I can’t make it through my run without a bathroom break. Any advice on how to keep my stomach from making me stop?

Question

Deena Kastor · Answer

Hi Jay, that's a great question because everybody's digestion is a little bit different and timing is everything. But running is an energy game. You want enough calories that you feel energized to go the distance and not too much that you're having to stop along your run to go to the bathroom. Whether it's number one, or number two. I would try moving your calorie intake and your fluid intake. Either back from your run further or a little closer to your runs and Really? It's going to take some practice to get it down. But playing with the timing will help you get on top of this. You might also want to consider the type of calories that you're eating. Maybe not too much fiber close too close to the time that you're getting out there to hit the road. So, I hope this helps and follow up with a question. If you need more more advice. Thank you.

Dave McGovern · Answer

Okay, this is a common one. Getting through workouts without having to stop for bathroom breaks. I was the national coach for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation for about 12 years and we had literally thousands of Runners and Walkers trying to get through half marathons and marathons and we had a 99.7 percent completion rate. So we did pretty well, a lot of the patients did have digestive diseases, I would say. The first thing is try to find training locations that have bathrooms. We were trying to get through 10. L've 15 18, 20 miles for our workouts, but the courses that I designed weren't any more than most cases about a mile and a half, Luke's mom, a half. Maybe two mile Loops for I get the three kilometers one of our bigger loops and that, you know, you can feed off and, you know, get sports drinks and gels and things. But also, you get to see the bathroom, every no more than every half hour or so warming up for a mile or so, to get things moving. And then trying to go to the bathroom, usually helps as well. Writing everything down in a food log, you might have an undiagnosed sensitivity, might not be something as serious as Celiac but you might have a gluten intolerance or dairy soy. If you're having problems in your training, write everything down. If you have a good workout, see what you ate. The morning of the night before. If you have a bad workout, you know, you have to stop for the bathroom. Same thing. See what you see what you need in the morning over the night before. So, what you eat, can be an issue. Issue the timing can be an issue. If you are a morning workout person and you have a big breakfast before or you even have a big dinner the night before that could cause a problem. So maybe you want to have a bigger lunch and then have a lighter dinner for a morning workout and then an afternoon work out after work or something have a very light lunch and then work out and have dinner afterwards and then the amount that you eat which which has to do with that is not having any Having too much of any one sitting, so maybe not having three meals a day. May be having four or five meals a day and breaking things up into much smaller meals throughout the day. That's it hope things work out for you, but I do write everything down. If you can't come up with the solution, you might want to find a GI doc that can lead to another Direction's additional directions. Okay.

Petr Vabrousek · Answer

Hi Jay, where are several layers? Tool answer to this question. First of all, generally every newcomer to running has this problem initially or most of us. I saw it myself with my kids and with some of my clients who were new to running your body needs to adapt to Wed bouncing and overtime improves, its capability to keep everything inside until the running is over. So be patient. If you are new to running the symptoms V symptoms should be decreasing over time. Second layer would be body of eaten and when you've eaten it before your sessions, ideally it's usually about two hours before you're running. You should be eating anything that's enough time for body to process it and keep your blood sugar low, which is good for You're a fat metabolism when running also after two hours after meal, you it shouldn't be already pushing down. So let's I would say, the Golden Rule two hours before the Run no more eating also make a list of different foods you've taken before your runs and how it and worked with your problem. There are some foods which go down faster, some go slower. A lot of fiber can be problems. So if you eat a lot of vegetables and whole milk products before your run that can be pushing harder, just just make a list of foods which worked better list of foods which workers and and pick from those in your future and future runs. So, be patient and then the success will come.

Isaac Jean-Paul · Answer

I would say just eat less in the morning if you eat less than maybe your stomach, won't bother you as much, or you can also invest in some diapers. Maybe I just playing that diapers. Yeah, just a think about eating less. Eating less is probably going to be your best bet.

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"I can’t make it through my run without a bathroom break. Any advice on how to keep my stomach from making me stop?"