4.5 Hours of Bliss

After a solid month of mind-dizzying nausea my stomach is feeling better. I started taking Nexium a couple of weeks ago for my ulcer and it is finally kicking in. No more morning blehs. No more bloaty fullness after eating. No more yuckiness.

I am being much more careful with my diet. I'm trying to cut down on carbs, no tomatoes, very little dairy, low wheat. I have not had any caffeine whatsoever in three weeks. Dwaaaaaaaaaaa. I have never been a caffeine hog, but I do love a cup of mostly decaf in the morning, perhaps a black tea in the afternoon. I miss the little jolt, but overall I feel much more even. I'm not crashing in the afternoons quite as much. And if I do crash, I close my eyes for a few minutes rather than reach for the tea.

I got out early on Saturday morning for a much anticipated, solo run on the trails at Bluff Point. My plan was to run for 4 hours and carefully monitor what I ate and drank. Systematic monitoring is really not my thing. I am a fliberjibbet when I run, especially when I run by myself. My mind wanders all over the place and then it quiets down and I zen out for unspecified blocks of time. I love this. I don't want to have to think about such mundane things as water and food.

But I need to start coming up with and eating/drinking plan that works. Most gels and sports drinks make me queasy during races (not so much during long training runs). So I am trying to find a regimin that keeps me going but does not leave me fighting nausea mile after mile.

Perhaps I have found it.

Saturday I ran with 2L of water in my Wink hydration pack which I sipped constantly. I also carried a handheld bottle of Nuun which I dipped into when I needed a shot of flavor. I took an S Cap along with 2 peanut butter crackers (carbs, salt, protein, fat) every hour on the hour, and I slowly ate a Cliff BLok every hour on the half hour. No stomach problems, no bonking. All good.

I found some nice singetrack between the main fire roads at Bluff Point and cobbled together a nice 1-hour loop. I repeated this loop twice, fiddled around on some hitherto unexplored bits of the part, and then ran home. The whole thing took 4.5 hours. I have absolutely no idea how far I went.

Today (Monday) I ran two hours with Brian at Cockaponsett (rocky, rooty, hilly -- just what I need!). The kids went to the Memorial Day Parade with Grandma and Grandpa, bless them down to their boots. Brian is a freaking goat. He is a downhill running machine. Cresting a hill right behind him, I look down for a second and he's gone. He's down the hill, round the bend, and out of sight. He is a fearless downhill runner. If he ever falls, he's toast. But so far he hasn't.

2 hours is a long run for Old Brian. But he's a good sport. And now he's upstairs sleeping it off: a tired old goat.

Protein, anyone?

I have been (relatively) wheat free and dairy free since Saturday. I did sneak a half spoonful of ice cream and a pretzel after dinner just now, and I had a peanut butter cracker on the playground yesterday because it was in my pocket and I was starving. But for all practical purposes, I have not let any wheat or dairy pass my lips for five days. In addition, I've cut way back on carbohydrates.

And I feel pretty good.

Weirdly?

This is supposed to happen, but I didn't really believe it would.

The difference, as I was warned, is subtle. I don't have to fight to stay awake in the afternoons. I don't loll at the table after meals. I don't have steep sugar crashes just before lunch (scenes of some of my worst parenting moments).

Strange to say, my new diet is making me a better parent. I have more patience and more endurance. I am a peppier homeschooler, a more attentive co-learner, a more inventive teacher.

At least I think I am.

And the longer I stay away from the sweets, the less I crave them.

But even with all of these obvious benefits, I don't know if this diet is sustainable. I don't like thinking about what I can and cannot eat all the time. Perhaps if I stay with it, the whole thing will become second nature, but right now it all feels like a chore.

I made a lovely chicken salad for lunch today with cashews, avocado, grapes, apple and ginger. But it would have been a lot easier to throw together a peanut butter and honey sandwich.

Onward and upward. I'll stay with it at least until I get through my next two races. I do, however, need to find something satisfying to snack on besides nuts and fruit. I am way too gassy for polite company....

My poor old stomach

Every time I run an ultra, no matter the distance, I always end up sick during the last quarter of the race. It doesn't matter if its a 50K, 50-miler or (my one and only unsuccessful) 100-miler. The symptoms are almost always the same. Low grade nausea, leading to more acute nausea and then to real pain in the lower part of my intestine. Transitioning from walking uphill, which soothes the system, to running downhill, which pounds every interior organ I own, is excruciating. I never actually throw up -- I'd probably feel better if I did -- but the whole business is horribly unpleasant. I honestly don't know what keeps me coming back for more.

Anyhoo, I posted a question about Stomach Upset on the Yahoo Ultra running Group and I got a couple of informative responses. Ultrasteve said that he gets nauseous when he runs at a pace faster than his training has prepared him for. This makes sense to me. I think I may be upping my pace (subconsciously or not) as soon as I hit the half way point. I conserve energy all through the first half of the race, and then start running more of the uphills and pushing the pace all through the second half. And hence the belly trouble. I have a couple of races coming up in a few weeks (50K and 50-miler), so I am going to make a concerted effort to keep an even, comfortable pace from start to finish. Easier said than done, no doubt.

Peter from Vespa wrote to ask about my typical daily diet. His thought is that I am taking in way too many carbohydrates and not enough protein and fat. I have always been a carbo junkie. The Atkins dies flew right by me, as did all of the other no-carb alternatives that thinned-up so many of my friends about 5 years ago. (All of them have regained the weight, I might add, in the the intervening years.)

Peter ascribes to a version of the Paleo diet. I checked The Paleo Diet book out of the library and found the menu to be way too restrictive for me, especially since I must feed four growing people besides myself at every meal. Paleo is grain-free, wheat-free (obviously), dairy-free, sugar-free. Which basically leaves you with lean meat, fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables. The whole thing reminds me of a book I read earlier this year called Into the Forest: 2 teenage sisters survive in a post-apocalyptic world by eating acorn mush, wild berries and the odd shot rodent.

Just give me my Ben and Jerry's from time to time, for chrissake! This is the freaking 21st century.

I have decided to try a wheat-free and dairy-restricted diet for the next month and see if it makes any difference in my stomach's behavior at my next two races. And I will cut back on the carbs. Eat more nuts for snacks. Nuts and raisins. And I'll grow my hair down to my butt and paint my nails camo-pink.

I ordered Paleo for Athletes and the Maffetone Method (Ultrasteve's guy) from Amazon. The library does not stock these particular books. Shocking. Not enough ultra-running, hunter-gatherer types around here to justify the shelf space I guess. And I'll try the Vespa. Hell, I'll try anything.

We'll see where it all goes.