Gluten

I'm writing this post to share my experience and maybe it will help someone.

For the last 12-15 years I have suffered with stomach/bowel problems that mainly manifest when running.  It has also caused problems when I have been swimming too.  

The problems I have had are quite common to many runners I have spoken to over the years and that is the need to go to the toilet whilst out running (and I'm not just talking about needing a quick wee because you drank too much water before)!  Most of the time I can go up to 3 or 4 times before I leave the house and think I've emptied my bowels now surely I will be ok but pretty much every run resorts in me having to find a bush.  Most of my runs I have driven out or gone to places where I know I can find somewhere to go.  

10 years ago the problem was getting to me so I went to the doctors and they said it was IBS.  Now, I'm not ok with this as a diagnosis as IBS is so general and refers to many different issues from constipation and bloating to diarrhoea.  I wanted a more specific diagnosis and a way forward to deal with this problem.  The one thing I asked them at the time was "is it a food allergy/intolerance?"   I was told it absolutely wasn't.  I had tests to eliminate things like bowel cancer and I saw a specialist who said he'd vaguely heard of athletes having problems like this and he would look into it.  Of course I heard nothing back from him.

Over the years I just put up with it.  For my long runs I drive out to places where I know I can go and my shorter runs from home I do some out and backs by my house in case I have to nip back which does happen a lot. 

Then 18 months ago I started working with a sports nutritionist.  The main change I made to my diet was cutting out normal bread - his reasoning was the high sugars in both white and brown bread.  I then included more protein and veg with every meal and less sugars.  I replaced normal bread with rye bread.  The only times I was now eating any type of bread was at breakfast where I would have boiled or scrambled eggs with avocado or spinach on rye bread.  Lunch time I no longer ate any type of bread at all and would eat jacket potatoes, pasta or similar. 

Over a few months my problems got a little bit better.  They didn't go away but it definitely wasn't happening as often.

Then this year I spoke to my nutritionist about this and wondered about a gluten intolerance.  He suggested I read a book called Wheat Belly and try and do 30 days without any gluten at all.  So for June this year I did this.  It was quite hard to start with as I really had to plan what I was going to eat.  It meant a lot of preparation in advance too.  Gluten/wheat is in many things that us athletes think we need for energy like pasta and bread.  I now found myself eating a lot of potatoes!  I made a big batch of hash browns that I then froze so I could eat them for breakfast (only take 15 mins to cook from frozen) which I would have as usual with my eggs.  I then eat jacket potatoes (sweet or normal) or quinoa for lunch and then again at dinner carbs include either potatoes or rice mostly.  

Within about 10 days into 30 days gluten free I was finding that I wasn't needing toilet stops on my runs.  This was great but I didn't rule out that this could just be a coincidence or in my head.  Doing the 30 days of gluten free was definitely hard to do to start with but by the end I had gotten into a routine of the types of food to eat and any preparation in advance I needed to do.  There were times I didn't want to keep going with it as it seemed like a lot of hassle.  I'm so glad I did as for that time I had no stomach issues.  

Once the 30 days were up I found I was now in a good routine and didn't actually want to go back to my old eating ways.  I thought I would miss bread but found I really didn't.  The only thing I missed was pizza.  I have now found that lots of places do a gluten free pizza, although admittedly the bases aren't quite as good as a normal pizza base!  

When I was doing the 30 days gluten free I was very strict but now I am gluten free but not 100% strict with it.  I do have the occasional biscuit and when cooking a chili I add an oxo cube for example.  I have found for me that tiny amounts of wheat/gluten don't upset my stomach but large amounts do which I recently put to the test.

At the weekend we travelled up to Scotland for a wedding.  I intended to make myself a quinoa salad to eat for lunch on the way but completely forgot.  At lunchtime we stopped at a service station and was limited to what was available.  I opted for a toasted panini and accepted that there may be consequences.  The next morning I went out to do a run session.  Part way into my second effort and I had intense stomach pains and once again found myself having to stop and look for a bush.  The following 3 days I had a bad stomach every time I went out running.  Now I knew for sure that this was definitely down to being intolerant to gluten.  I had thought that maybe it wasn't really this and perhaps I was just eating better on the whole or it was in my head.  This is the first time I have really put it to the test and just shows what one sandwich does to me.  

