Greetings!
I want to gather as many personal anecdotes regarding complications of bodily functions and completing workouts or races. I also want to hear about your “cures” and advice. This is a scientific and not-so-scientific research project of mine. It is stimulated by actual events in my life, my brother’s life, friends and the many questions I get in this arena.
I hope you will participate. If you wish to remain anonymous so that your indiscretions won’t be discovered by certain parties, we’ll do all we can to honor that.
Filed under: Running, Running Humor
On race days, I make sure I go to the bathroom at least twice before a race. This usually involves as soon as I get up and then after a small breakfast. I hope to hear more about this subject!
For most people it seems having a little “something” tends to stimulate movements. Warm fluids seem to be a favorite… of course, coffee leading the list. The more predictable you can make things the better for sure!
Urine vs. Sweat
It has taken some time for me to experiement with my body, but I have gotten better at the timing and quantity of hydration before runs and races. One side-effect that I have experienced both during and after periods of heavy sweating (no matter the activity or inactivity!) is a slowing of the collection of urine in the bladder. Is this the major reason why so many people can go a whole marathon (sometimes over 5 hours!), drinking all the way, and not use the portapotties on the side of the road, nor at the finish line? FYI, all discussion below is relative to myself running at the reference pace of my 10k race pace (currently approximately 6:30).
Scenario 1. I have found that, while in a state of no or little sweating, if I drink more than about 8oz or more of water about 20 minutes or more before a run, then I will collect an annoying amount of urine in my bladder. If at all possible, I use the restroom to rid myself of the urine before the run. I drink to ensure that I have enough water, being sure to urinate the excess before running. I rarely need to urinate during or immediately following runs in temperature 90degF or higher, possibly due to sweating.
Scenario 2. If I am already in a state of moderate or heavy sweating while I drink the water before a run, then I rarely need to urinate before running. I rarely need to urinate immediately afterward.
Scenario 3. If the outdoor temperature is 100degF or higher, then I take a drink of about 8oz immediately before embarking on a run. This was prompted by a consistent feeling of dehydration during the second half of my runs on hot days. It seems to delay the onset of percepted dehydration for an extra 10 minutes. I never need to urinate immediately afterward.
Scenario 4. However, on the hottest days (105degF +) 8oz of plain water does not seem to be enough. I often “hit the wall” at about the 20 minute mark and I wonder what portion of this threshold is due to the significant loss of electrolytes under prolonged heavy sweating and what portion of this threshold is due to my body overheating. I don’t know. On those days I actually drink about 8~10oz of Gatorade (powder + water) immediately before commencing the run. It seems to delay “the wall” by about 5 minutes. I never need to urinate immediately afterward.
Here in the hot desert of Phoenix, AZ, we are thankful for the cooling action of evaporating sweat. I believe that I am a person who drinks more water than the average person (1.5+ gallons/day during winter, 2.0+ gallons/day during summer). Likewise, I believe that I also urninate more than the average person.
By the way, Dave, great point about “evacuation” on race days. Hmmm, reminds me of Austin Powers, except he woke up after about 40 years…
wow, or was that 30 years frozen? Must have been a good movie. Seems like yesterday…
Gluten link to Diarrhea
(Got the runs on your runs?)
I have cut wheat gluten mostly out of my diet and I never eat products containing high amounts of gluten before a race or hard workout. Gluten is found in many breads and (unfortunately) bagels. My basic rule of thumb is to always avoid products that list gluten in the first 5 ingredients.
After experimenting for a couple months after the 2007 Ragnar Relay del Sol, I have found gluten to cause me diarrhea, among other things. The experiment included eating guten-free food for 2 weeks straight, followed by 2 weeks of devouring products high in gluten, repeat. The results were like night and day, with the gluten-eating periods feeling literally “crappy”. I actually had to end more than 5 workouts early because of diarrhea. Unfortunately, 2 of those runs occurred while I was running with a pretty young lady. Crap.
Diarrhea prevents nutrients from being assimilated into my body. This is a major problem for me, considering that my body already has issues with high metabolism. Some of the particular effects that I attribute to my apparent gluten allergy include diarrhea, excessive gas, loss of energy, canker sores, mental irritability and impaired ability to mentally focus. I am happy to announce that all of these symptoms are now gone! (However, I have yet to experiment to see if my mild lactose intolerance might also have been caused by gluten.) Needless to say, I eat quite a lot of rice!
Gluten allergy is also called Celiac Disease. I do not know whether or not I actually qualify for celiac disease because I have not been officially tested and diagnosed by a doctor. http://www.celiac.org
Jimmy,
RE: sweat & urine
Your body seeks homeostasis (a natural balance). In doing so, if you are already losing fluids to cool your body (sweat) then it will not produce as much urine through the kidneys. It won’t go to your bladder and therefore you won’t need to urinate as much as usual. So the fact that you don’t have that urge while running in hot temperatures is completely natural.
It is very difficult to intake as much fluids as necessary while exercising, to take care of fluid loss in sweat as well as take care of all normal bodily needs for fluids and have excess such that it will end up in your bladder to a significant amount. (Be clear, I’m not talking about absolutley no urine being produced during this time. Your kidneys are filters of your blood and you do produce some. If absolutlely none is produced you are probably in some real trouble!)
As far as your comments on a 20 minute issue and hydration. 20 minutes is not enough under most circumstances to produce great enough dehydration to affect performance (3% body weight or more is the rule of thumb). Certainly, in extreme heat and humidity this is possible but still it shouldn’t be that dramatic.
I would pose that you are under hydrated to start with. You have not taken in enough fluids all day long and when you go for your run you are already in a slightly dehydrated state. Then, your run puts you over the edge.
I think the fix is monitoring hydration daily instead of in a single workout and just pre- or post-workout. Second, I think there is a strong psychological variable at play. It IS hot down here at this time of year and it has an adverse affect on most of us mentally trying to fight through it.
Coach Dean
Here’s more good information on the topic:
http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com/2007/09/06/training-how-do-i-deal-with-runner%e2%80%99s-diarrhea-part-i/
and here:
http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com/2007/09/06/training-how-do-i-deal-with-runners-diarrhea-part-ii/
Coach Dean