Side Stitch – the bane of all runners. We do the necessary prep, we train hard, we taper well, we eat clean, we carb-load, we did all the right things, but to be hit with a side stitch at kilometre 10 into our race – what? What went wrong? You start to wonder whether you started out too fast, or you ate too heavy a breakfast or maybe too light a breakfast?

What’s A Side Stitch?

A side stitch is an intense stabbing pain under your ribcage. There are various theories on why a side stitch occurs and no proper scientific explanation. The explanations go from there’s air in your stomach, to limited blood supply in the diaphragm hence causing cramps, to irritation to your stomach lining. The most plausible scientific explanation is the decreased blood supply to your diaphragm. This decrease in oxygen supply causes the diaphragm to somewhat malfunction and cause a side stitch.

So, nervousness, improper breathing, poor running form, starting off too fast, weak abdominal muscles, a full stomach may all affect the diaphragm and prove a side stitch.

How To Prevent A Side Stitch?

#1 Eat a light breakfast – Remember to eat a breakfast that is low in fibre and fat. Eat something which constitutes more carbohydrates instead. One thing for sure – No cheeseburger and fries!

#2 Breakfast 2.0 – You should typically be consuming your breakfast 2-3 hours pre-race and have a smaller lighter snack just before your race. This is your breakfast 2.0. For instance you could have a banana or a bar.

#3 Warm Up – This cannot be stressed enough. A warmup helps prep your muscle (including your diaphragm) for the impending tough working that is to come. It also regulates your breathing, making sure that your breathing doesn’t go too fast, too soon. Remember, one of the causes of a side stitch is irregular breathing.

#4 Go Steady – Don’t start out too fast! If you start out too fast, you may overwhelm your body. Your breathing will be all over the place, hence easily provoking a side stitch.

#5 It’s All About Your Core – Well trained obliques and transverse abdominal muscles can help prevent a side stitch. Spend 10 minutes everyday doing planks, side planks, Russian twists – and bid side stitches goodbye!

I’ve Got A Side Stitch – What Do I Do?

#1 Breathe – Focus on your breathing! Try and regulate your breathing. Take deep breaths instead of short shallow ones. This helps the relaxation of your muscles.

#2 Use Your Hand – A telltale sign of a runner with a stitch is seeing them having their hands on the side of their abdominals. This helps. Use your hand and apply some pressure onto the side stitch.

Photo Credits: Wilderman Physical Therapy 

#3 Slow Down –  Try to slow down and relax your upper body. Shake it out a little. Don’t keep pushing your body to go faster or keep with your pace. .Try to get rid of your side stitch first before going out again.

#4 Stop And Stretch – Often it is better to stop and stretch rather than to continue pushing on with your stitch. Stretching will help relieve the tension. And once the stitch goes away, you can hit your target pace again.

The Final Tip: Run more! Run more and train more because – whilst you are running, you are training your diaphragm, respiratory muscles and abdominal muscles to become stronger. Therefore, reducing the likelihood of a stitch!

A time trial run is simply a chance for you to measure your current level of fitness against the clock. You run a set distance and it’s you running against the clock. You run as fast as you can or at a set targeted pace for a set distance. Here are a few reasons why you should do time trials.

#1 Dress Rehearsal

Running at a personal best pace is running in an unknown territory. Run half the distance or three quarters the distance at your set targeted pace, or maybe possibly even faster. This should be done 3-4 weeks prior to your goal race. If you are able to hit your target race pace, you would be more confident going into your race.

#2 Be Speedy

The goal here is not to hit a targeted pace. The goal here is to suffer and learn to deal with the suffering. It’s going to be painful because you are going all out. Here, fighting though the pain will train your body to handle the slower paces more efficiently. This will help you with your distance races. For instance if you are a marathon runner, doing 10km time trials would be a good training.

#3 Reality Check

It is good to see where you are standing in terms of training. Is it working for you? Or do you need to tweak your training? A time trial also serves as a reality check. If you aren’t progressing, you would need to revise your training and see what you are lacking. Time trials are a good way of seeing the product of your training before your goal race so you can make changes before it’s too late. You don’t want to only realise what you are lacking on race day do you?

