Went out this morning with my stomach feeling a bit off but I put it down to nerves as I intended to do a really long run – like 4-5 hours long.
I had a camel back filled with gatorade and a variety of different snacks and fuel in the bag to test out what might or might not work for me. I left the house just before 6 am having been up since 4:45.
I went out with the intention of doing 10 min run / 1 min walk splits and after about an hour the plan was to break that into 5 min run / 1 min walk. The idea was to see what I could do on a really long run if I took the walk breaks early and properly hydrated and fueled. I wanted to see if I could move my bonk point out a bit further than it has been. I did an 18 miler last weekend and did well but was fairly dehydrated after (even after drinking a fair bit) and was on the edge of bonking so I wanted to see if I could push that farther today…maybe up to 24+ miles?
I put aside the odd feeling in my stomach and followed my plan for the first hour – no issues at all, my stomach settled down and I was feeling fantastic…then at literally the furthest point from my house on my planned route things fell apart.
My stomach went south fast and while I tried to push through it, at about 1:45 into the run I had to call the wife to come get me. That is only the second time in the 12-13 years I have been doing longer distance running that I have had to call someone to pick me up. It was not a good thing.
I told my wife what road I was on and kept moving as best I could but it was mostly walking. When she caught up to me I was 11.42 miles and 2:02 in. A far cry from the 18.25 miles in 2:44 last Sunday. Even with the run/walk cycles I was 6.3 miles in at the hour mark so it kind of shows you how badly things went south…way, way south.
After I got home and showered I had to rest, I sat on the couch for a bit and felt ok. I was pretty tired from the early wake up call so I figured I should lay down and have a bit of a nap while the wife was getting on the treadmill…as soon as I lay down I started to shiver…not pleasant.
I had a couple hour nap and woke up feeling like I could just roll over and go back to bed…but I got up and did some stuff with the kids and within an hour or so of getting up I felt like I hadn’t run at all today…I could have gone for a run at that point quite happily.
Since then I swam in the pool with the wife and kids for an hour or so and have had a good solid supper and I feel great – I actually contemplated going for an evening run but since I don’t really know what caused the issue I think I am going to pass on the run and see what happens during the rest of the week. Have to make sure I am healthy as a first priority.
So I don’t know what caused the issue. While I was trying some new fueling options, I wasn’t doing anything too out of the ordinary for me for foods, etc so it is a bit of a mystery. Also just from the timing perspective I really hadn’t tried any of the foods yet on the run before my stomach went off. Plus it did feel a bit odd before I even headed out this morning.
I have had issues with Gatorade in the past and that could have contributed since the hydration plan I was testing out had me taking a sip every time I took a walk break (so every 10 minutes) and normally I wouldn’t have Gatorade until later in a run. So that could be a contributor.
Another thought is some pumpkin seed kernels I was trying out. I had a bunch yesterday as light snacks through the day and I don’t often have them so they could be the unknown element that caused the grief. A bunch of extra fiber my stomach wasn’t sure what to do with?
It is also possible that I was actually sick – that could explain the shivering when I went to have a nap.
It’s a strange one and is kind of worrisome to me – I have to figure out what the problem was so that I can avoid doing it again!
Ahhh fun – sometimes the universe just decides to give you a good whack to remind you that even though you have come a long way there is still work to be done…Always learning!
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