UKC

This weekend I competed in the Redbull Steeple chase, ended up going through to the third round which meant I ran 19 miles, with about 1400 meters of climbing. Ouch. I'm used to both that sort of distance, and that much ascent per mile. However, my usual runs/fell races with that climb ratio is normally about 8 miles, not 19. So as anticipated I had pretty bad DOMS Monday, Tuesday and mildy yesterday. Much penguin-walking was done.

One thing that stood out to me was that my weight increased by tuesday by as much as 2kg, but this morning had returned to mostly normal. I weigh everyday just to monitor hydration, and record this on a chart once a week using the usual rules (same time, same day, same clothes...)so have a pretty good idea on what is normal and not. I've also noticed this temporary weight gain in the past when doing long runs, 18 miles or more, in preperation for the edn marathon in May.

My questions are, does the incidence of DOMS typically increase body weight? and if yes, is this because of the retained lactice acid, water retention, or something along those lines? Really interested in other peoples experiences.

In reply to Voltemands: http://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00007256-200333020-00005

In reply to chrisbaggy: The Inflammation theory of DOMS would explain some weight gain in extracellular fluid to help the repair process along with increse blood supply etc, Wether this is sufficient for 2kg increase is up for discussion.

Another hypothesis could be that your body is still hydrated from the race in order to do the above and flush out all of the toxins etc produced during the race.

In reply to Voltemands:

I notice that after big efforts I retain liquid. Right after an ultra I am usually down a couple of kilos, until I have eaten and rehydrated properly, but than for 2 or 3 days I weight about 2kg more than normal and have visibly swollen legs. Then I usually spend a day peeing a lot and everything goes back to normal.

In reply to Voltemands: Thanks for the information, very interesting. Sounds like I'm at least not the only person it happens too.

In reply to Voltemands: yeah I always put on weight afetr an ultra.. just inflammation, water retention.. a week later and I'm normally a tad lighter.