Search Results for: gi issues

The Gift of an Open Mind

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Freedom is an interesting thing. We know it’s concept and we get the gist of it all, but many of us are busy functioning amidst our daily routines and we think of freedoms only on their grandest of scale. We are grateful for the rights we have living in a free Country, but we don’t think about the smaller freedoms. The freedoms that our routines, namely being stuck to them, may be stripping away from us. [From my Instagram] Routine. Trust me, I’m like you and love a good routine. Routines are good, they keep us focused and working towards goals; consistency is the foundation of every major accomplishment. We NEED certain routines, yet routines are a tricky double edged sword. Routines keep you focused. Routines can also hold your prisoner. The issues that dictate which is which are: the routine, the basis for it, and how much flexibility you allow yourself within it. I can parallel this to running because it’s an easy example; training should become a routine. You need to KNOW you’re going to do it, don’t think of it like a ‘maybe’, you know your goals and you know you need to be consistent to reach them. You need that routine to keep you focused because running and training is hard. Frankly it’s painful and there will be times when you need to know you’re going to just have to put your head down and grind through. BUT, there are times when grinding will only leave you a broken, dull stone, so there needs to be a degree of flexibility. There are times when rather than pushing you need to step back. Freedom outside your routine is also a state of mind. Being so busy usually means you’re perpetually distracted, or so focused on the task Continue Reading →

The Running Nightmare Zone: True stories to give you chills

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Some things are so scary they can only be real…true tales of running nightmares!! This story comes by way of a runner in Minnesota. You know, one of those states that actually gets REAL winter weather. No, the scary part isn’t the snow, wind, or temperature reading. That’s just freaking wrong. With all the advancements we’ve made in the world, running and otherwise, one would think we’d have solved this whole ‘power outage’ issue. I mean, c’mon, we’ve landed on Mars. But I digress. Minnesota. Dead of winter. Night. Running outside is clearly not an option, unless you want to wind up with frost bite on your nose and unconscious from slipping on black ice. Treadmill it is. WHAT?!?!? Power issues, FIVE BLOWN FUSES?!?! What is a runner to do? Enter the Running Nightmare Zone. This quick-thinking runner, in what can only be described as a true Running MacGyver moment, rigged up the treadmill off of a remaining circuit and… …got the treadmill working. No lights, no problem, that’s what a flashlight is for. The runner was quoted, “You can take a lot of things away from me, but my sanity won’t be one of them.” AMEN!!! Scary.As.All.He##. Stay safe, stay sane, stay running, My Friends!! **Names have been omitted to protect the traumatized 😉 1) What’s one of the craziest situations you’ve been in to get your run on? I’m actually embarrassed to say…it’s crazy. 2) What’s a true running nightmare tale you’ve lived through? 3) What’s the last scary thing to happen to you on a run? Just this shady looking dude I passed, it was dark, I definitely ran wide and picked up the pace.

Runner Legs Are Complainers: 5 important ’tissues’ to avoid a total toddler-level tantrum

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“If you’ve got an issue, here’s a tissue.” Certainly that fits with the ‘runner mentality’ for many things. Intervals hurt, well, they’re going to hurt until we finish all the repeats. Long runs are…long. Yup, that’s how it goes. Just keep telling yourself to make it one more mile, one more mile, etc…until your done! Then the legs start having their issues. They’ll start begging for their own tissues. The way to stave off some total toddler-level tantrums from the legs are to supply them their tissues on a consistent basis BEFORE their demands are too high. * Tissue 1: Warming the heck up. Don’t go into a workout with ‘cold’ legs. Don’t immediately blast like a bat out of he**, your legs like a little warning. “We’re going to workout now”…gradually lower into the pace and you’ll feel better, wind up running faster, and avoid the lactic acid booty-lock shuffle home. * Tissue 2: Stretching. Yea, stretching is NEVER as much fun as running but if you want to run better you need to be loose. You’ve got to have the flexibility to open up your stride, you want as much range of motion as possible. So suck it up, get your stretching and yoga time in, your legs will thank you with faster times AND less injuries. * Tissue 3: Massage. Look, I’ll be honest and say I’m as not-rich as the next person, so I self-massage regularly but I’m ALSO re-learning how imperative it is to see a professional massage therapist when I can. Running is pretty abusive on the body and to un-do some of that damage you need that massage work. Look at it as an investment in YOURSELF. Namely your sanity (my sanity hinges upon my endorphin fix) because the longer you run the Continue Reading →

