Woke up yesterday intent on running another 5k along the same route since the first one had gone so well. About 3/4 of the way through, I started having stitches. I tried pushing out my belly while I inhaled but nothing. Perhaps I was doing it wrong or probably not long enough. Either way, I ended up giving in and walking the rest of the way home. 
Rather pitiful ending considering that just seconds before the pain, I was playing around with thoughts of how ‘easy’ this current distance was and how soon I should abandon the 5k in favour of something more ‘challenging.’
Ha. Joke was on me.
I guess this was life’s way of reminding me of my own email signature “… slow down. Live!” Knowing me, I was on the verge of pushing myself to hard too fast and then suffering burnout.
Regardless, I need to figure out how to manage stitches attacks in the future. If I was in a race, I would not fancy missing out on a good finish because of it.
I’m probably going to continue doing a 5k for two more weeks (3 times a week) and THEN decide on a new distance to cover or if I even want to go for a bigger distance. Not a step before. By next week I’m going to start working on times though. I figured my pace was pretty good until I met upon 3 runners going in the opposite direction at about 20 seconds per 100m! I can’t bother to translate that into better math. Feel free to indulge your inner geek if you’d like though. All I know is, them brothers was fast!
One Comment
For the stitch, try pushing your fingers into the muscle that hurts (not too hard of course), while leaning forward a little, that usually helps me. Good luck with your running.