Gut Issues and How to Prevent GI Distress While Running

Gut Issues and How to Prevent GI Distress While Running

Most runners have experienced it. That feeling, deep down in the gut, that signals bad news if you are midrun or ridrace. It means you must slow down or stop and
(hopefully) find a bush, a tree, or a porta john and take care of business or risk the unfortunate and embarrassing mess of not making it!

If you are one of the lucky runners who has never experienced this, read no further. This article is a summary of the possible causes of runner’s diarrhea and how you can
prevent it while running.

1. Eating a high fiber or high fat diet, especially in the 1-2 days prior to a big run or race can contribute to having a larger load of **** and the need to eliminate said load.

Prevention here involves eating low fiber carbohydrate foods for at least 1 day prior to your event paired with lean protein and generally avoiding fibrous veggies, beans, and salads. An
example might be meals of chicken or fish served with white rice or white pasta or white potatoes and/or white or sourdough bread. Low fiber and low fat breakfast items such as instant oatmeal, plain bagel, banana, and a favorite sports drink are recommended 2-3 hours prior to race start, to allow time for full elimination.

2. Lack of hydration and electrolytes in the days leading up to your race or during a run can lead to gut distress.

Prevention: Losing 4% of body weight in sweat during a run or race increases your risk of bowel movements while running. Drink about ½ of your body weight each day in fluid ounces to maintain hydration. Try drinking a diluted carbohydrate drink with electrolytes before, during, & after running to maintain electrolyte balance and optimal performance.

3. Eating or drinking foods or products containing lactose, fructose, or agave syrup for certain individuals will increase likelihood of gut issues while running.

Prevention: Many runners have some degree of Lactose intolerance and dairy products can cause increased gas, bloating and bowel movements in those individuals. Women have a harder time digesting and processing fructose than men and this can lead to more gut issues with any sports drinks and energy gummies/gels that are high in fructose!! i. Try to use drinks and chews or gels that do not contain fructose: Skratch, Huma, Tailwind, Clif, UCan are some brands to try

4. Lack of regular eating habits and a strong routine around nutrition for training

Prevention: Our bodies like to create and maintain a state of balance… changing routines can have a HUGE impact on how we feel and perform. Avoid introducing new foods and or
drinks on or near race day. Start introducing any new fluid replenishers, gels, bars, race breakfast, etc. weeks or even months prior to race day and during training days to get your
body used to them. Plan and practice eating and drinking for your race day routine around a similar time you would for race day so your body is more likely to be optimally prepared.
Keep a journal of foods you try and your bowel movements so you know what works best.

5. Relying on bowel prep and anti-diarrhea medications can be risky.

Prevention: Using drugs such as chemical laxatives, enemas, bowel preps, and colonic irrigations to purge their intestines can cause altered electrolyte levels and have side effects such as nausea and cramping. Avoid taking ibuprofen before a race as it can aggravate GI bleeding and potentially cause leaky gut which could interfere with fluid balance and cause dehydration, as well as potentially interfere with recovery. INSTEAD… try eating a few mint TUMS roughly 20 minutes before higher intensity workouts and long runs. This can help slow down GI issues. ALSO…consider taking a prebiotic/probiotic product each morning oftaper week to help improve gut integrity which can help when the gut is stressed due to increased body heat and lower oxygen levels in circulation during exercise.

6. Lack of food intake and nutrition/hydration in the days leading up to the race

Prevention: DON’T STOP EATING!!! The last thing you want to do is stop eating during the build up to your event and long training runs – your body needs that fuel! It can take anywhere from 24-72 hours for food to travel through our digestive system (and this tends to be faster with runners) so continuing to consume food throughout training and up until ~ 3 hours before the race will help maintain the natural cycle of food absorption and digestion. If worried about bowel movements during long runs or race day, start keeping a journal of foods you consume and how your body reacts to them (positive or negative) so you know what you want to eat during training and pre-race.

Are Your Running Tired?

Have you noticed feeling fatigue, tired or heavy legs during running, difficulty completing workouts, or not recovering well before the next session?

You may have low iron stores (as measured by low serum ferritin).  In fact, many athletes experience some form of nutrition related fatigue that is related to one of the following:

  1. Under fueling in general, not eating enough energy (calories) to support training.
  2. Not taking in enough carbohydrate during the time just before, during or after training.
  3. Eating inadequate iron to support the demands of running and suffering from lower production of hemoglobin and red blood cells – that carry oxygen to working muscles.