I wish I had found this out years ago as it has caused me a lot of distress over the years and races that I've pulled out of with pains and issues.  I am quite annoyed that I went to the doctors a lot over the course of a couple of years around 2005-2007 and they just fobbed me off telling me to just take immodium before I run.  I was reluctant to be gluten free to start with as I know it seems like I'm jumping on the band wagon with a few high profile athletes going gluten free.  

The advice I have to anyone out there who has stomach problems as I had when running or doing other sport is to give the 30 days gluten free a try to start with and see if it makes a difference.  It is really important though that if you do train for endurance sport you find carbohydrates that you can replace your breads and pasta with.  I spent a week just looking at my options and writing out daily food menus before starting this.  Going into it with no plan will either see you relapsing back to bread/pasta etc or depleting yourself and not having the energy to train.

Race improvments followed by a Personal Worst!

I've been getting back into some good training and building in threshold pace effort work as well as building the miles up.  My coach and I decided I would do some 5k races just to track progress.  I haven't done any "fast" work yet so the first one will be to see where I am.  My plan was 3 Sale Sizzler races followed by my local Capenhurst 5k race all 2 weeks apart.  

The first race was ok time wise - but still 40s slower than my pb.  I then did a 10k 2.5 days later!  I felt good during this and finished 3rd but still over 1 minute outside of my 10k pb.  I'm ok with this as its about what I expected.

I then did the next Sale Sizzler 5k and went 20s quicker!  I was really pleased - just 20s slower than my pb.  Quite a lot over 5k but a very pleasing improvement in just 2 weeks.  Someone remarked at the end what had I changed in 2 weeks to go 20s quicker?  For me it is just fitness gradually coming back and I've now done a few more effort sessions but only peaking at 10k pace efforts.

I then went back 2 weeks later to the Sale Sizzler hoping that I might scrape under 17 mins and then be just 10s outside my pb.  The race started and I pretty much felt rubbish from the start.  My legs felt like jelly and when I tried to pick it up there was nothing there at all.  I didn't look at my watch and tried to be competitive so when I came onto the track and saw the clock just before  the finish I was shocked at how slow I'd run.  I thought maybe the clock was wrong, but it wasn't!  I went 40s slower than 2 weeks before and a whole minute slower than my pb.  I think this is the slowest 5k I've run for years!!  

I decided a few days later than I didn't think I could face another 5k so decided to give the Capenhurst 5k a miss which was a shame.  I think in hind site I should have missed the 3rd Sale Sizzler and done the Capenhurst 5k instead.  3 5k races all 2 weeks apart was probably too much mentally as well as physically.  I'm now getting some good training in and looking forward to the Cardiff 10k on 6th September.  

Racing Again!

Now pretty much back to full training again and thinking about racing.  So a couple of weeks ago I entered a local 10k race (Sport in the Port).  Having only done base miles for 2 months then the last 3 weeks included some threshold pace work I was a bit nervous about not having any pace in my legs and how I would run off this.  With this in mind I then entered a mid week 4 mile race in Wigan (where I probably wouldn't know anyone!) to test my legs out!

This went well with a win but bloody hell it hurt and my time wasn't great!  It was 2 lap undulating course with an off road part to it so not a fast course but still....

After this I then spent 10 days of 1 minute I wasn't doing the 10k then I was, then I wasn't!  In the end I thought sod it - do it as at least I can see where my fitness is and it gives me pacing times to work my efforts to in training.  

I then had a surprising race coming 2nd and ran almost 1 minute quicker than I expected to run which was a faster pace than I did for the 4 mile race and felt comfortable!  I actually smiled the whole way around as lots of Chester Tri Club people were marshalling or watching which was really nice.  

I had a "great" idea to run home as I thought it would be about 4 miles but it seems I took a wrong turn then ran on the canal which was a very long way home to take and turned out it was 10 miles!  Oops!