But remember, time trials are not advised on the regular to avoid burnout. Going all out too often disrupts your training as your muscles does require time to recover. But, remember an occasional time trial does give you the mental boost. It can also serve as a reality check for you as to whether your training plan is working for you or otherwise.

Beginner, amateur or even elite, there are several basic rules that every runner should follow. These golden rules will bring you far in running, allowing you to progress without succumbing to injury. Here a 6 very important Do’s and Don’ts every runner should religiously follow.

DO

#1 Start Out Slow

It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and carried away with running. Naturally, we are all overly-motivated, over-enthusiastic and over-excited in the beginning. We start off the first kilometre really fast but to pay the price later on. Starting out too fast could lead to side stitches, cramps or even a muscle pull. Your body needs to gradually warm up and ease into the pace. This is especially important for your long runs. You don’t want to burn out and render yourself unable to complete your long run do you? So remember, always start out your first kilometre at a conversational pace.

#2 Mix Up Your Routine

If you run at the same pace for the same distance every day, at some point, your progress will start to plateau. Challenge your body in various way. For instance, try a speed workout, a tempo run, or even hill repeats. Run on different terrains and surfaces. You can also incorporate some strength training into your training plan.

#3 Recovery Days Are Recovery Days

Most of us tend to forget that it is only when we recover from a tough session, that our body is able to become stronger. We need to give our body that opportunity to rest and recover. Easy days are meant to be easy. Don’t push yourself on easy days, save your determination and grit for the hard and gruelling sessions. Make sure you have a rest day as well. Remember, always listen to your body!

DON’TS

#1 Eat A Huge Meal Before Your Run

It’s certainly easy to think we need to eat more prior to running, because we’d need the energy right? But having a cheeseburger, coke, fries and that sundae isn’t the right way to go about it. Eating spicy and fatty food before a run may give you gastrointestinal problems. Instead, 1-2 hours before your run, have a healthy snack such as oats, or a sweet potato or just a peanut butter whole meal sandwich. That should do the trick.

#2 Skip Your Warmup

We are all looking for ways to save time – but skipping your warm up should not be one method. The warmup is very significant – it prepares your muscles for the upcoming session and prevents unwanted injuries. Do a light jog at conversational pace before doing some running drills pre-workout. Running drills are especially good because it helps your running form and at the same time mimics the running movement, giving your muscles a real good warmup.

#3 Using The Same Pair Of Shoes For Years

Your shoes have an expiration date. As a rule of thumb, your shoes should be changed every 500km in. When your shoes start to wear out, it will affect your running form and start giving you pain here and there. This could become the start of an unwanted injury.

Rui Silva is a Portuguese track and field athlete that specialises in the 1500m and 3000m distances. He won the Bronze medal at the 1500m event in the Athens Olympics, going from last place to 3rd in 400m. Here are a couple of his favourite speed workouts that he does during his base training.

#1 3km x 3

This workout is a 7.5 loop speed workout around the track. It is done with a 3 minute rest in between. Rui does his 3km sets in 8:30-8:35. Of course we aren’t Olympians. Run it at a pace you are comfortable with and with a longer rest in between, say 5 minutes?

#2 2km x 4

This workout is a 5 loops speed workout around a track stadium. 4 sets is to be done with a 3 minute rest in between. Rui completes his 2km sets in 5:35 – 5:40 pace. With a 2km warmup and 2km cool down, you’ll be getting in a 12km mileage with this workout.

Photo Credits: Zimbio

#3 1500m x 5

This is a tough workout to complete. Doing the 1500m distance 5 times is going to hurt. Rui does this workout at a blistering pace of 4:00 – 4:05 with a 3 minutes rest in between sets.

#4 1km x 6

This seem to be a favourite workout of many athletes. Rui does this workout with 3 minutes breaks in between sets. Some athletes like to do a 200m recovery run in between sets to make is more like a fartlek workout rather than a speed workout. Either or, we are sure that this is a great workout to build up your speed endurance.