Low levels of hemoglobin in the blood, or low levels of the iron storage protein ferritin, can have a profoundly negative impact on your ability to have successful workouts and races.

Low ferritin levels can cause poor performance, even when hemoglobin levels are normal.

Research with high school cross country runners has shown about 3% of boys and 40% of girls were iron deficient at the beginning of the season and even higher numbers were seen by the end of the season.

There are 3 primary sons for why female runners are at greater risk for iron deficiency: 

  1. dietary intake of iron tends to be very poor. 
  2. menstrual cycles cause a substantial loss of blood. This increases the body’s demand for iron. 
  3. running training itself causes an additional loss of iron – this happens primarily through gastrointestinal blood loss.

Distance runners can suffer from impaired performance even at iron levels at the low end of the “normal” reference range. (12 – 200 ng/ml for women; 12 – 500 ng/ml for men)

Athletes with ferritin levels at the low end of “normal” for the general population were found by researchers to exhibit many of the same symptoms as athletes with clinically low iron (<12 ng/mL).

Runners should aim for ferritin levels above 40 ng/mL to avoid fatigue and impaired performance from iron deficiency.

The best and easiest way to fix iron deficiency is the most obvious one: increase the iron sources you consume.  This can involve increasing your dietary intake, taking an iron supplement, or, preferably, both.

Meat, especially red meat is rich in heme-iron, the form of iron that is readily absorbed and least impacted by factors that impair the absorption of non-heme iron (found in grains, beans, and vegetables).  In fact, eating varied meals that contain both heme- and non-heme iron improves absorption of the plant-based sources.  Meat, poultry and fish all share this ability to improve absorption of non-heme iron foods. 

There is a significant benefit of iron supplementation in iron deficient athletes, both when it comes to increasing serum ferritin levels and to increasing aerobic performance. 

Runners Essentials Daily Vitamin Formula by Without Limits is designed to support the endurance athlete’s needs for key nutrients including iron.  The form – Ferrous Fumarate is less likely to cause GI problems (constipation), and the dosage – 22 mg (or 122% of Daily Value) is intended to prevent diminishing iron stores.  It is recommended that you take the 2 capsules with a Vitamin C rich juice to increase absorption, apart from meals, antiacids, tea, or Calcium supplements which can inhibit iron availability for absorption, or at bedtime for better GI tolerance.

Training in Heat: Hydration is Key

By Diana Davis RDN LDN

It’s that time of year again – hot, humid, muggy! We know it’s what we get every summer in the South, but we still want/need to train to maintain fitness or get ready for our Fall races. The most important detail of your run or bike plans over summer is hydration.

Why: Better hydration (specifically using a sports electrolyte drink) promotes better cooling of the body, better endurance, less muscle damage, less cortisol release, faster recovery and a better workout the next time you go out.

What to drink: This is a very individual choice. If your run or ride is 1 hour or less, water is an appropriate choice. For all runs/rides that are over 60 minutes, I recommend a sports drink – the one that tastes so good that you want to drink it! Your sports drink choice should contain carbohydrates from dextrose, sucrose, and/or maltodextrin and relatively less fructose. Sweat contains the electrolytes sodium, chloride, potassium, and magnesium so your electrolyte replacement drink should ideally contain all of these.

How much to drink: The most accurate way to determine this is to calculate your sweat rate, but if you have not done this, a good rule of thumb is to drink 16-32 ounces of your favorite sports drink for each hour of running.

When to drink: Pre-hydrate well the day before and day of training or racing. Once you are ready to head out, drink early and often, taking sips before you start and continue to take sips while you run or ride. This means that you need to carry or wear your preferred sports drink and have replenishments stashed along your route or circle back to your house, car or other source to refill.

#diana.davis.rd

REBRANDING

REBRANDING

We all go through challenges, and after 16 years in business I hit a major challenge with Without Limits. REBRANDING! Running a business is a journey of ups and downs. Without Limits turned out to be my career, which I never would have predicted a long time ago. It turned out to be better than expected and I thank God for giving me that blessing.
So why did we rebrand? I could say it was time for a change, and maybe it was, but unfortunately a much bigger athletic company than mine thought our brand looked too much like theirs and change was inevitable.
The decision was easy, don’t fight this, instead, make things better!
We are who we are, and we don’t want anyone else to think we are trying to be them. So for all of my friends and followers, WOL is Without Limits and that is what it was called from the start.
Our journey continues and our story gets better and stronger. We want to thank all of our athletes and the folks that support our events and wear our gear! Our mission continues to set goals and break through our old limits. Limits are not always defined by speed. While getting faster and improving performance is a part of endurance sports, so is mental improvement and overcoming obstacles in sport and in life. All this trickles down to our inner core of improving the SELF. WOL is what people have called Without Limits since we started. There is no symbol to define without limits than the words and letters themselves!
Embrace the Challenge and continue to LIVE WITHOUT LIMITS!
A big thanks to our athletes, coaches, colleagues, friends , and most importantly my wife Annette Clifford! She took over the administration and helped me tremendously when we first got married in 2011. She gave up her job with a big unknown. We developed a brand together have some amazing people around us!
A big thanks to my brother Steve Clifford for helping me rebrand!
Cheers to the future and thank you for your support!
Grab some new swag if you want 👉http://www.shopwithoutlimits.store
14 Year Anniversary in Business

