Getting slower and weaker - iron?? (Read 403 times)

 

??

=/= equals "does not equal"

My original statement was that 36 is not "ultra low", meaning it is guaranteed to have an impact.  But each is an individual and it is possible that for some it could have a significant impact.

For me, a reading in the 20s was the difference between 33-odd 10Ks and 2 years with zero progress, and going to sub-32 not long after supplementation and sub-31 within 6 months.

Spaniel,

What did you use as a supplement?  My bloodwork is always a little wonky, but I unfortunately don't have a good baseline draw from a time when I was feeling really good.  I know iron supplementation can be tricky/dangerous...

I use liquid ferrous sulfate.  Typically I order from CVS, though occasionally the pharmacy has it in stock behind the counter.  TMI but I did not have the constipation issues of the pills and the iron came up a lot more quickly.

Iron can be dangerous if it accumulates to high levels.  Pre-menopausal women, for obvious reasons, are less susceptible to getting iron up to dangerous levels.  Men must watch it closer; this is why many men's multivitamins do not contain iron.

With my history of low iron, I'm not concerned.  But I do take a break from supplements every now and again.  I've never tested high, in fact the 100 they say they want people to maintain I have only seen once in testing (around the time I ran all my PRs and felt like a million bucks).

Great information, thanks guys. Yeah,I don't have a good baseline ferritin level from a great running phase either, but I know that at one point (exactly three years ago, actually) I was running 45 min 10ks with a ferritin in the mid 20s, so 36 doesn't seem all that bad to me, despite being a long way from 100. I don't consider that mid-20s number (I think it was 24)  a good baseline because it was after I'd struggled with postpartum low iron, thus the blood test.

Anyway. The problem with liquid supplements is that they turn your teeth black! I took liquid floradix during the aforementioned low iron phase and it does work, but oh man, who can afford the dentist every three weeks??

Floradix also makes iron tablets ("dragees" it says on the label) and I've had good luck with those in the past. No constipation or black poop.

Thanks for for the good wishes, Joann y! The only other supplement I take is vit d.

Modified because accidentally posted before done typing...

Can I ask you what race times you had for which you had that easy pace of 5:30/km go with? Though I don't think you were OT'ing, asking just in case.

@runharrietrun

 OT-ing, haha! No. 10k 45ish, 5k 21ish, 21.1k 1:40-1:45. There are some other people in this thread who have gone for otq's...

 

Interesting that you had the same symptoms with low ferritin, though of course a lot lower than mine. Drinking iron through a straw did not do anything for me, for whatever reason, but At this point I'd gladly go through life with black teeth if I could just have running feel good again.

Well I wouldn't say 5:30/km is a truly easy pace for a 45min 10K but sure not a very hard pace either. I guess if you know from experience that your body can handle that sort of training regime consistently over a long time period then it shouldn't suddenly become OT without any other reason in the background.

What do you mean by otq?

As for use of the drinking straw, I also always made sure all the fluid got into contact only with the throat if that makes sense. So that worked fine.

You can also take iron pills of the kind that do have a lot of elemental iron in them (like 100mg or so), that will work too, just maybe a bit slower in raising your levels. Depends on the person too, how fast it will work.

I hope that's the reason for your problem because this is relatively easy to fix (if you have no real absorption issues)

Oh man, cmon2, total misunderstanding. Sometimes people use OT as an abbreviation for the Olympic trials! That's what I thought you meant, but I just realized you were talking about overtraining. Doh. So otq=Olympic trials qualification.

So yeah, I didn't run literally every single run at 5:30/km pace. First of all it takes me ages to warm up, and also my shorter runs are generally slower jogs. i will say I was getting bored with my routine and wanted to change it up, but then my running ability went south and has yet to return.

having thought about it some more, I think 2 main factors are responsible: 1. I did not realize the physical toll that grief and the associated other complicated emotions were taking on me (I mentioned a bad phase for my family; it was a nightmare.) and 2. Although I know I can't run in the heat and humidity, I would still catch myself pushing a little too hard every so often. I suspect for every time I caught myself doing that, there were many more times when I didn't. So I ran myself into a hole. Now I'm trying to figure it the best way to get out. I might try running with a hr monitor and see how that goes.

Oh man, cmon2, total misunderstanding. Sometimes people use OT as an abbreviation for the Olympic trials! That's what I thought you meant, but I just realized you were talking about overtraining. Doh. So otq=Olympic trials qualification.

 

So yeah, I didn't run literally every single run at 5:30/km pace. First of all it takes me ages to warm up, and also my shorter runs are generally slower jogs. i will say I was getting bored with my routine and wanted to change it up, but then my running ability went south and has yet to return.

 

having thought about it some more, I think 2 main factors are responsible: 1. I did not realize the physical toll that grief and the associated other complicated emotions were taking on me (I mentioned a bad phase for my family; it was a nightmare.) and 2. Although I know I can't run in the heat and humidity, I would still catch myself pushing a little too hard every so often. I suspect for every time I caught myself doing that, there were many more times when I didn't. So I ran myself into a hole. Now I'm trying to figure it the best way to get out. I might try running with a hr monitor and see how that goes.

Hey, sorry for disappearing. I went back to Europe early November and got blood tests done at the same time - I did have iron deficiency, worse than ever... and I'm better now. But I still think there was another factor contributing since my deterioration started so suddenly. Anyway, I think that other factor must be out of the way now too. I'm almost back to normal. Not totally back to my previous good shape yet but almost there.

How are you doing? Did the HRM help? Or something else? I agree the grief could've affected things and I do think the other factor may have included some stress in my case too that I was unaware of the time (I will never know if this is true). Also something must've been different in the USA, weather, food, idk, I've been back in in EU since November and it's all fine. Tho' if it was something with the weather etc in the USA I'm sure I'd have got used to it over time if I had had to stay longer.