Ran 16 miles and had a horrible experience after - why did this happen?

[RUNFORLOVE]

Today I ran 16 miles 2hrs 40 mins.
? I had a lie in until 9am, ate two weetabix for breakfast, bacon sandwich, herbal tea, banana and water.
? I warmed up by skipping then stretching, bought myself a Lucozade Sport drink (I can only drink half as they make me feel sick)
? I also had a full sports bottle of water which I carry on my waist.
? 10 miles in I was starving and I had hunger cramps
? My muscles were seizing up about 12 miles and I had to work my way through each stride visualising them relaxing one by one
? I felt slightly dizzy and queasy during the last mile and in pain. I didn?t feel like this with other runs except one where I had a small breakfast.
? When I got home, I felt so sick, I tried to drink a goodness shake but I just don?t like them.
? I drank more water, stretched, ate a banana and got in a bath not too hot. I almost fell asleep I was so tired
? When I got out I felt awful and struggled to eat brown rice, tinned makeral, spring onions and carrots.
? My vision started to go really odd and when I looked at my partner I could not see all of his face and it looked slightly distorted. In the top left of my vision were starry shapes. This made me feel anxious and so I went for a lie down. I could not sleep but just rested for a couple of hours and basically just felt dreadful.
? Why do think I felt this bad? My sister suggested I was dehydrated. I know I had enough fluids when running and maybe not enough beforehand but there is only so much you can drink when you wake in the morning, have breakfast, wait for the food to go down and go.

I know I drink enough because my urine is clear and today I had to stop twice to do a quick wee.

What do you think is the best time to do your long run, what would you eat for your breakfast on that day? How much water would you drink before?

Now I am anxious about my long run next Sunday and there is no way I want to feel like that.

I would appreciate to hear what you think.

Many thanks

hi fishie

how many eggs can you eat a week?

last week one day I made myseld an omlette, used two eggs with potatoes, tomatoes, spring onions, courgette and mushrooms, and another day I had two poached eggs on toast.

one friend said one a week? is that right?

i only buy wholemeal,

i've tried to make myself like porridge but the best i can do is ready brek, is that still good? it doesnt have any rubbish in it but not sure if it does the same job as porridge.

FairLadyRantALot - thank you

I am chuffed that I ran that far but I have a long way to go yet!

I can't stand hot/cooked porridge - try soaking the oats overnight in milk and adding yogurt to it, add a banana or two and some blueberrys or fruit cocktail, prunes and eat it raw. Or eat raw and add greek yogurt and honey.

You can eat two eggs a week without a problem.

Wow on the running, good for you. Don't let it put you off.

Wholemeal pasta and pasta sauce with pilchards is one of my before long cycle ride meals (40-50miles). I just used tinned pilchards and add them to the tommy sauce instead of mince meat.

I have a big bowl of museli (sainbury own) before I ride with yogurt and fruit and take a wholemeal (home made bread) honey sandwich with me for the ride, I cut it into four and eat a quarter at a time.

16 miles sound a rather long way to me already

One egg a day is absolutely fine. They are a great food that have been unfairly maligned.

Ivykaty44 - thank you, great tips there!!!

I've never eaten pilchards. I like tinned sardines and mackeral, do they taste similar to one of those?

Wow - i love they way you talk in such a relaxed manner,
"holemeal pasta and pasta sauce with pilchards is one of my before long cycle ride meals (40-50miles)."

Thats amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I done London to Brighton bike ride and didnt know I was pregnant with my oldest dd, but it was very early!

I know nothing about running or anything else on this thread but I do know that it has just been proven that lnking eggs to high cholesterol is a load of hooey. They are now saying that, provided you eat a fairly normal diet, there is no reason to limit the number of eggs you eat apart from the rather "binding" effect they can have

Look it takes me an hour and a quarter to run 9km so I am very impressed with your running!!!!

Pilchards - I think are larger sardines? Pilchards taste preety much the same as sardines anyhow and in the tommy sauce you really will not notice the difference - good oily fish and protien though.

I did the L2B last year and back in 1982!

You just need to listen to your body. If it's struggling, stop and rest.

Going to go buy some pilchards tomorrow.

and KingCanuteIAm - thanks for that! That explains things

Thanks everyone - GOOD NIGHT!

I'M WRECKED

Great thread, I'm reading with interest! Doing a half marathon in three weeks.
I find it easier to run later in the day rather than earlier. Hills do me no favours either!
For a breakfast run I have weetabix or porrige and a banana and try to drink more in the day before i go out.

Be carefull how much water you drink. You can die from drinking too much water as it dilutes your blood and leaches out all the salts.
I think you drank TOO much water! And too much to eat.
Marathon runners usually have a great big carbohydrate pig out the night before and something light on the day of the run.#
Just take it easy.

The visual thing with the starry shapes is classic migraine.

You sound like you are increasing your milage too much too quickly.

