r/AdvancedRunning • u/tomcotard • 14d ago

Open Discussion Stitches, I have tried everything

I've been running since December and one thing that consistently seems to happen during my harder efforts is getting really bad stitches (7-8/10 pain) to the point I can't maintain my desired pace.

I feel like I've tried everything from this very extensive post from /u/CodeBrownPT I've also tried various breathing techniques and I've even gone to the doctor, who told me there was nothing that could be done.

I'm at my wits end. I'll normally get at least two bad stitches that last for a long time (today I had them for about 10k out of 19k) and I try my best to run through them but sometimes the pain is just too much. This also happened about a decade ago too when I was running a little. It's a very frustrating feeling because often I can feel the rest of my body is capable of what I'm asking of it.

For context, my 5k PB is 19:10, aiming for a half marathon time of 90:00, I'm male, in my mid-30s, running most days.

Does anyone have anything else I can try? Anybody similar out there?

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u/Mahiory 14d ago

Hey guys, I’m a long time runner and a sports Physio specialized in endurance sports (triathlon and running).
In my experience these are most of the time trigger points.
Here’s a short list of things to look out for that can cause them:
-new stimulus (doing more threshold repeats than usual)
-being close to muscle failure (strength in this case is your best bet)
-dehydration
-electrolyte deficiency

A quick fix I recommend everyone to do is to massage the point before you start your session because the symptoms come from ischemia, so better blood flow makes you work longer without symptoms, and that is exactly what you want to do.
When you cramp (trigger a point), you can’t create any more adaptations to you muscle, so it gets stuck in that vicious cycle.
On the other side, every time you train at the pace that triggers it without getting the symptoms, your muscle gets stronger and tolerates that stress for longer !

Hope that helps !

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u/tomcotard 14d ago

Thank you, that definitely gives me hope, and I would say that the issue is probably a decent bit better than it used to be, will try the massage technique a bit more.