r/AdvancedRunning

I’ve been running regularly for 10+ years but for the past few months I’ve developed what feels like a recurring stitch directly underneath my bottom right rib (and sometimes I feel a similar sensation on my left side).

It usually comes on within about 10 minutes of running. Sometimes it becomes a proper painful stitch and I have to stop, but quite often it’s more like the beginning of a stitch that never fully develops.

It feels like I’ve tried everything! I always run fasted, and I don’t drink too much water before running. I’m now working on strengthening my core.

Has anyone experienced this? Its stressed me out so much that I don’t even want to run anymore.

What's everyone up to on this weekend? Racing? Long run? Movie date? Playing with Fido? Talk about that here!

As always, be safe, train smart, and have a great weekend!

How often do you incorporate hill repeats in your training, and what do they look like? Have you found certain protocols more effective? What is the "advanced running" consensus on this?

Night shift has me running at weird hours and I'm trying to figure out if anyone else has cracked this. Three 12hour nights a week, and my sleep basically falls into two categories: postshift zombie sleep and normalish human sleep on off days. The problem is my body has no idea which mode it's in when I lace up.

My easy pace on postshift runs feels about 30 to 45 seconds per mile harder than the same effort on off days. Heart rate climbs faster, legs feel heavy, and anything resembling a quality workout is kind of a joke. I've mostly given up on doing workouts within 24 hours of finishing a shift, but that limits me to three real training days a week if I'm being strict about it.

Curious how others working nonstandard hours structure their weeks around this. Do you just accept the degraded sessions and run them anyway, treating them as extra easy aerobic work? Or do you fully protect your workout days and let the shift days be pure junk miles or rest?

I'm at about 40 miles a week right now, building toward a fall half. My PRs are nothing impressive, but I'm genuinely trying to improve the structure here, not just whiteknuckle my way through the training block.

https://www.nyrr.org/media-center/press-release/2026_0819_tcsnycmprofield

2026 TCS New York City Marathon Women's Open Division

2026 TCS New Yok City Marathon Men's Open Division

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*Edit:Male/26/6'1/80ishKG/ I'm trying to run a 3:09 this year, after previously running 3:16 for my 1st marathon & blowing up in in the 2nd. Which i probably should of DNF'd, but just about managed 3:59..for the 3:59 race, i was extremely dissapointed & angry when i fell off pace(1st 2 miles were fine, then the heat/humidity got me & couldn't keep down fuel or water, threw up, alot of run/walking, but happy i came away with the sub-4.

I 've been trying to average 75-85mpw & try to do more strength training which i'm still trying to figure out & keep it to hard days to help manage overall fatigue better. Also not caring about bodyweight anymore & trying to fuel as much as possible.

I just wanna know, was there a point in you marathon journey where something clicked for you?? Maybe it was taking it less seriously or slightly more seriously? Running with people instead of doing all your training alone?

Because the way i'm starting to think about it is "I don't have to do this, i get to do this"..idk, maybe that's too deep for a wednesday afternoon post😂

Hope everyone doing good & enjoying training

currently doing:

4 mi flat + 10 min swim
3.2 mi 750 ft elevation + 10 min swim
3.2 mi 750 ft elevation + 10 min swim
rest + 10 min swim
5 mi 1000 ft elevation + 10 min swim
5 mi 1000 ft elevation + 10 min swim
4 mi flat + 10 min swim

how should i move up from here? should i maintain for a bit?

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We have quite a bit of info in the wiki, FAQ, and past posts. Please be sure to give those a look for info on your topic.

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Maybe it's different elsewhere in the country, but in New England it has metastasized and become a cancer in local racing. Every poster, every race shirt, every medal looks like shit and looks identical. It has reached the point where there are local races I've been doing for almost a decade that I've just given up on. It's embarrassing to the running community.

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I am a high school XC and track coach. My athletes get PE credit for participating in the sport, so in addition to coaching I need to have a system for grading. But I’ve run into issues when athletes have long-term injuries (last year I had a kid with a broken toe and another with a broken wrist).

My solution is to have them read about endurance training and perhaps do some writing so they can still earn credit. My question is what book recommendations do you have? Ideally the reading level would be around high school.

Running this morning before the family road trip and I only got 4 miles in before we had to pack up and leave. It did make me ponder at what point is a short run negligible?

Obviously depending on the mileage but I typically run around 40-45 miles/week and 4 miles feels like ‘something’ the day after a long run but kinda useless in isolation. 3 miles feels like it’s not worth getting sweaty for and 2 miles just doesn’t count.

Or does it? What is your experience with short runs and, if any, training impact?

So I took over as a MS/HS CC coach for a small team/school at the end of last school year. Was not able to get a summer training thing going but I know most of the kids. They'll work hard. That said, we start practice today and have a meet next Thursday. I'm curious how other coaches/runners would handle training in this situation or if they have any experience with it. Doing a crash course base training, basically. Ideally the kids would have been doing base training runs all summer and then we'd start ramping with more tempo/speed workouts. But I won't really know where everyone is at until practice starts. So I'm trying to find a middle ground of base training but also getting them ready to race as the season goes on.

My general idea is mostly doing 30-40 minute easy/conversational training runs most of the time with 2 fartlek type runs. Probably both Tuesdays. Leave this Wednesday as a recovery/strength day and see where everyone is at. Seem reasonable? Not worrying about results for a bit. Assuming I should hold off on sprint stuff for a little bit. Meets will be speed/tempo workouts. Thanks!

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I've been running since December and one thing that consistently seems to happen during my harder efforts is getting really bad stitches (7-8/10 pain) to the point I can't maintain my desired pace.

I feel like I've tried everything from this very extensive post from /u/CodeBrownPT I've also tried various breathing techniques and I've even gone to the doctor, who told me there was nothing that could be done.

I'm at my wits end. I'll normally get at least two bad stitches that last for a long time (today I had them for about 10k out of 19k) and I try my best to run through them but sometimes the pain is just too much. This also happened about a decade ago too when I was running a little. It's a very frustrating feeling because often I can feel the rest of my body is capable of what I'm asking of it.

For context, my 5k PB is 19:10, aiming for a half marathon time of 90:00, I'm male, in my mid-30s, running most days.

Does anyone have anything else I can try? Anybody similar out there?

A place to ask questions that don't need their own thread here or just chat a bit.

We have quite a bit of info in the wiki, FAQ, and past posts. Please be sure to give those a look for info on your topic.

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https://preview.redd.it/r4ybtkkve5jh1.png?width=890&format=png&auto=webp&s=66ce6724e6350a8c0cef98d4e3f8b03204f41a2a

Hi r/AdvancedRunning, I’m Hellen Obiri. I’m a four-time World Marathon Major Champion, a mother, and an On athlete. Ask me anything! 

Want to learn about my race-day mindset or my current shoe rotation? Let me know your questions, and I’ll try to answer as many as I can! 

I’ll be here on August 20, 2026.