Dying on all runs

Ehh, not true. I have a buddy who eats pretty much anything he wants, runs 50mpw + alot of speed (focus is 800m) and gains no weight. He is not 'ripped' but definetly defined. Just yesterday, he ate out for all 3meals with Chik-Fil-A, a BBQ place, and Olive Garden.

While nutrition is important, I can't see it being the sole cause for 'dying on runs.' Although I suppose if you were eating a strict McDonalds diet then at that point you would be really hurting your recovery.

Ugh...I cringe when I see statements like this. Too many people fed too much bad information by the government, food companies, diet gurus, etc.

Calories In vs. Calories Out is an oversimplistic and outdated concept.

It where the calories come from that matters. 5000 kcal/day from fruit/vegetables is a lot better than 5000 kcal/day from bowls of cereal and other refined foods.

I've been too lazy to go to the doctor and get my iron/ferritin test so instead today i just bought 10 bucks of ground beef and downed it....8 hours later or so i went for a run and it was the first run in a very long time where i felt good and wasn't dying like usual; my pace wasn't as fast as usual and i couldn't run for as long as usual, but there was a huge improvement over what my runs have been for a while now. Does this sound like it's an anemia/ferritin problem from the result of eating the meat, only because i have not really been eating meat (maybe twice in the past month aside from today). I would appreciate some feedback if this reaction seems likely to be iron/ferritin problems, and if not then i'll consider getting the blood checked. Thanks again

Thats a ridiculous amount of meat! $10 in ground beef is at least 2 lbs and thats with 97% lean angus beef....I don't really understand what you were saying in your statement.

Go to your doctor and get your blood work done. Anything else is just guessing. That being said, its very possible you have iron/feritin deficiency, meat only twice a month is typically not good. Sure you can get iron from other sources but it doesn't sound like you are.

I guess i was being poetic....so let me paraphrase. Does the immediate improvement in running due to the ground beef ingestion sound like an iron/ferritin problem. I know it's guessing but i'm just wondering if it seems like it; or would a this type of instant improvement not representative of that same problem, that's all.

It's unlikely that a single meal will ave that much impact on iron/ferritin. It might,however rectify some other deficiencies in protein, bccaa's, creatine, etc..

Get the ferritin test, ASAP.

Hey I just had a random thought. Have you considered you might have some kind of intestinal parasite? 5-6000 kCal a day is a lot even if you're doing 100mpw. If you're not putting on weight, something else might be absorbing those nutrients. Many parasites can cause vitamin B deficiencies, which cause, among other things, lack of energy and poor aerobic metabolism. Red meat is an excellent source of B vitamins and the change would be more rapid than if you were responding to the iron. Not a pleasant thought but it's probably worth checking out.

Are you out of breath at all? Slightly dizzy and generally fatigued? I had the exact same thing happen to me for a while. Got ferritin checked among other things. The diagnoses was EBV (Epstein Barr Virus) which is basically a form of mononucleosis but it is recurrent and can happen whenever your body is run down and immune system is low. Since then I have tried more intelligently, gotten 7-8 hours of sleep at night, eaten healthy, and taken an influx of many different vitamins that are known immune system boosters. Haven't had any problems since then but I always keep on the lookout for symptoms. Hope you figure out what ti is but go get an EBV Test at your local walk-in clinic. Take care.

It's not the iron. It's that you finally had a meal with protein, not just a load of refined carbs which puts you halfway into a diabetic coma and makes your running go to shit.

What you need to do isn't gorge on hamburger, it's to balance out all (at least most) of your meals with some carbs, some protein, and a little fat. You'll feel and perform better in everything including running.

Eat some fruits and veggies too.