Lesson Learned: Watch What You Eat!

I think that everyone pretty much knows about eating healthy foods and avoiding junk.  This post isn't about that topic, although I may eventually get around to talking about my diet and weight loss experience. 

What this post is about, is anticipating the effects of your diet choices on your training and possibly race performance.

And I'd like to illustrate this Lesson Learned through a story of what I went through today.

Last night, I went out for dinner with friends to the Liberty Tavern in Arlington, VA.  It's a nice restaurant and got high marks for the food from everyone at the table.  Throughout the meal, I enjoyed some of their various cheeses, sour cream topped potatos (certainly a cheat meal!), and a parfait made with some coconut sorbet and some creme anglais.

I'll be honest, I thought the parfait was going to have yogurt and granola in it... sorta like the ones that you can pick up at a corner market or a McD's.  I was NOT expecting creme anglais.  What's creme anglais?  Why, it's cream, egg yolks, vanilla and sugar!

Did I mention that I'm lactose intolerant?

Yeah...

Well, to my gastrointestinal strength, I had no issues last night and no issues this morning as I prepped for my 10 mile run. 

Yay!

However...(and you can probably see where this is going) at around mile 4.5, right after a quick pee stop behind some trees, I was hit with this unimaginable pain in my gut, as if someon had just stuck a knife into my abdomen.  Well, not literally, of course, but, at least what I would imagine getting stabbed in the gun would feel like.  It was bad and I came to a complete stop and doubled over in pain.  It would take me a minute or two to figure out what the pain was from and the realization that relief from this type of pain usually involves a porcelain throne was disheartening as I was 4.5 miles from home, no port-a-potty in sight and rapidly losing body heat from standing around and not actually running.  it was not a good situation at all and I even contemplated calling a friend to come pick me up.

Luckily, I was able to regain my composure and complete my run, albiet a bit slower than expected due to the massive strength needed to keep my rear end clenched.  Further, I only had one reoccurence of the searing gut pain just half a mile from home, which was thankfully short lived.

While I do carry paper towels with me while I run in case of emergency (whatever emergency that might be), anticipating possible issues is incredibly important, especially if youre one, four or however many miles from home.

Your brain.  Don't leave home without it.