Although many are reluctant to discuss this simple fact of life or may even find the subject "repulsive" ... The matter is ... I poop, you poop ... We all poop. So that's the subject of this article and you are hereby forewarned (even I can sound lawyerly sometimes !)
An amazing transformation I experienced when I started weight lifting two years ago were the changes in my bowels movements ... I still remember running on the treadmill next to Ro the crazy ex-Marine, my trainer at the time, about a couple of months into my first ever personal training. Out of the blue Ro blasted out how many times a day I was pooping now ... I was shocked at first I didn't know what to say ... Ro told me though that the subject is nasty but pooping is part of the biological cycle and an indication of how well (or not so well) our bodies function. He didn't push for an answer but I volunteered that my poops were more often in smaller amounts at a time, where I used to have a big one once a day ... Once past the weirdness of it all we discussed the meaning of it ... I now use poop as an indication how high my metabolism is at ... I also have experienced an urgency to go more often, in the middle of an intensive workout for example, although it has never been as bad as it has when I run. It is one thing when it happens at the gym, but I have had to cut training runs short to dash home squeezing my buttocks so hard you would think I had a rocket fired into my ... mmm ... but I digress ... The point of this post is you ask by now ...
Ok, so you made it this far :) I will admit, I have been struggling with "runner's diarrhea", "urgency to defecate"as I have been increasing my training runs frequency. Whatever you wanna call it the problem is annoying to say the least. I saw products to combat runner's diarrhea advertised before. As a matter of fact I was hoping to find some demos at the Seattle Sports Expo last month and didn't. I found this article at www.myraceragz.com/blog "The big thing most runners don't talk about ..." that discusses the taboo subject of runner's diarrhea while surfing the web looking for products to combat diarrhea ...
The article gives medical background behind the issue (got to admit I was never too curious to understand why it happens but I found even that part very educative), and some advice to deal with it. A recommendation stood out for me: "before you embark on a hard workout, exercise lightly to help stimulate a bowel movement, poop, and then exercise hard." I have to admit that it had never occurred to me to go on the onset. Usually I try to go before I start the workout, but when I feel like I "can't go", many times I'll end up going in the middle of the workout. I refer to it as "kickstarting my metabolism" as it feels like the exercise makes space in my stomach as a prep to eating to nourish my body at the end of the workout ... Point being, I could probably go earlier, after the warm up before I get heavy into my routines. Of course if I am on a training run oftentimes the only way to implement this recommendation is to map a bathroom or two early into the run, or be "prepared" to deal with the emergency if running on trails ... as the article also points out ...
But the one recommendation that stood out too is the one I didn't find. I was expected to find some product recommendation to fight the diarrhea. But there wasn't any. No magic anti-runner's diarrhea pill recommendation ... But by now I am re-thinking my approach. I have been running for two years without taking any products. Is putting more pills in my body really necessary since I have not for the last two years and have run suceesfully? Not really, I realize reading this article that this is a very common problem. And the problem can be dealt with with better management. Rather than reacting to it I should just plan that it is going to happen ... Saves me dollars and saves my kidneys so that I can run another day !
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