Monday, March 25, 2013

Marathon Training is Kicking my Butt

Yesterday afternoon around 4pm I got knocked of my feet with a stomach flu. I was at the grocery store and started to feel nauseous. By the time I got home, I was so weak I had to lay down before I put my groceries away. I then was in bed from 5pm to 7:30am dealing with all of the joyous symptoms of the stomach flu. Today, I have been drinking orange juice and watching Hulu, hoping to feel better tomorrow.

But this made me curious, because on February 7 (my 30th birthday) I also got the stomach flu. This one is a little worse for various reasons. But for me it's extremely rare to get the stomach flu and even more rare to get the stomach flu twice in a 6 week period. So I had to ask myself...what changed?

Marathon training.

This is the only thing I can pinpoint that is different in this season of my life. I immediately started googling long runs and flu and found something interesting, the low twitch muscle fibers that you use when running long distances (like 13.1 miles) are the same low twitch muscle fibers used to ward off illness. I read article after article about the importance of eating lots of vitamin C the day before and the day of your long run. Not to mention, the importance of rest right after your long run.

So, two stomach flu's later I have learned my lesson..Vitamin C anyone?

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