Perhaps look at increasing by half a mile a week only, instead of 2 miles... which is way too much if you only started running last october.

Are you in a running club? If not, think of joining one. Pick one that has a good number of coaches who also run with you and advise you as you go.

Thanks.

My running club runs on nights I cant go - pain!

Ripeberry - I didnt drink that much, in 2 hrs 40mins I had half a bottle of lucozade sport and a sports bottle of water.

I going to repeat my last two weeks to give my body a chance to catch up.

I was naughty and skipped a few short runs in the last month so that prob had an effect too. Although I also went on runnersworld for advice and a few people said on there that they thought 4 times a week was too intensive and that i should run three times instead.

Never run that far

But when I do my long runs (half that distance ) I go out first thing in the morning, I eat a banana or a digestive biscuit before I start. Nothing more.

Is this the sort of distance you usually run?

No - I'm training for the marathon

I'm following a 16 week programme and the most you ever run in it is 18 miles.

When the marathon is over I will stick to 4 - 5miles. I always find the first 3 miles the hardest and after that I start to enjoy the run and lose myself.

I love clearing my mind and thinking about nothing. Its a nice break from college, work, messy house and kids (i LOVE my kids but after a long day of settling debates, answering strange and wonderful questions, negoitating etc. a blank mind is bliss).

Re the drinking, I know a couple of very serious runners, one olympic, who were really helpful when I trained for a half marathon. They both maintained that if you have taken on fluid before a run, you can do a very long run without drinking too much more unless it is hot. They also said don't touch Lucozade! Good luck with it, you are doing really well. (One of these runners used to run marathon distance every day!)

goingslowlyroundthebend - thats interesting.

that lucozade drink does make me feel sick, can you rec a good one?

how much is enough before you run - i'm still confused about that.

thanks

i feel tired just thinking about your friend x

I'm not sure, about how much to drink. Probably depends on your size etc. If I see her I will ask.

Hi - I've only skimmed over all these posts so I apologize in advance (before I get flamed) if I'm repeating anything that anyone has said. I did almost the same thing you did - started running and almost immediately started training for a marathon.

Honestly, I can't recommend it. It's a terrible thing to do to your body. You need at least a year, preferably two years, of solid distance running behind you before you can tolerate the rigours of marathon training. Not only do your muscles have to get strong enough - and I mean get strong enough over time to handle the repeated stress of running that sort of distance (which is different from knocking off one long run every once in a while) but your joints and skeleton also have to build up strength. I'm a health care professional which, in theory, means that I should know what I'm talking about, but like a lot of people who have theoretical knowledge, I didn't think the rules applied to me, and really paid for it in the end.

I had fairly frequent near-hypoglycemic episodes after long runs such as you describe. You burnt up all the sugar in your muscles and then when the carbo burn continued, forced your liver to start converting stored glycogen into glucose so that you could keep running. This happens when a relatively new runner runs excessive distances - it takes time to train your body to be able to utilize fat for energy, and if you only started running last October, your body won't have perfected that skill yet.
You're also putting yourself at risk of iron-deficiency anaemia. Long-distance runners are prone to blood-loss from two sources: one is the gut, when blood is diverted from the gastrointestinal tract to the large muscles of the legs and core. The gut develops pinpoint areas of necrosis (tissue death) from lack of blood supply, which is then exacerbated by tiny amounts of bleeding from the necrotic sites. Over time these tiny amounts of lost blood add up. The other cause of blood loss is what's called "foot strike haemolysis", when the red blood corpuscles whithin the arterioles of the feet actually burst from repeated foot strikes in distance running. Sadly, I speak from experience - I persisted with marathon training despite feeling crappy and ended up anaemic.

I really, really recommend that you shelve your marathon plans for a year or two, and just build up to being able to run fast and comfortable 10K's this year and graduate to half-marathons next year. Again, I say this from experience - I did run my marathon, and did very well, and did myself such injury during the run that I've not run a step since. I ran the Vancouver Marathon in May 2004, so my running career has been over longer than it ever existed.

An ideal protein breakfast before a 10K run would be toast and peanut butter, and cottage cheese with sliced almonds and fruit on it. You should also learn to eat while you're running, raisins or dried apricots or PowerBars (even though they taste like crap). Dried cranberries are good, too. If you plan to persist with long runs it would be good to invest in a Camelbak hydration system, you can carry up to two liters of fluid without really feeling it.

Good luck!!

OP - you post on Runners World, don't you?

JacksmamasLittleBundleOfLOve - I agree with all your post. That's what I meant when I said she was increasing her milage too quickly.

Running is really unhealthy

fucks up your joints long-term

And if it does this with a bit of mismanagement I'd say avoid.

My dh goes running, and he always take a banana and 2 packs of power gel,in addition to water and sports drinks. He "eats" every 30-40 minutes while he is on the go, so to speak