How dehydration can be causing your GI problems while running

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Runners get thirsty: drink. Runners get hungry: eat. But, as with most things that seem idiot-proof, the most basic of basics, two of the most rudimentary bodily functions can often turn into a runner’s nightmare. I just finished an article for Competitor providing the perfect example of this: “Got Stomach Issues? You’re Probably Dehydrated”. What’s interesting, and as you will learn from reading the article, it’s often not FOOD wrecking havoc on your stomach and intestines during your hard or long runs. It’s the (not) DRINKING thing that’s giving you a GI nightmare! Talk about a whodathunkit moment, right? 😉 I’ve been a runner for years and years and still, learning that dehydration is the culprit to most GI problems, both the upward and the downward, came as a bit of a surprise. But if you think about it, it really shouldn’t be; let’s look at what happens when you run: * Muscles working: Brain and body prioritize the hard-working muscles as the top-tier function at the moment. * Body delegates: In moving the muscles to priority number one, the stomach, intestines, and anything digestive related gets bumped down. * Blood to muscles: All the major blood-flow gets shunted to the muscles, leaving the stomach and delicate intestinal tissues simultaneously deprived of blood-flow. This lapse in blood causes slight damage. Aww, poor, intestines. 😉 * Dehydration: Now water is INSANELY important to the body, it makes up darn near most of it, so NOT having enough water content in the blood stream exacerbates the damage caused to the already weakened stomach and intestines. * The Backlash: Need I say more? Runners experience those GI disasters, up and down, because the stomach and intestines are already deprived of blood-flow while you’re running and then on top of that if there isn’t Continue Reading →

The GI Issue Cursed Runner: Tackling those great, poopy disasters

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This runner has had burritos on the brain. That being said, tucking into a 5lb burrito bomb and taking off on a 5 mile tempo isn’t such a hot idea. Actually, going for any run after that may be iffy… I’m more than open in sharing my runner stories of GI distress, gut woes, and tales from the poopy trails. HERE is a previous post and with lots of tips to tackling your own GI issues. Though I happened upon an interesting interview with Dr. Barry Schlansky, specializing in gastroenterology and hepatology, over at FloTrack. Go read the article yourself, but here are some settling, and not-so-settling things I took away from it: * Blood Flow Bottom Line: The root of many GI issues is how the body is delegating blood flow through the body during and after exercise. When we’re running our butts off the body’s first priority is to send blood to the muscles in order to fuel our exertion. The intestines are the low-men on the totem pole here and when they are deprived of adequate blood flow there is a bit of damage being caused. Without the adequate oxygen from the blood flow the intestines start to stage their revolt. * Post-Run Gut Revolt: Sometimes the worst pains and episodes happen AFTER a hard or long run…talk about being chained to the lou for the rest of the day. I’m sure many runners can relate to this feeling, and Dr. Schlansky states it as much, “Right, the longer or more intense the workout is, it will increase the symptoms during and after the workout.” In short it comes back to the intestines not having adequate oxygen/blood-flow WHILE we are working out; then, once we stop working out and blood begins to get shunted back to these Continue Reading →

Women’s Running is a Hot Topic: Female empowerment, surging numbers, record controversy, and exclusive races

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Women’s running has come a long way. The evidence of this is all around us; no longer is it a spectacle to see a woman running on the street donning short shorts and sweating, not glowing, full on sweating. Women are allowed to run in all the same events as men, even take to the starting alongside them in some cases, and our times keep creeping lower and lower. This topic is abuzz recently on a few fronts: the case of what is recognized as an official Women’s World Records if the time is run in a mixed race, the gender gap between elite times and mortal runners’ times, and the overall boom in women’s running. Janae, The Hungry Runner Girl, just did a post on that last one today as it was covered in this article on Running USA. There is no question that there is a difference between women’s and men’s running; we can’t ignore the obvious and we shouldn’t. Some are glowing positives, I’m the first to be a proud runnerchick, but there are also some not so awesome aspects. That said, there are some not so awesome things I’d think of being a guy runner; I’m sorry I like the option of running in bunhuggers, but if I saw a guy in one I’d fork my eye out. 😉 Obvious differences between training girls: * Times: Genetics give guys the advantage, no way around it; even though we can close the gap, guys are able to run faster just because of that extra testosterone. * Volume: Women generally run lower miles overall then men if they are training for the same event; I don’t think it’s because womens’ bodies can’t always handle the workload necessarily but because men can usually cover a mile at a faster Continue Reading →

Smoothies Aren’t the ONLY Way to Go: Eating those fruits and veggies rather than sipping

