Hey guys, just wondering... why do we get a stitch when we run?! The last 8 or so times that I have been out (and never really in the previosu 4 years), I have been getting a stitch like pain on my right had side just above my hip and in line with my tummy button. It starts pretty much instantly and gets worse as I run downhill. I have never had this so consistently (obviously I get the occassional stitch). It's fine running on a flat and uphill, it actually starts to go away and then as soon as I go downhill it starts again.
It wouldn't bother me if it it was just sore but it affects my breathing too which is annoying. I have tried stretching it out etc but the only thing that stops the pain is if I push on the area (whch is inconvenient for 10 miles ) ...
I have tried changing what/when I eat and drink as I have heard stitches can be due to digestion...
Does anyone have any ideas or any great ways of getting rid of a stitch when one arrises? I have always been scared of getting one during a race as I don't know how to get rid of them quickly!!!
Feel like such a hypocrite as, being a PE teacher, I always shout at the kids telling them to run through a stitch and it will go away...oooops
Thanks
Comments
I get this... Quite often at 6-7k mark in 10k races. But it's a lot to do with my link between rapid breathing when I push the pace (due to a lack of speed work in training). Do you breathe with diaphragm or chest?
Hi Mark ... I don't think it's to do with breathing just because it literally starts as soon as I start running and I only have a problem with my breathing when the stitch gets so sore that it hurts to breathe in... I think my breathing is pretty good as have dine work on this in the past, but I may be very wrong...
Just frustrating!!!
Maybe warm up on flat before any hills as when you go down hills your abdomen is getting stretched
do you start off nice and slow and warm up for a mile before running faster
I reduce pace and exhale completely - literally forcing every molecule of air out of my lungs - then take a few short breaths and the stitch disappears. Works every time for me. I find so long as my breathing is controlled I don't really get them that often.
Thanks guys that is really interesting advice - I like the exhalation and short breaths idea Bergy, never heard of that before. And I did not even thing about my Abdomen being stretched so that's another thing to think about
Seren, not really to be honest, well in a way as on one of the trails with a good hill, the hill is pretty much at the start. To be perfectly honest, I never really warm up unless I am going to do speed work andd even then, it definitely wouldn't be for a mile which I know is probably terrible. I just do a few mins slow then get straight into it. Usually do speed wrk on a flatter surface though so don't have the downhill stitch problem... Anyway, thanks for all the advice.
Bergy, that method hints of experience, any decent races?
🙂
Not really much to brag about Ric mate, seven full marathons and good few 5 and 10k's in six years of running. Looking to step up a significant gear as I'd really like to do MdS one day. I found this technique out quite by accident; i've no idea of why it works but I can say, hand on heart, that it works for me 100% of the time. Maybe I should have patented it? Can you patent a method?!
I read in runners world that if you breath even 2 steps in 2 steps out your diaphragm is always at bottom when the same foot ie same side of body hit ground as you exhale.
If you breathe odd which I find difficult then the diaphragm is at bottom on alternate sides. Just a thought. www.oldmarathonrunner.co.uk
Too much water or insufficient recovery run following a hard session causing an imbalance in your body chemistry during a hard session.
Do not underestimate the distance requirement of a recovery run.
Historical evidence has provided data that underpins the need for a 3.5 mile recovery run following a hard session covering, in total, just one mile before the body's blood ph returns to manageable level.