Getting There!

A week in the sun was just what I needed!  I went to Lanzarote for a week in the hope of speeding up my ankle/achilles recovery.  No miracles but there does seem to have been an improvement.  It's still tight in the mornings and if I get up after sitting down for a while (just no sitting around then)!  

I have now included 2 threshold pace effort sessions in the last 2 weeks training with minimal reaction so I'm actually thinking of entering a race or 2 in the next few weeks!  I'm a bit scared as I know my times won't be fast and I don't like racing when I'm not near to 100% but I feel I need to put something in just to know where I am.  

I'm so happy to be running a decent amount again and a lot of it is down to regular massages from Peer and physio from Gary at Pro Physio.  Plus lots of stretching and icing!

Slow Going

Patience - I have none of that!  Ankle and achilles is taking far too long to heal for my liking.  Still just doing steady running and no race plans being made until I'm completely pain free.  3 weeks ago I thought I'd turned a corner as I had 3 runs in a row which were completely pain free then it started to niggle again.  The pain free runs did seem to coincide with a spell of warm weather then the niggling and general tight feeling returned when the weather changed back to being cold.  

I have now made a last minute decision to go away for a week to the canary islands and booked my flights last night and will be leaving on Thursday!  I'm hoping some warm weather will help.  Also, I just feel I need a mini break!

On the Return!

I am so gutted at having to miss the Wilmslow Half Marathon a week and a half ago now.  It's one of my favourite races helped by the fact that I've run a pb there twice and the third time got within 3 seconds of my pb!  I haven't even been able to bring myself to look at the results yet!

I am starting to feel happier though as I started back with some slow and small amounts of running 12 days ago!  Starting out with lots of walking and 2 x 5 mins of running I've now built up to 3 x 10 mins of running with walking in between and little to no pain which is great.  I've been sensible and kept to running every 2-3 days so I always have 1-2 days in between where I'm not running to give my ankle/achilles a chance to recover.  I ran yesterday and today will be the first time of trying a run 1 day later!  

Doing extra cycling and swim training over the last 4 weeks has made me realise how I do miss triathlon training and I'm looking forward to the day I come back to the sport.  For now I still have goals I want to achieve with my running and I'm focussed on firstly getting back to running and not rushing myself and aiming for a good marathon towards the end of the year.  

Keeping Fit When Injured

For several months now I've been trying to run through a niggle but have now had to admit that its more than a niggle and I need to rest.  Its really frustrating because March held 3 races for me 2 of which were target races that I've been focusing my training around.

In a previous post I said how I'd turned my ankle a while back then I think this combined with doing cross country has gradually aggravated my achilles.  I've been having physio and combined with lots of stretching and icing I've continued to run.  In hindsight this has been the wrong thing to do and I'm kicking myself for not resting properly back in January.  At that point though I just thought it was a niggle and how many times do we get niggles that with a bit of stretching for a week or 2 we can just keep going and it eases off?  Every so often though we aren't so lucky and resting is the only option.

I have now had to miss the Bath Half Marathon last weekend, I'm missing Trafford 10k today (which I've had to turn down running for the North of England for) and its likely I will miss one of my favourite races -  Wilmslow Half Marathon in a couple of weeks.

Whilst I am sat here feeling a little bit sorry for myself as a lot of us do when things haven't gone the way we hoped, I'm going to try and find some positives!

Cycling doesn't have any impact on my ankle/achilles so I've now been out on my bike several times this week.  Luckily the weather has picked up a bit so its been a nice change to get out on the bike.  I've got back into swimming and enjoying it!  I have been swimming 1-2 times per week through the winter but just 30-40 mins and very steady and to be honest I find it boring.  Actually doing some swimming with a purpose and adding some efforts in has been good.  Next week I will start bringing in some aqua running (this means wearing a foam belt around my waist and running in deep water).  

Most of the time when we have an injury there is always some kind of cross training we can do.  Its frustrating at the time but on the return we are often stronger and have a renewed energy and passion.