IRON, man!

(I just have to say that I am getting better and better at witty titles for my posts.)

A lot has happened since I last wrote. It is now October and the humidity has lifted and the trees are starting to turn. Fuzzy sweaters, hot oatmeal, scarves, smells of a fireplace burning, a crunching sound beneath my feet as I run. I love Fall. 

The transition into Fall started out fabulously. The first morning the cold front moved in, my running pace easily dropped 1 minute per mile. After training hard during the brutal NC summer months, you almost forget what it feels like to take a full breath. It was exhilarating. 

But a few days before the Blue Ridge Relay, something started feeling not-right. I think I first noticed it on a run where, after about 3 miles, I started feeling lightheaded & nauseous, and my muscles started burning seemingly out of nowhere (on flat terrain.) Also, my heart rate was sky-high for what was supposed to be an easy run. It weirded me out, but I chalked it up to not enough sleep or school stress or something. 

Blue Ridge was a total and complete blast. I still felt a little weird on my runs, but I think the adrenaline of the "race" and the awesome team support helped me to not notice it as much. I ran three longer legs, 22 miles total, in under 24 hours. I'm not sure why I thought that this wouldn't be that hard, because it totally kicked my ass. The climbs were epic, the downhills were excruciating, and the barking dogs in pitch black at 11 PM made me want my mommy. But I would do it again tomorrow, if I could. Loved it. 

But after BRR, things really came to a head. The whole next week I felt an out of shape 84 year old. For serious. By the end of the week, I was worried. Sure, I knew I needed to recover from the race... but I know my body and I know that I recover faster than that. 

So, what does any reasonable, athletic person do when they mysteriously can't perform? They freak out. I googled like crazy, diagnosing myself with the weirdest conditions I could find, like chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, brain cancer, and hypothyroidism. Finally, I came across a condition that I seemed to fit all of the symptoms for: iron-deficiency anemia. 

I called my doctor right away and requested a CBC. The results came back in two days: I was RIGHT! (Thanks Dr. Google!) 

It turns out anemia in endurance athletes is actually quite common. 70% of female college endurance athletes have it at some point in their athletic "careers", and it's not out of the question for men either. In fact, runners in particular are at risk for something called "footstrike anemia", where the RBC's literally get destroyed by the impact of the foot hitting the ground. Crazy, huh?

Anyways, the good news is that it's easily treatable through iron supplementation (and in my case, vitamin B, which also showed up low for me) and it only takes two weeks to stop feeling like complete shiznit (I'm on day 12 now.) The bad news? It can take months to completely rebuild your iron stores. 

So, as if that wasn't enough, I came down with a really craptastic cold virus on Monday and have been sniffly, coughing, and headachy all week.

What's up, body? Are you trying to tell me something? I deferred Marine Corps 'til next year. My next event is the Run at the Rock 14-miler in Burlington, followed by the infamous UWHARRIE 20 in early February. That gives me a couple months to heal up. 

It's frustrating, yes. Especially since I was just starting to feel like I was coming "back". But hey, this is life. I've learned a lot about nutrition over the past year, and this experience has provided me with just a bit more knowledge about how important it is to be super diligent when you're training hard. 

I am in love with running. And it's up to me to take all the challenges I've been dealt in the last 18 months and use them to shape myself into a better, stronger, smarter runner and athlete. 

Trail love.

Z