It cannot be stressed enough the dangers of overtraining. It is east to get caught up in the moment and become overly-enthusiastic about running, so much so that we keep pushing our body to the limit. More isn’t necessarily always better. Overtraining can lead to a decrease in fitness level and even injury. A good training plan strikes a balance between running and recovery. Here are 8 signs of overtraining.

#1 Deteriorating Performance

The best telltale sign of overtraining is a decrease in performance despite increased intensity and volume of training. Decreased strength, decreased speed, decreased stamina is a sure sign of overtraining.

#2 Increased Perceived Efforts During Your Workout

If you’re doing the same workouts, hitting the same timings, but you feel they are getting increasingly harder, this is another sign of overtraining. You will your heart rate is unusually high and you would also feel unusually uncomfortable during the workout. For instance, your easy runs may start to feel difficult.

#3 Fatigue

Heavy legs after a hard session of training is normal. What is abnormal is if you feel constantly fatigue and have low levels of energy. This is because your body hasn’t had a chance to fully recover from the hard workout you put it through. Either you are not resting enough, or not fuelling yourself sufficiently to give your body the building blocks to recover.

#4 Insomnia

Insomnia could be due to the production of excessive stress hormones. Sleep is when your body rests and recover. Having insufficient sleep means your body is unable to relax and recover properly.

#5 Lost Of Appetite

Overtraining can lead to hormonal imbalances which suppresses appetite. It becomes a dangerous cycle. Overtraining leads to fatigue and hence a decrease in appetite. When you eat less, your body isn’t provided with the building blocks to allow your muscles to recover. Then this becomes a vicious cycle.

#6 Depression

Some people thrive on competition and tough workouts. The moment they aren’t hitting the numbers, they start to get sad, anxious and depressed. They may even start to dread the idea of going out for a run. If you are experiencing this, immediately hit the reset button. Forget everything about pace and distance, just head out and enjoy your run.

#7 Moodiness

Are you getting snappy and easily agitated? Are you constantly moody? Overtraining does lead to hormonal imbalances which also causes this snappy mood of yours. If you’re also getting easily irritated and find that you lack focus and concentration, this probably means you should take a step back with your training.

#8 Chronic Injury Or Falling Ill

This is a very sure telltale of overtraining. Frequent overuse of muscles and joints can cause constant joint and muscle aches. Also, your body immune system is low when you overtrain. It is not easy for your body to fight infections. So if you’re find yourself falling ill quite a bit, take a couple of days break before resuming training.

It’s always easy to get overexcited and overenthusiastic about running. We runners can overdo it sometimes. We try everything, whether or not it has been tried and tested. So, here are 5 worst things to do before a run! Are you guilty of these 5 running sins?

#1 Static Stretching As A Warmup

Recent research has shown that static stretching is not good way to warm ourselves up. Instead, the correct approach should be dynamic stretching. A dynamic warmup that simulates the running movement is more adequate. A dynamic warmup brings your muscles through a range of motions that simulates the running movement, hence preparing your muscles for the heavy workout ahead. Do strides and running drills instead of sit and reaches.

#2 Eating Too Much

Yes, you need to adequately fuel yourself before your run, but there is a thing called eating too much as well. When we run, our blood is diverted away from our digestive system towards our leg muscles. This slows down the digestive process and may cause Gastrointestinal problems. Keep your pre-run fuel simple – a banana or a peanut butter sandwich for instance.

#3 Not Drinking Enough Water

It’s easy to under hydrate ourselves. Remember that when we run, we lose large amounts of water which can lead to dehydration. So always remember to sip water throughout the day. A good indication is the colour of your urine. If it is a dark yellow, this is a sign that you aren’t taking in enough fluids.

#4 Not Using The Bathroom

Always clear your bladder before heading out for a run. You don’t want to be running outside looking for a bathroom. It gets in the way of training! So remember to always make one final bathroom pitstop before heading out for your run, especially before a race.

#5 Not Listening To Your Body

If your body is really sluggish and tired, and you have some nagging pain, do not head out for a run! Always listen to your body. Make sure your easy days are easy, and hard days are hard! Don’t push it over it’s limits. Remember fitness is a life time commitment, not something temporary! You don’t want to get an injury! Remember, recovery is part of training!