Question about Side Stitches

meli_medina

Hello!

I have been running continuously since June-ish (and by continuous I mean without taking a hiatus) with only one injury break of 2 weeks. During the summer, I was running in the evenings without a problem, but with school starting, I find it more convenient to run in the morning while my kids are in school.

I have a 5K on Sunday that starts at 2 pm, so I've tried to incorporate a couple of late-day (4:30 or 5 pm) runs into my training. I am aware of two different things:

a) I know that I will have a slower pace in the evening because my energy levels will be lower
b) I try to make sure that I don't eat anything heavy leading up to the run, so my day pretty much will consist of almonds, yogurt, and oatmeal. I don't eat for about 1-2 hours before the run, and I try to make sure I have had about 64 ounces of water throughout the day prior to the run.

In the morning, I usually have something like a whole grain English muffin with 2 tbsp of peanut butter or a banana and a handful of almonds, plus about 16 ounces of water and an 8-ounce cup of coffee with cream. I haven't had any problems with this since September, when I started running between 9-11 am. My runs are any distance from 3 miles up to 8 miles on those days.

With the afternoon runs, I'm finding that usually between miles 2 and 3, I get a terrible left side stitch that causes me to have to stop and walk for a minute or two. It happened with my first afternoon run a couple of weeks ago (at about 4:45 pm) and then again on each afternoon run. I don't use any different breathing techniques (I purse my lips and blow out like I'm blowing out a birthday candle, breathe in on left foot, breathe out on left foot) in the am than I do in the pm. It's often so bad that I have to push myself to make it to 3 miles. My last evening run was on the treadmill and I experienced the same problem.

Does anyone have any tips or techniques that I can put into practice? I really don't want to have to walk during my 5K on Sunday, but of course I will if I have to. I'm hoping that it's still early enough in the day that I won't have any problems (my weekend runs are sometimes closer to 11 am and sometimes 1 pm), but anything that I could put into practice in case it happens would be much appreciated!

Shayyy01

Are you stressed at all while you are running?

For me personally i run at night when i get off of work. If i have alot on my mind and cant clear my thoughts ( stressed out) it will show when i'm running and i will get the side stitches. I take a deep breathe clear my mind i dont stop i " run " it out by focusing on posture and technique and i stop thinking about whatever was stressing me out and just run. The pain does go away, but i know if i start my run when i'm stressed or coming off of a hard work day that it will show in my run, so i try to focus alittle harder on making sure i'm doing everything right.

Might help.
Good luck on the 5K!!!

bdmundt

To me it sounds like you are focusing too much on your breathing. I totally get that some have to do this, but try to NOT focus on it so much. Try to just breath naturally as it comes. Side stiches are usually related to one of 2 things, breathing or having food/lots of water in your stomach.

If your not eating 1-2 hours before your runs, I'm assuming it's not this....as long as you don't drink large quanities of water RIGHT before your runs.

I used to get side stiches when I first started to get into running and it was all breathing related. I finally let myself releax and not focus so much on it and the side sitches eventually went away.

Good luck on your 5k!

abcwhite10

I read once that runner's stitch is related to not fully exhaling and to try to get rid of one while it's happening, pause your run for a short time, deep breath in and forcefully blow it ALL out. Do that a couple times and it should help ease it off.

meli_medina

I don't think I'm stressed?

I do know that I have to work much, much harder to run in the evenings than I do in the mornings, and I tend to come out of the gate faster than I should when I get started (I can't help it! I'm just so excited! lol). Usually by the first half mile, I've calmed down and backed off.

I don't really focus on my breathing too much (about 30 seconds for every 5-10 minutes of running). I spend more time worrying about whether or not I'm swinging my arms at the shoulders, really! (It's something I've just started focusing on recently.) I usually don't realize I have the stitch until it is REALLY there and THEN I do a posture check, a breath check, slow down my pace, etc. Usually it doesn't even help to do all that and continues to get worse (or it could just be that because I've discovered it, I'm focusing on it which makes it worse than it really is).

I don't usually drink a TON of water prior to my run. The 64 ounces is spread out through the day (usually 20 in the morning with breakfast, 8 with morning snack, 20 with lunch, 16 about an hour-1.5. hours before my run and then I sip the rest of the time leading up to the run. I don't take water with me, either, but maybe I'll try to move the 16 back to closer to 2 hours before, though it's hard for me to know if I've had too much or not enough.

Thanks! I'll try some relaxation techniques prior to my warm up to make sure I'm not too tense, especially during the 5K, and maybe some additional dynamic stretching with the upper body to try to loosen up my torse/shoulder/chest muscles and see if that helps!