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I don’t like smoothies. Now, before all you smoothie loving masses stop reading here and immediately black-ball me, at least let me explain my case. I don’t get a lot of trendy things, I don’t even drink coffee, for shame! But I’m hyper enough as myself, caffeine would probably end up effecting me like cocaine. The running realm and the healthy living world are interconnected and whenever people find out I’m a runner and the conversation drifts to food and nutrition, the topic of smoothies seems to inevitably come up. They rave about their protein powders, their spinach combos leaving their glass looking like the Swamp Thing, they start spouting off their must-try recipes and I nod and smile. But in the back of my mind I’m thinking, “I still have teeth and I plan on doing as much chewing as I can until I lose them and then I’ll turn to your smoothies along with Jell-O and applesauce.” Smoothies work great for TONS of folks and power to you, I can see the benefits: * Quick and easy to make sure you hit the 30 minute recovery window * Convenient to eat on the go and tote around * Wonderful for people who don’t like fruits and veggies and thus need to sneak them in * Adding protein to them is easy and great for people who are lacking in that department I get it, and keep on blending if that’s what you need and it works for you. But I’m one of those crazies who really do enjoy eating fruits and veggies as they are and don’t have a problem eating the real versions throughout the course of my day. I also love eggs, cottage cheese and shrimp and have no problem getting that protein amount in real Continue Reading →

Back to Running After a Long Hiatus and Tackling GI Distress For Runners

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Here’s what you relearn every time you get back to running after a long hiatus: * Cross-training is just that. Nothing is the same as running, mentally and physically, and while you’re a world better off doing that tedious cross-training, it’s still a cold slap of reality when you get back to the real deal. Hello, muscles, almost forgot about you until you were sore again. * Thank you muscle memory. That slap of reality stinks but it’s kind of crazy how the hazing period isn’t that long…thankfully the longer you’ve been a runner the more your muscles remember how to slip back into runner mode. Push past those initial harder than they really should be runs and you start getting back to your self. * Nothing clears you out like running. Forget Activia or colonics, sorry if I err on the side of TMI, but it’s true, running keeps you regular. This segues into my topic for today…the guts, the intestines, and GI issues on the run. I know some of us runners are ‘blessed’ with more than our fair share of these troubles and I’m one of them. Sometimes it’s totally unpredictable and you just do a slight prayer to the running Gods before each hard workout, race, or long run that you won’t have a GI disaster. The tricky thing with these types of things is that they are different for everyone and really tough to nail down a remedy for. Experts suggest: * Eating bland foods that sit easy in the stomach. You could call these ‘low residue’ foods, they don’t have much bulk (read as fiber). Examples would be plain, white rice; Dathan Ritzenhein goes to this before his big races because he knows that is what works for him. Other athletes find that drinking Continue Reading →

Heat Kills

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I live in California so even though June 21st is ‘officially’ the first day of summer, I’ve been running in a hot box for weeks already. Never fail, during some of my summer runs I always get that Bush song, “Speed kills…” stuck in my head but I swap out the word to “heat kills”. #truth Running when the brutal sun is scorching you isn’t my favorite thing. But until we find that perfect seasonless runner utopia we must deal. For those runners in humid states, good lordy I’ve spent some time running in those conditions and had to come back and wrench out my running shorts and sports bra, easily a couple cups of sweat there! haha. So here’s my running summer warning and tip round-up: * Beat the Heat: If you can, it seems like a no-brainer to try and get up and go run before the sun and temps are up, or wait until the later evening. * Acclimate: Here is where you SHOULD actually force your runner butt to run in the heat. If you’re going to be racing under sweltering conditions you NEED to start getting your body used to running in the same conditions. The first runs, and especially hard workouts, are going to not feel all too pleasant. But eventually your body will start to adjust…you do NOT want the first time you go out and run in hot/humid/both conditions to be on race day when you’ve been doing all of your training at 5am to beat the heat. It’ll be like a body slam sucker-punch on race day. * Hydrate…they hydrate some more: I’ve done some posts HERE and HERE all about hydration. But this needs to be BEATEN into your HEAD here. Hydrate religiously throughout the entire day!! You should be Continue Reading →

Runner’s Strip: Running Insurance

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I think I’m in love with my new penguin. First he schools us on ice cream, now he speaks to another runner’s truth. What nugget of wisdom with Mr. Penguin be dropping on us next time? ——- More running CARTOONS AND LAUGHS Posts on GI Issues for Runners HERE and HERE ——- 1) What nugget of truth do you think our penguin will be quipping about next time?