Stomach Burning

I met 7 other GRCers in enemy territory (American University – workout home of the Pacers) for a workout. AU’s track is one of the only tracks cleared in the area…that we know of.

The tentative plan was to run 4 x 1600m (400m) cut down. My goal was too start at 4:55-5:00 (the time I’d like to hit my first mile in at Van Meter) and work down ever so slightly (e.g. – 4:57, 4:54, 4:51, 4:45). My legs have been feeling tired and achy for about a week, but these things usually go away when it’s time to practice.

After a 3-mile warm-up around the track I was ready to go. The weather was decent and the snow on the infield kept the stadium lit up, so workout conditions were pretty good considering what we’ve been through lately. Still I wore tights and doubled up on shirts.

We took off on the first rep and I sat comfortably in 4^th. We hit 800m in 2:27, which was a bit fast. I tried to forget about time and run controlled and relaxed. The pace picked up, but I stuck to my plan…though I still hit mile 1 in 4:52. A little too fast. Dirk had intended to push the pace on the first one so that the next reps were honest. He had a good point. I stuck to Karl and Dirk’s coattails on rep # 2 and came in at 4:47, again trying to feel comfortable and relaxed. My stomach began to burn and I did my best to bury the pain while resting the 400m jog. I started out conservative and didn’t push the third rep as I wanted to finish the workout. I still thought I could cut down, but was disappointed to see a 4:48. Damn! I rallied on the last one and cruised through 800m in 2:21 and negative split a 4:40. My stomach by now was acidic. Dirk and Karl ran a 5th rep and I was a bit upset I had to bail. Dirk reminded me on my cool down how this workout was better than another 4 x 1600 we had done last year in warm conditions. I nodded in agreement and began to feel better about it all. My legs are far different than they were 4 months ago…but my tummy is the same.

My stomach didn’t feel so hot and I had to truncate my cool down. I literally shuffled a mile and a half and called it a day. I’ve tried many a trick to combat these stomach pains. After a couple rounds of tests last summer, my doctor concluded that running too fast causes the pain. Though, I think it has something to do with the time of day I run (my stomach never hurts when after morning races, but does hurt after evening workouts/twilight races). Stomach pains aside, I was (am) still able to put together a decent workout.

The burn would come and go all evening until I went to bed.

I got this in an email a few hours before I ran my workout. This is from a former AR holder. I thought about this while clenching my stomach during my rests and my cool down.

A few years ago I had this discussion with a friend who had just run a race and was partying like a rock star. He brought up the old talent vs hard word canard, and I responded what he is doing only vaguely resembles the effort of world-class athletes. His retort was that he trained 'hard' too. I conceded that may be so, but "look at you right now. You don't look like you just ran a 5 mile XC race to me." He said, "what do you mean?" I said "look, when I was in college, after every single cross country race I ran I was so sick that I had to go back to my room and curl up in bed to recover with a 3 hour nap." Then I asked him, "have you EVER felt that way after a race?" His response was a very quiet "no."