↓ in Iron = ↓ in Performance

Last Wednesday I finally went to see Dr. Karrh. For awhile now I've noticed an extra level of difficulty in my workouts and even on easy runs. I thought it was weird because my mileage hasn't been very high either. So two things came to mind, either my asthma meds needed some adjustment (since I was have a VERY difficult time breathing during workouts) or my iron level was low.

So at 4:00PM on Wednesday I got 2 1/2 tubes filled with my lovely blood and waited. Luckily Dr. Karrh works faster than any doctor I know and called me the very next morning at 10:00AM with results! Now that's fast. He checked three different things...my hemoglobin level, my ferritin level, and my thyroid level. Hemoglobin was 14, normal, and my thyroid level was normal too. However, my ferritin level was 8! Crazy low. So he put me on prescription iron supplements and told me it'd take about 2 weeks for them to really take effect.

This was honestly the best diagnosis I could've asked for. Iron deficiency is one of the easiest things to fix instead of attemping to get a new cocktail of asthma meds or whatever else could've been wrong with me. It explains so much with how training has been going and racing.

So how could I have possibly been so iron deficient? No, I am not a vegetarian..I LOVE MEAT, I EAT MEAT, and I CRAVE MEAT. Well here are some things I've learned over the past week that prohibited my iron absorption.

1. Ground Beef is not a good source of iron since it's so well cooked. Unfortunate because I have lots of meals with ground beef. LAME!

2. Caffeine inhibits iron absorption. So all those meals that I wanted some delicious Dr.Pepper to wash down all that good wholesome iron with was no bueno. Also my consumption of coffee has increased over the past year. Having a cup a day in the morning, either with my second breakfast or right after turned out to be a bad idea too.

3. Calcium and iron cancel each other out. So keeping those two separated is important. Having queso at a lot of great restaurants right before eating my amazing steak or chicken was not a good idea.

4. Iron is best absorbed with orange juice (rich in vitamin-c), but obviously avoid the oj with calcium.

I wish I would've known these things prior to my iron level taking a toll on my running performance, but I found out the hard way. Luckily it was soon enough before my hemoglobin levels dropped too much leading to anemia or to me developing a serious injury.

This whole process has gotten me really excited about the future. I wasn't terribly pleased with my recent race performances, but the fact that I still hit the times I did with a seriously low ferritin level lets me know that I'm in great shape and will hopefully get back on track before the weather really starts heating up!