Several people have been harping me for information about my blood work. This is the internet so I'm not going to go into great detail about my medical history. Even though I'm certain that the facebook and the google know just about everything about me, they don't know about my blood....until NOW!
Some background: I've been a vegetarian for 9 years and I've been running long distances for 4 and involved in some sort of endurance type sports for 6 or 7 years. My performance was continually improving up until last September when I ran Wasatch. Although my time there was good and I was happy with my finish, I really struggled the last half of the race. At mile 45 I started throwing up and from there until the end was very tough to keep any food down. I figured that I was salt deficient since my salt tabs got stuck in the tube I was carrying them in and wasn't able to get much salt at the aid stations.
Fast forward to Red Hot 55K this February. I ran a 1/2 marathon the week before and had a little trouble recovering from that (which I thought was odd, but I don't normally run "fast") so I brushed it off. My race went along fine until mile 22 or so and then my energy levels plummeted. I couldn't eat much after the race and starting throwing up after. Since I got sick after the race and didn't feel 'right' for a few days after I assumed I had come down with a bug.
Jemez 50M was last month. I thought I was in good shape. I had done my training and was ready to race. I had a plan,:the right amount of salt, the right calories and then it all blew up around mile 33 or 34. I started throwing up and then took my time to finish. boo hoo.
Given that this was the third race where I felt like I had sub-par performances, I decided to have some blood work done. Low and behold my blood does have the micro-nutrients it should have. I'm deficient in ferritin (although I'm not technically anemic, I'm below the level I should be for a runner) and vitamin B12.
Now you're probably saying to yourself, "Steve's an idiot. How could he not have known that?" My response: I never said I wasn't an idiot.
But in all seriousness, I've been fatigued and I haven't really felt like I'm recovering like I used to. But even though I recognized that I was fatigued, I chalked it up to intense training blocs, work stress and the like.
I'm now aware of what might have been the problem. I don't think this accounts entirely for my performances and I'm not looking to make any excuses for my performances. I believe it is still entirely possible that the simplest answer here might be the best: I'm just a shitty runner. But I'd like to believe there is more to the story. For that reason I've started taking a bunch of vitamins that will hopefully give me superhuman (and by that I mean just normal) blood levels.
My next race is just a few weeks away - Black Hills 100 is June 23rd. I'm a bit worried about how I'll fare out there. I don't know if I'm doing enough to help my blood...but we'll see. Wish me luck!
Sorry about the boring post. I'm coming to realize this is a pretty boring blog. I'll try to make the next post sexy.