Hi all, long time reader and first time poster. I'm reaching out to see if anyone might share their thoughts or experiences with recovery time from their first long races. I ran my first 50 K trail race back on March 5, and now more than 6 weeks out I can still barely get through 3-4 easy miles and am starting to get frustrated. The race was difficult and I was not as prepared as I could have been, my mileage during raining kept yo-yo-ing until I learned to sloooow down for most of my runs, but I averaged 35-45 miles per week for about 4 months prior. But still, I don't think it was significantly harder than any difficult marathon I've done in the past, and based on experience with those, I expected to feel at least close to normal, even if not 100% recovered, by one month afterward.

After the race, I took one week completely off, then did an easy 2-miler, then took the next 10 days off while I was on a trip to Puerto Rico. I was active the whole trip, with a lot of hiking/walking plus snorkeling, but it all felt manageable at the time. I resumed running when I returned, 2-3 slow miles roughly every other day, and have essentially not been able to progress beyond that and have felt more or less the same throughout that time. I also get sore easily - my glutes got sore one day from gardening and stayed sore for 5 days! And they're now sore again from a bit of yoga I did a few days ago.

Suspecting iron deficiency anemia as a possible culprit of such slow recovery, I got a series of blood tests and consulted with a quick care physician today. The only results of note were slightly high hematocrit (48) and hemoglobin (15.0), though my doctor did not seem to think that was cause for concern in an endurance athlete. Ferritin levels are marginal (20), I don't know if that could have such an effect though without any associated anemia. Everything else was smack dab in the middle of normal, and my doctor didn't have much to offer, other than waiting a few more weeks to see, or to check with a cardiologist.

Maybe I'm just getting impatient and my body is just slow to recover from such an ordeal. I don't know if I should keep running this low mileage or stop entirely for a few more weeks, and I don't know if low ferritin could be contributing to delayed recovery. I do think I've always been a slow/low responder to training. FWIW I am female, 40 years old, have been running since age 12 and running marathons off and on since age 22, though this was my first race greater than 13 miles in about 8 years. I've been getting plenty of sleep most nights this whole time. Does anybody here have thoughts, suggestions, or similar experiences? Thanks in advance.

How frustrating! Have you replaced your shoes? I don't know if you track mileage on your shoes, but worn out shoes can definitely leave you feeling beaten up.

I had the same low ferritin experience and taking iron made a huge difference. My ferritin was 18 when I had it checked in my late 40s -- my hemoglobin and hematacrit were low-ish, but not signficantly abnormal. (probably not your issue but I was also recently diagnosed with asthma, which I've probably had for 5-6 years at least.  It seemed like the more I ran, the slower I got.  I didn't realize what felt to me like just being in not-great shape was actually asthma.  The difference now that I'm treated is remarkable and similar to my earlier experience of repleting my iron stores.  Throwing that out in case you feel like your chest is heavy.  I often didn't describe it that way, I'd just say I felt sluggish and slow).

 

Low ferritin dramatically affected my running and I dealt with it on a chronic basis for several years, partly because my doc would say "ok, now you're in the *normal* range, so stop with the iron supp." I'd do that and it would tank again. The low end of *normal* won't do for an athlete.

This. Even post-menopause I still hover on the "low end of normal" without taking iron 3 days/week.

An anemic phlebotomist recommended this stuff to me and it's been way more helpful than any other form of iron I've tried -- and 0 gut rot issues.

zoom-zoom Yes! That form of iron (carbonyl iron) is the first of numerous ones I tried that didn't give me digestive problems.  I'll offer up another brand because sometimes the one you want isn't available. This is also carbonyl iron with 250 mg Vit C. It's about $16/bottle. I had no issues taking it once daily, but at twice daily I started getting heartburn. It may or may not have been from the iron - so I tried another type a friend recommended - see below.

Because it's so hard to find an iron supplement that people can tolerate, I'll also volunteer one more that is exceptionally easy on the stomach. That is Thorne's Iron Bisglycinate. It's more expensive, but works fast and NO digestive problems.

For the most part, I've been taking iron plus vit c just before going to bed. So far no digestive issues. I have gotten nauseous from a multi on an empty stomach. So I've been lucky that this worked.

Half Crazy - I'm happy that has been your experience! I agree with you = the lab ranges for "normal" ferritin are huge. It really pays to know your body and find out what a "normal" level is for you. Sometimes it is super obvious such as when I lost half the hair on my head and ALL the hair everywhere else due to low ferritin that was technically at the low end of normal. Other times, when it's slow recovery from workouts or a frustrating slowdown in pace, it can be harder to connect the dots unless you've been through it before and go get tested to confirm. 

Garmin has been a big tip off for me. Most runs will be unproductive and my fitness level will drop over a roughly one month peiord or so. Last fall, it was only hard efforts that I noticed a problem, I would do workouts with shorter intervals and feel good about it, and garmin would say unproductive.

I did a lot of reading and one thing I found was in some cases, if it's iron stores that are low, you can be ok on hard efforts up to about 10 minutes. That was the case for me, I seemed ok until I tried a tempo run and then a 5k about a week later.

When I told my primary care provider (NP) that my running had gotten 90 seconds slower per mile and much harder effort, the answer was "agiing". She also said maybe I shouold switch to cycling. I had switched from cycling to running when I moved in with DH because it felt like when, not if, I would be hit by a car. At least running I have a chance to see what's cominng towards me.

I'm guessinng primary care is so used to telling patients to exercise more (or at all), that when someone comes in that meets the minimal guidelines, they are thrilled. I've seen a number of things on line where the 40+ endurance athletes also get the "exercise more" when dealing with weight gain due to hormonal bullshit.