On our way to the Jail Break 5K in our Brooks ID attire.

On our way to the Jail Break 5K in our Brooks ID attire.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

New Year, New Month, New Goals-Month Review

Monthly Numbers-
Running Miles 200.54
Swimming Miles-4
Biking Miles-0
Yoga-9 classes
Massages-2
Races-1 Red Noise Run

  Looking back on January it was a great month, strange but great.  It was awesome to complete an entire month of my marathon workouts and miles.  This is the highest running volume month I have ever had, largely because running is all I am really doing.  This has been the strange part er to be honest with you the hard part.  I am a fly by the seat of my pants type girl.  I love to do what I feel like doing that day, swim, bike, run, go to boot camp, ect but then in the same breath my more Type A self  is really enjoying just focusing on one thing at this moment to get my workouts and miles in and do what my plan says to do that day.  I have been changing the font on my schedule to red when the workout or run is completed which brings me great satisfaction.   The number one thing I miss most is personal training however; I know that taking a break to complete this goal at this time will be worth it.  I have thought about going back to lifting heavy and more cross training a number of times however, I owe it to myself, my family and friends to be as rested as I can workout after workout to bring my most well trained self to the start line. I promised myself for 18 weeks I was going to train like a runner and do everything my plan said to a T so far it’s been going pretty well.
  I have been able to run a lot of miles with a lot of friends this month which has been fun.  I have been meeting my training partner at 5am once a week for our middle-long distance run.  The week before last I mentioned to Wm that my legs were tired coming up the hill at the finish (11 miles and we ended on a big ole hill!) We both kind of wrote it off as just being tired and the finish.  Then later that week I had 10 miles, 5 at 1/2 MP pace (7:30.) I noticed at the pace seem tough and my legs were burning after the first mile.  Again, I mustered through it and wrote it off as a hard training week.  About this same time Wm asked when I was going back for blood work to check my Iron level, I asked him why as I stood there chomping on ice! 
*FYI-Craving and chewing ice (pagophagia) is often associated with iron deficiency anemia**
  I went to my follow up appointment on Wednesday 1/25/12 and really thought my levels would be fine.   I was born with anemia and I have been getting blood checks my entire life.  It never really had an effect on me until we started running in 2008.  I have been going through monthly checks since back in 2008 when I experienced my first dec in Ferritin resulting in poor performance and fatigue.   I have my lab records all saved of my hemoglobin and ferritin results since 2008 so I can correlate my levels to how I feel and how my running is going.  After being under the care of a PCP with very little increase in my ferritin and Hemoglobin I was referred to a hematologist in June of 2011.  He recommended Iron infusion to try to inc my ferritin which was chronically low to try to protect my hemoglobin level, per the MD the body always try to protect the hemogloblin so it is the last to drop.  In June my ferritin was a 13 and Hemoglobin  10.1 prior to the infusion.  The infusion went well and I followed up in July Hgb was 13.1 and ferritin was 78!! This is as high as it ever has been but it was a false positive as so much Fe was added to my body with the infusion this was not correct,  needing more time before another draw .  I spent most of the fall shoring up tri season and spending a lot of time with my trainer knowing that my running schedule was about to be where all my winter would be spent.  My running miles were down and I felt great. 
 Follow apt in October-Hgb 13.7 highest to date and Ferritin 40 also highest to date.  Great!  The infusion worked, life is great.  No need to follow up until Jan.  I laughed with the MD as I was leaving his office as I knew marathon training was only 6 weeks away. I asked to be monitored monthly until April starting in Jan so we could be on top of it, if there was any decreases starting to be seen. 
Wednesday 1/25 go in for blood work and the MD comes right in to ask me what  I have been doing for the past 10 weeks as my Hbg was down to a 10.  I reminded her I was marathon training and she said she would call me Friday with my ferritin level.  Friday she called and it was a 5, which is the lowest it has ever been. 
Back to the infusion center I went on Tuesday.  It went okay; it is a little painful at first to get the needle in but then is just a long afternoon of sitting there drip by drip.  I have to go back tomorrow (Thursday) and then again Tuesday for 2 more infusions then I should be done for the time being. 
 On the positive side I hit my paces on just about all my workouts this month and ran 200 miles with a ferritin of 5, I am looking forward to feeling stronger when I am back in a therapeutic range and hopefully will not have such a struggle with some of the hills/speed work!   I still continue to remember how blessed I am to be out on the roads and have the will day after day.

See ya on roads and Run Happy!