How many of you take Iron supplements? My coach told our team to supplement.

So is iron doping a thing now?

I've take it for years as a middle-aged female runner. It doesn't make it black for me. *shrug*

You should only take it if your levels are low.

But your coach isn't a hematologist. So yes, he is wrong.

In college my coach had us take a CBC and a Ferritin test prior to each season. We would share our results with him and based on our Ferritin levels he would recommend a iron supplement to take. Our team span from folks as low as 13 to upwards of 100+. The folks who were under 60 took an iron supplement either once or twice per day. Iron pills did not absorb well with me so I took a liquid iron with vitamin C twice a day and bumped my levels from low 30s to into the 60s and 70s.

Taking iron did not make you faster but it did encourage the body to recover faster. This was something that worked really well my team and the coach was very experienced as that coach is now a full time professional distance coach or has now coached numerous Olympians and US team members.

Doctors are cautious to give Iron iv bc of allergic reaction it's rare but not good. And some individuals may have an absorption problem. Especially if they have chronic conditions like inflammatory bowel disease. My Iron was depleted and didn't know it. I had covid and thought it turned into long covid. I went to GI doctor and found I have irritable bowel syndrome and not absorbing. I felt like a dead man walking but after 4 weeks of 1x a week Iron iv I fell better than before. So best get Doctors opinion and not your own.

Iron can thicken your blood and cause a heart attack.

Blood test will tell you where you are at and whether you need to supplement or not.

Your coach is an idiot.

It's also very easy to NOT overdo it. Take one pill. Can't hurt.

Taking iron when your ferritin levels are low is SO important. Maybe the biggest thing non-running thing I've learned as a coach. I can't imagine how many kids (especially girls) have had long, hard, limited seasons, and it could have been fixed so simply. I feel bad for kids I had my first years coaching - I had never heard of ferritin - even in college.

That being said - you should never just start taking iron without a test - especially for males who are less likely to be low. That's highly irresponsible on the coach's part IMO.

The only advice on this thread you should take is to talk to a doctor. Do not take medical advice from your coach or random people on the internet.

A doctor can test your iron levels and tell you what they think you should do.

I had my iron levels tested, I run a lot, they are completely fine. My wife had hers tested, she bikes a lot, hers were terrible and it was recommended she take it.

I once had a ferritin of 12, started supplementing, and almost immediately started running faster (within a few weeks), my recovery runs especially just naturally got about a minute per mile faster with the same effort. My 10k time improved three minutes within a few months. I had no idea how bad an iron “deficiency” could impact running performance.

That said, not everyone needs to be or should be supplementing. If you are above 50, you are fine. Just monitor it frequently (even above 30 is ok, anything below warrants caution).

^ this x 100

Your coach should not be giving medical advice and most good coaches will not. If he wants to give advice on how you can improve (other than training hard/smart) he'll tell you to make sure you're eating well and getting adequate sleep. Iron supplementation should only be done on the advice of a physician.

I only took iron supplements once on my life and it was after an accident when I lost a lot of blood both internally and externally. I had a lot of bruising and some big bone breaks. Any time a big bone in the body, i.e., a femur, etc, is broken, there is a lot of bleeding. My hemoglobin and hematocrit dropped a lot but I was never transfused in the trauma center because of my age and relatively good health. I took an iron supplement for about a month and it did help me not get as winded with exertion.

Again, rest & diet are key.

Of course a coach shouldn’t be dispensing medical advice and this should all be done under the supervision of a physician. But the coach can recommend the athlete go to a doctor, preferably one familiar with distance running, and get an iron panel done w serum ferritin. The “normal” range is wide, like 15-250 or something, different for men and women.

A lot of doctors think 15 is normal and ok, but it’s just simply not. 50 should be the target. Minimally 30. We are not talking about athletes trying to get it to 200 here, just maintain adequate iron storage levels. And, yes, diet and rest help.

As an addendum, I struggled all through college because a coach (es) couldn’t simply be bothered to recommend I get my iron checked. I should’ve been all-American but struggled instead without knowing what was wrong until my senior year. So much wasted time. Nor could university doctors figure out what was wrong.

I had to go to a private consult on my parent’s insurance to finally start getting answers. All I needed was a coach to tell me to check my iron. I used to chew ice, a symptom of a condition called Pica. Everyone knew it was abnormal but nobody could tell me what was wrong, including those early physicians. What is a coach for ultimately? This is a simple suggestion and common in hard core distance runners.

Unless you have signs of possible iron deficiency (chronic fatigue, feeling like easy runs are way harder than they should be etc) or have been diagnosed with low iron (feretin should be minimum of 30 for distance runners) then I would not just start taking iron supplements randomly if it's not clear that you need them. It's possible to get iron toxicity if it gets too high, so this isn't a supplement you should take if you don't need to.

Supplement? Like a multivitamin? Sure why not. But if you have an actual issue see a doctor.

You can take a small dose daily and it won't alter your bowel movements at all. They sell gummy supplements at Rite Aid that (supposedly) have around 10mg of iron per gummy, which can be enough make up for a dietary deficiency. As a runner, you probably need more iron in your diet than most people, so unless you're eating rare steak and spinach every day, it's probably a good idea to take a low dose of iron.