Last week I went to the doctor for this odd foot pain I’d been having. I expected it to be nothing (and it was), but when I go to the doctor, I like to get my money’s worth! I had always wanted to get my iron levels tested after hearing of its importance for performance. My aerobic endurance had been suffering for a couple months, and I attributed it to just not being able to run much mileage due to injuries and sickness. But I thought getting some blood work done would at least rule out other causes.
The result? “You’re anemic.” Whoa! Did NOT see that coming! Sure enough, as I read the test result, I could see a normal ferritin (storer of iron) level was between 26 and 388 ng/mL – mine was 7 (insert face palm emoji here).
ANEMIA AND IRON DEFICIENCY
Of course, after this diagnosis, I studied up everything I could find on anemia. Here’s what I found!
Anemia is a deficiency in red blood cells, which is caused by low iron levels. Fewer blood cells leads to low hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is crucial in transporting oxygen to the muscles while we run. Low hemoglobin —> low oxygen in muscles —> performance decline and fatigue.
As I said previously, a “normal” level of ferritin is above 26 ng/mL but active athletes likely need even more. Furthermore, each athlete might find they have a sweet spot of some sort. More is not always better here and can cause the same performance decline as low iron levels.
While uncommon for the general population, iron-deficiency is much more common among athletes. In the USA, 4-50% of male athletes are diagnosed with anemia, while 20-50% of female athletes are affected (source: IRONMAN.com). But like I said, you want to shoot for an optimal level, not just a “normal” level.
HOW TO RESTORE/MAINTAIN IRON
My doctor prescribed iron supplements right away. This seems to be the easiest way to restore iron. As for food sources, there’s a couple things to know.
First, heme iron gets absorbed better. Sources of heme iron include red meat and dark poultry.
Second, non-heme iron gets absorbed less efficiently but is still a good source of iron. Vegetables and whole grains are good sources of these.
WHAT IT MEANS FOR ME
Admittedly, I was happy to hear this news. Suddenly everything that’s been happening kind of makes sense now! I had a noticeable drop in performance about 5 weeks prior to my goal marathon last fall. Higher heart rates, sluggish paces, etc. At the time, I thought it was overtraining but perhaps that is when my body’s iron levels bottomed out.
I recently read on www.competitorrunning.com, “An iron deficiency is one of those nasty conditions that can disguise itself as being overtrained.”
This new information gives me hope that I can train (and race!) at even higher levels than I thought previously. The only glitch is that it can take 2-3 months for iron levels to be fully restored. Currently I sit about 17 weeks out from my goal race! So while I work on getting my levels back up, I will try to maintain a normal training volume. I will have to listen to my body more because my paces won’t be as fast, but in due time, I’m hopeful that I’ll start feeling like normal after a couple of months of this.
All of my PRs have been set after training at a level much slower than the race pace (unintentionally!). I’m hoping this is going to be the best example of that yet!
DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor. The article above is not intended to be medical advice applicable to everyone.
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