[torque]

Pasted from an e-mail from a friend of mine.<br><br><i>I took the advice from an article in Runners World called "The Trots"……<br><br>
Calcium is the great acid neutralizer, and my problem comes at about the 25-30 km mark when a significant amount of lactic acid has been dumped into the gut (since this is the body's fastest way of getting rid of it). I have been taking 500 mg pills of calcium/magnesium 2x per day for the last 3 weeks, because apparently the body needs magnesium to absorb calcium. I am upping my intake to 500 mg 4x per day this week. When I did my 33.7 km run I did not experience any cramping, when normally I would have been doubled over by that point.<br><br>
I am also trying to reduce bread (I can't eliminate it) but I haven't been very disciplined….</i>

 

[Grizzly]

Hmmm. Danke.

 

[sea2sky]

Make sure you drink lots of water with the supplements- extra calcium can cause some fierce constipation!

 

[tigger]

I am not sure the running friend is correct about lactic acid. If running is aerobic I don't think it builds up in the muscles, never mind being dumped in the gut. It acts as a secondary fuel source and I believe it gets metabolized in the muscles. But even if it didn't, how would it wind up in one's gut? It would more likely be swept out of the bloodstream by the liver, as that is the main clensing agent for blood. And the liver would then break it down into reusable components and store them for a rainy day.

 

[fox-runr]

is your friend's email addressing two different issues??<br><br>
I base all my training on "lactic acid as a fuel". There is a point (speed) that your body can't recycle fast enough and that's about the pace you can run for about an hour. So, I too, like Tigger, don't understand how it'd get dumped to your stomach when your muscles want to use it? But I'm not very technically minded.<br><br><br><br><a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-04/uoc--lan041906.php" target="_blank">http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-lan041906.php</a><br><br><br><a href="http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/lactic.htm" target="_blank">http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/lactic.htm</a>