything for the last 15-20 minutes before t2. An oly is too short to really get behind on nutrition - better to under-do it than over-do it.
If you do get them try timing your breathing so you exhale at the same time as the cramp-side foot hits the ground - ie left side stitch breathe out (forcefully if you can) on the left foot strikes. Deep breathing into your belly (yoga breathing) can help was well as digging your fingers up under your ribs

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Deep breathing into your belly (yoga breathing) can help was well

I do this on the last few minutes of the bike and the start of the run and it seemed to work for me. Side stitches are frustrating when you have plenty of legs but the stitches act as speed governor.

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Especially when you see 3rd place get up and run straight out of sight. lol

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I’d suggest testing your FTP with the powermeter, your trainerroad virtual. power might be quite different.

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**Overbike **-- I just went too hard on the bike. I failed to maintain a steady pace and burned way too many matches. See my garmin file for power data. Avg power: 286w, FTP: ~300w (based on trainerroad virtual power. This was my first ride with the power2max meter).

^ This. I would do proper FTP test using the power meter just to make sure. TrainerRoad’s virtual power is notoriously inaccurate. Even if it’s accurate you probably still haven’t worked out what power you can hold and have your best run.
My first race using a power meter I had my worse run because of, well… side stitches. After I did an FTP test it came out that I rode 98% of my FTP during that race :slight_smile:

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I’d suggest testing your FTP with the powermeter, your trainerroad virtual. power might be quite different.

That’s a very good point. It’s not uncommon to see a 10-20% difference.

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I am sure other people can add much more valuable stuff than me about bike and FTP miscalculations. This line is what stood out to me:

All in all, it was a good race, but I could have put down a much better run. For instance, my tempo runs were normally a warm up/5mi @ ~6:20/cool down.

Your tempo runs in training were at expected race pace for an Oly? Either I am really good at tempo runs or really bad at races, but I definitely would do a 5 mile tempo run faster than Olympic Tri race pace. So maybe your training was too slow OR your running goal was not realistic? Sprint tri I think you can do at training tempo run pace, but the Oly bike beats you up a lot more than a Sprint bike.

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I am sure other people can add much more valuable stuff than me about bike and FTP miscalculations. This line is what stood out to me:

All in all, it was a good race, but I could have put down a much better run. For instance, my tempo runs were normally a warm up/5mi @ ~6:20/cool down.

Your tempo runs in training were at expected race pace for an Oly? Either I am really good at tempo runs or really bad at races, but I definitely would do a 5 mile tempo run faster than Olympic Tri race pace. So maybe your training was too slow OR your running goal was not realistic? Sprint tri I think you can do at training tempo run pace, but the Oly bike beats you up a lot more than a Sprint bike.

I suspect you’re probably the outlier here. A 5 mile tempo run at Olympic pace would be a very difficult workout for me. It would certainly restrict any other serious work I could do for at least a couple of days.

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FWIW, my 5k PR (set in September) is 18:58. I can definitely go under that now, I would say 18:35.

The uneducated, inexperienced way I look at tempo pace would be the absolute maximum I can hold for an hour. (By definition, that’s threshold, I suppose.) I would say 6:20 is pretty much all I could be able to hold… The McMilan running calculator spits out a suggested 6:22-6:38 for my tempos. I feel stronger now, so I feel that 6:20 pace is a solid training pace.

With that info, do you feel I still was overly ambitious with my goal pace? It wasn’t my leg fatigue that served as my limiter – it was the stinging sensation under my rib cage. My legs felt like they had a faster pace. OR will cardiovascular fitness be more of a limiter in short course than leg fatigue?

Also, to everyone who says I overbiked due to virtual power/real power: I didn’t pace my ride off my power at all. The bike was all perceived effort – power was only used for a post-race objective measure.

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So your 5k standalone PR is about 6:00 pace, and you are targeting 6:20 in an olympic 10k!

I could never ever hope to do that. But I am not that fast. I am happy going +20 seconds standalone 5k to standalone 10k, or +30 seconds standalone 10k to olympic tri 10k… so my total standalone 5k → Olympic 10k spread is more like 50 seconds. (Seems like pros run about a +15 spread standalone 5k to standalone 10k, but need to research more data points)

But I am not as fast as you, so you very well could be right. Will see what faster people here say…

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One thing to keep in mind, there has never been a physiological reason found as to why side stitches exist. No one knows what triggers them and no one has a proven method for getting rid of them other than slowing way down and/or cessation of the activity.

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The pace may bit a bit optimistic but not out of the realm depending on bike fitness.

I rarely get side stitches but when I do it’s usually a nutrition issue. Honestly for me I’m taking a couple hundred liquid calories early on the bike and that’d be it.

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There are a few main theories on the side stitch. Here’s a recent read on the topic which can lead you to the primary sources if you like: http://www.wsj.com/articles/runners-know-a-stitch-hurts-time-but-its-cause-remains-a-mystery-1414790381?mobile=y&mod=trending_now_5

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Side stitches are often causes by having too much in your stomach. Try front loading your nutrition on the bike so that you can stop taking in anything for the last 15-20 minutes before t2. An oly is too short to really get behind on nutrition - better to under-do it than over-do it.
If you do get them try timing your breathing so you exhale at the same time as the cramp-side foot hits the ground - ie left side stitch breathe out (forcefully if you can) on the left foot strikes. Deep breathing into your belly (yoga breathing) can help was well as digging your fingers up under your ribs

I wouldn’t do that. If your go hard in the swim, your stomach isn’t prepared to take in calories the first 10-15 minutes. Especially if you swallowed air. Besides, in an Olympic, I would only consume sports drink since you can nearly do a full Olympic on just Glycogen stores alone anyway. You just don’t need all that much nutrition or hydration. Easier to take in too much than not enough.

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i used to get them and i tried a bunch of things to try and fix it. It turned out i was a little too stretched out on the aerobars. Tightened up my position and the problems went away. If you feel the stitch coming try pursing your lips and breathing in and out of your mouth. Hope you solve your problems