Hello all. I’m a junior in high school and have been feeling symptoms of anemia off and on since my freshmen year of track. I sometimes start races and feel very tired and exhausted 400 meters in. I run relatively high mileage, averaging about 65 miles per week this past summer. I feel tired on many runs and have to go pretty slow, my calves burn a lot when I walk up stairs, and I feel dizzy when I get up after sitting down, so much sometime that I can’t see anything for a couple seconds. It got to a point in June this year where all I could do was go out for a 3-5 mile run slowly and feel extremely tired. In July of this year I began taking iron supplements every day. I usually get 250-330 mg of elemental iron per day, on an empty stomach with vitamin c. I feel better somewhat, my calves hardly every burn anymore and I’m able to do 8 miles at 7:15 pace sometimes. I was also able to run an 18:26 5k in the beginning of this season, a PR by a minute, but lately I’ve been feeling tired a lot again. I’m definitely not where I should be, because as hard as I worked I should definitely be in the 16 minute range for 5k. I still feel my heart rate get alot faster when I stand up and move around, and I feel my legs burn even just moving around fast. Yesterday I got a blood test and these were my results:
WBC 8.8 k/mm3
RBC 4.95 m/mm3
Hemoglobin 15.1 g/dl
Hematocrit 45.5 %
MCV 91.9 fl
MCH 30.5 pg
MCHC 33.2 g/dL
Platelet Count 354 k/mm3
RDW(sd) 49.4 High
RDW(cv) 14.8
MPV 11.1
Lymphocytes 56.7
Monocytes 24.9
Eosinophils 13.9
Basophils 3.5
AbsoluteNeutrophil 0.8
Absolute Lymphocyte 5.00
Absolute Monocyte 2.20
AbsoluteEosinophil 1.23
AbsoluteBasophil 0.31
ImmatureGranulocyte 0.07
AbsoluteImmatureGranulocytes 0.2
NRBC RE, Nucleated Red Blood Cell Percent 0.02
How can I solve this problem so I can reach my full potential?
I am 6’2 and 148 lbs.