Fed Up

I am fed up. 

What started as some bad Chinese food turned into a week of full-on GI-distress.  I will try not to get into specifics, but basically I was miserable all week.  This morning I went on my weekend long run and cut an 11 mile run down to 6.  Impressive for the wrong reasons.

The abdominal cramps started just before 3.5 miles.  I knew there were porta potties soon and a park about 1/2 mile ahead.  I was hoping to make it to the park and I'd turn around there.  No such luck, I had to stop at a porta potty next to a soccer field about 0.2 miles away.

My pace was fine and I actually felt good other than when my abdomen was cramping.  Kelly was meeting me at mile 7 (now 6 because I cut off 0.5 miles on that leg) and run the last 4 miles with me.  When I got to the park, I had to make another bathroom stop except the porta potty was DISGUSTING and I wouldn't use it.  We walked about 1/2 mile to the next porta potty by a different soccer field.  I told Kelly I just couldn't run.  Running made it worse.  So we walked a mile out and a mile back.

I'm so frustrated and miserable.  I'm not the hypochondriac-googling-WebMD-self diagnosing type, but I have been online trying to find out what the culprit could be.  I have it narrowed down to two choices: gluten sensitivity or irritable bowel syndrome (what a sexy name for a syndrome).

Since there is no real test for either one, and I know I am gluten sensitive in hot weather races, I am going to try going gluten free for two weeks and see how I feel.  And to be perfectly honest, I'd rather have a gluten sensitivity than irritable bowel syndrome (please proceed with the pain in the ass jokes).

Another reason was trying gluten free is my diet from last week.  We typically don't eat much gluten, mostly cereal (I'm a cereal monster).  But this last week:

Sunday night: Chinese food & noodles (may or may not have gluten but definitely put John and I both in the bathroom)
Monday lunch: Chinese leftovers (the GI problems hadn't started before lunch)
Monday night: Whole wheat pasta
Tuesday lunch: Soup
Tuesday dinner: Pasta leftovers
Wed lunch: sub sandwich
Wed dinner: can't remember
Thursday lunch: pasta leftovers
Thursday dinner: black bean burger on bread
Friday lunch: last of the leftovers
Friday dinner: baked ziti

Enough gluten already?  And why did I make pasta on Monday?  We never eat pasta at home.  Some days were better than others, but every evening was painful.  The only time I felt good was in the morning, at least 11 hours after eating last.  By the end of the week, every time I would get abdominal cramps, I'd have to run to the bathroom because I wasn't sure if it was gas or worse.  Either way, I could stay sitting at my desk.  I felt so bad today, that I cancelled going to Dolce with Kelly.  And I love Dolce.

So my gluten-free experiment begins.  I'm hoping that I don't need to cut out all gluten but for the next two weeks I'm going to try.  I want to clear my system and start over.  Hopefully I can go back to cereal and the other minor things, I just may have to avoid wheat-based pasta and bread.  I'm willing to try anything at this point, just to get some relief.