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Crazy how this thread just became active after 4 years of inactivity. I have never had issues with my digestion. If anything, it worked too good. Keeping me lean, with 2 precisely timed occurrences daily, after taking my first sip of coffee, and 10 minutes before getting on the bike/ running/ gym.
During my last vacation, I’ve had Diarrhea which was annoying as hell. Probably some flu, right?
After 2 weeks, I started having blood in the stool as well. Fk.
Came back from vacation, had a colonoscopy, results came back: “pretty likely it’s UC”. Had this call literally an hour ago - hence I might be a little too emotional for my own good.
My sister-in-law has suffered from the disease for many years now, taking a significant toll on her quality of life.
My doctor is very positive about things, saying there is no reason to think this will be a bad course of the disease, and he has many patients who only had one flare up (is that even the word?) and never struggled with the disease ever again.
Idk, I am a little lost right now and worried to be honest. It’s really easy to feel sorry for oneself.
Just my story that doesn’t add anything to the discussion. Just needed to share with someone 
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Wish you well. As much as you have to deal with the physical aspects the mental part is just as challenging. It takes time to accept and to learn what you are dealing with.
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Crohns here.
I began training for an ironman about 6 years ago at roughly age 28. Was about 2 months in and ended up at the hospital with a bowel blockage. Diagnosed with Crohns and dr told me probably no more heavy endurance training as it would cause too much additional stress/inflammation. Looking back, I had numerous other blockages over the years but just thought I had bad gas and/or kidney stones and brushed it off. I raced bikes up to cat 2 level prior to this, closer to college.
A couple years later and stable on Remicade infusions, I decided to start exercising more again. And that spawned into trying to do an Ironman again, because I always escalate things. Well, 2 years of training and I did a 10:05 Ironman last year.
It’s hard for me to tell what is crohns and what is other issues with my body. For me, I have osteopenia meaning weak bones. There is supposedly correlation of this and crohns (and/or medication caused). That made it hard to train for an Ironman because I had 3 stress fractures during training. Additionally, I get constant inflammation injuries. I basically have some sort of niggle tendonitis constantly but at minimum once a month something flares up for about 4 weeks. I’ve noticed this happens very closely I’d estimate plus or minus one week to my infusions, which seems suspicious. But I also had this same type of sensitivity to injury before I was diagnosed and on meds.
And contrary to others in this thread, I eat like pure sugar and processed food. As of late I have actually been trying to increase my vegetables, nuts, granola, etc intake because I’ve also been reading about the gut bacteria. But it’s been destroying my stomach. The plain diet works way better for me.
I’ve never really had gut issues while training, I did 110-120g of carbohydrate in the Ironman and frequently train at 90-100g. I also never have bathroom emergencies like I read from a lot of people, even non-crohns people with running. I usually am more on the solid side because of the processed food which likely helps.
6 years on Remicade (or inflectra) and no blockages, hospital visits, etc. last 3 years I’ve averaged about 10hr a week of training, with some weeks at 18+. Training doesn’t seem to make it worse or better as I’ve been stable the whole time minus the past couple weeks of me messing with trying different foods. Performance wise I don’t think it’s held me back. Maybe if it is causing the inflammation niggles I could have trained harder (and if so it’s definitely prevented run training but less so affected biking). Maybe I’m not properly absorbing what I’m eating which may hurt recovery/adaptation. But it may also be why I’m so lean/low weight. Fwiw, I also have high functioning autism/asperghers. I only mention that because research shows it happens to have high average population with uc/crohns. That specifically has just made me addicted to training which probably has helped.
Overall, my guess is I don’t think it’s had much of an effect on my training at all minus me quitting for a bit after the initial diagnosis. Cross my fingers it stays that way. Hope all you others that also have it are getting by without many issues! Best of luck to all!
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Hopefully you see my post and see life can be OK with IBD. When I was in the hospital it was so frustrating however it’s actually been even better for me since diagnosis, I assume because of the meds. I also haven’t had many digestion issues throughout my life, but had these intense stomach pain episodes maybe once a year which I’ve learned were bowel blockages. Luckily they all passed on their own as I know many others that were not so lucky. I also had bloody stool off and on my whole life. I remember mentioning it to my mom and she blamed it on cycling and the long hours on the bike lol!
I’d love to be off meds, I hate being reliant on them, but I can’t argue with the stability I’ve had. Worth a discussion with your dr to see if it’d help. Feel free to pm if you need someone to chat with.
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My GI didnt like me running. This was brought up again after my second resection by the surgeon.
This is what started me to get back to riding a bike.
My Doc said I should have a maximum of 3 stools a day and they should be „shaped“.
If I have one particular strength, I’d say it is forgetting about the condition of my stool - I guess it makes sense to not use too much brain storage for that.
My stool is not solid (shaped) - and I do not remember if it ever has been. Certainly hasn’t for a couple of years. Today I burned 3,500 calories during activity. Do the same „3 a day“ rules pertain for this as well?
What is your experience? I am obviously also consulting with my doctor, but want to hear from other athletes.
Everyone is different. For me I’m on the opposite side of the spectrum. Always formed, hard. 1 time every 1-2 days. Even with 6k calorie days training hard. If mine is loose something is wrong. I eat very little fiber in my diet which I assume plays into this at least a little.
I would assume the 3 a day rule is more a function of not being in a flare. I am in a flare and that number may get me through the first hour of the day.