The returning stitch

It's easy to pinpoint the most painful part of running right now. The stitch is back. Actually it's more of a sharp muscle cramp in my abs, kinda like an ice pick poking me in the stomach. This is not the first time I've suffered through this. I remember that it happened in a 5k. Something always happens to me in that particular 5k, whether it's the stitch or a pitstop in the middle of the course. The first time it happened, the only relief came from massaging it so deeply that I left bruises up and down my stomach. I learned later when it returned during college track meets that doing a few crunches then stretching beforehand seemed to help. So I'm trying all of these techniques, and in the meantime I still have something on which to blame my super slow speeds. 

Since my first race will probably be a sprint triathlon with a 3.5 mile brutal trail run (I had to walk a few parts last year), I have started doing some pickups. And I'm wearing the garmin so I know exactly how sad these attempts at speed are. I had run a few miles with the stroller one morning, so went out for just a couple miles of faster paced running that evening. I was excited at my speed until I really processed that I had just run 2 miles at a speed I've run a few Ironman marathons. But I'm getting faster, or my intervals are just shorter and more downhill. Mostly the latter. I'm now doing 30 second pickups at my old half marathon speed (must stop the comparisons!). Going downhill helps my confidence and stitch pain, so I may start walking the first half until I get to the top of the hill. 

While it's always fun looking at my fastest speed of the workout, I'm not sure the garmin always tells me the truth. I think back to that bike ride I did where apparently I surpassed the speed of sound by 1000 mph or so. And this was on a mountain bike. Must've been during a fall.