14 Year Anniversary in Business

by: Tom Clifford

WITHOUT LIMITS: 14 YEARS….HOW WE STARTED: 14 years ago we decided to start a business coaching runners and it turned out to be a little more than that:)
I met Kyle Shepard playing beer pong and told him I am going to start coaching runners at the track and he should come out. Kyle said. IGGHHHTT. I’ll be there. (I honestly didn’t believe him) but he showed up. Alecia Williams also showed up as she was my first client that I met in the gym and Erin Hogston a former UNCW hurdler also showed up.
That business was going to be named High Voltage running, because I loved the band ACDC. Really I loved Thunderstruck but that didn’t make sense to name a running group Thunderstruck. After some thought, I figured ehhh, High Voltage a little corny and took a vote with some runners that were already training with us. Without Limits stuck out as one of the great running films about Steve Prefontaine. So we moved forward with the name WITHOUT LIMITS and actually trademarked the name a year later.
The group grew and people improved. I learned a lot in those first years about working with ability levels from novice to good age group runners. Kristen Smith started helping me time from the beginning and is now still coaching and a Wilmington Firefighter. Kristen has been a tremendous coach over the years and we appreciate everything she has done!
(added: I can’t forget Anthony Enoch who took me to my first marathon in Myrtle Beach and is still a current friend and athlete)😂
In 2009 I got into triathlon. I enjoyed racing triathlon and really wanted to begin coaching triathletes as well. So after a year of studying triathlon and getting certified, we added triathlon to our list of services.
I then realized Wilmington did not have a full marathon in the city. The NHRMC Wilmington NC Marathon and Half Marathon was born, formerly the Quintiles Wrightsville Beach Marathon as many of you remember it. We put together a great team of people to make the race happen. The race had 1400 runners in it’s first year and putting on events really got my juices flowing. The marathon grew to a near 4000 runners over the last 10 years and continues to change and adapt to our city and hopefully will continue to be successful.
In 2011 Annette Clifford quit her job to help me with the business. We now had just one source of income for our family and we just got married and bought a house. Annette fixed a lot! If it wasn’t for her our books would probably be backwards.
In 2012 we had a coaching breakthrough when Christa Iammarino qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the marathon. This was any coaches dream to be able to be on an athlete’s journey to an OTQ.
Also in 2012, I met Jon Carne from Port City Apparel. Jon helped our brand improve drastically through apparel. We began creating our own race t-shirts for races. The race t-shirt industry just didn’t meet expectations with design and comfort. Jon really helped our company and our races create the best shirts you can get at a race!
2012 remained a great year as we had started our Without Limits Youth program with Colin Hackman. The goal was development of young athletes so they could go to High School developed and excited to run. Aaron Kolk came along and has been a tremendous coach for youth and adult and now triathlete coach for so many.
Now Without Limits, the Marathon and Without Limits Apparel were three main pillars of our company. I met Mike Duncan at Sage Island who helped us with branding and web design. With my brother Steve and Mike dialing in our logo we had a good branded logo that had meaning! WITHOUT LIMITS…..Embrace the Challenge.
Now Without Limits had some other coaches in other locations. Chris Bailey in Charleston. Matt Hammersmith in Greenville, Trey McCain in Columbia and Josh Estep in Raleigh area.
After going to one of Matt’s races in Greenville, that sparked and idea to create a trail relay that brought families, friends of all ages to compete in an ultra marathon style age graded relay race in a big field. The Southern Tour Ultra was born. A combination of ideas into one. The Southern Tour was another pillar of Without Limits that added my kind of flavor. Woods, Beer, Running, Classic Rock Music and competitiveness! From Southern tour Copperhead 20K and Shakori 40 were both branches off the same concept with different distances and vibes at each event.
In 2019 long time runner and director Ed Fore was ready to hand over the The Parkway Subaru Battleship NC Half Marathon. I partnered with Colin Hackman and Go Time events on this race and was honored to take this race over from Ed as he made it live for 20 years.
In 2019 three of our ladies qualified for the 2020 U.S. Marathon Olympic Trials which was another coaching honor to be on the Journey of Erin Hogston who was one of my first athletes, Brittany Perkins and Peyton Thomas.
In 2019 I met Shawn and Scott Tunis along with Diana Davis our dietitian and we created a vitamin and long run recovery shake line that will assist runners with better nutrition and recovery. Runners Daily Vitamin
Of all of these highlights, there are so many accomplishments by athletes along the way that I am so excited to have been on their journey. Also so many people to thank. Beth Ann Soporowski for coming on board and helping us with back end work and sponsors, Maleia Tumolo Celia Wolff, JP Merchant and Angela Midget who all have brought great energy to practices.
Our longest sponsor Bennie Sheally and Sheally Insurance Group and all of our sponsors.
While this may look like a good ol’ highlight reel, there were many struggles along the way. But I can say every single struggle made us a stronger company, better communicators and always lit a fire under us to BE BETTER.
We are Without Limits, and we appreciate the support from so many.
Visit us now and grab some apparel if you want:)

One Marine’s Perspective: Reflection on Readiness

By Kyle Genaro Phillips

March 2020 will forever be etched in our memories. Over the course of the last fourteen days, our global community came to a grinding halt. There are a number of different personal responses, to include, denial, panic, and hopelessness against the backdrop of something that we collectively do not have a firm grasp or understand. I have taken a moment to reflect on what this experience means to me during a period that Winston Churchill aptly phrased as the “end of the beginning.”

Readiness is something that is dogmatic in the Marine Corps ethos. As a battalion commander at the School of Infantry for two years, we constantly preached “readiness” to our newly minted Marines. The refrain went something like this: “the time to prepare for combat is not when you are on the precipice of conflict. Train every day like it’s your last to prepare for war.” Readiness was the mantra. Be ready. Study, be physically fit, prepare your family for the possibility of deploying for combat. Since September 2001, our military has rightfully seen the benefits and consequences of our state of readiness.

The current global pandemic has provided an opportunity for all of us to take inventory of our personal state of readiness. What is our readiness – physically, financially, and spiritually for the unknown challenges that we will face in the future? The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated in a clear fashion that our physical readiness may have a very real impact on our individual ability to be resilient in the face of unknown health crises. Do we exercise? Do we smoke? Are we eating healthy meals? Do we get adequate sleep in order to maintain the best and healthiest version of ourselves? Physical readiness is not something that we can flip a switch, take a pill, or order from Amazon. Physical readiness takes discipline, teamwork, and dedication to the process to ensure our individual well-being. While it’s never too late to start, we have a finite ability to improve our physical conditioning. Don’t delay.

The current crisis has also demonstrated the necessity of financial readiness. Everyone in some way has been impacted financially by the outbreak of the coronavirus. Financial planners have often preached that we should have 6 month’s salary saved for emergencies. Additionally, are we disciplined to keep our debt to income ratio low so that we have credit when we need credit. Our individual financial resiliency contributes to the overall financial resiliency of our community and country. While we may not be able to immediately change our financial position in the light of the current volatile environment, at some point we will be back to a stable economy where we must balance our current needs and wants with the necessity to build economic resiliency through savings and low debt.
Finally, our spiritual readiness is critically important. What is the status of our relationships, both personally and professionally? Do we have a firm spiritual base to weather the rough seas that undoubtably will present themselves in our life? Do we have a loving relationship with our family and those closest to us? This we can change. Be kind. Show empathy. The individual positivity displayed in the face of extreme circumstances has the same exponential effect as the viral crisis we face today. Our spiritual readiness must be constantly nurtured. In hard times, spiritual resiliency is perhaps the hardest to muster in the absence of a lifelong commitment to fostering a foundation upon which to build.

Readiness is critical to our individual and collective achievements. Let us all reflect on where we are now, physically, financially, and spiritually. We all can improve. Let us be accountable for ourselves with the support of our friends and community. The current crisis will pass. Resist the urge to just “get back to normal.” Together we can work for a better normal. Through our disciplined approach to our personal readiness we will persevere. Start now.

(Kyle G. Phillips is an active duty Marine with nearly 22 years of service. The views presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of DoD, DON, or the Marine Corps.)