depleted feeling

See a doctor.

MD says chronic fatigue.

How often with the iron problems? If it's lots... it's most commonly and absorption problem... meaning you need ferritin shots to best aid this problem.

It could be a communist plot to rob you of your precious bodily fluids. Does it only happen after sex?

i've seen a doctor in the past. at one point when i crashed i went to a doctor to check my heart and i did a stress test, which was basically a VO2 max test. My heart rate recovered very quickly and he told me that it was the best he had tested (not a lot of endurance athletes back home) but the strange thing was that I could only get my heart rate to 142. I questioned about this and he couldn't really answer it so he ran a test on some muscle enzymes and it came back fine.

Cant get your heart rate up, perhaps you are simply overtraining to the point of chronic fatigue

Never underestimate the need for nutrition. I always go through this sort of thing when I up my training load significantly without the accompanying it with upping my carbo's and vitamins (Iron, Bcomplex, multivitamin, folic acid, vita C and E). Gotta feed the machine! Hope it is something that simple, usually is for me.

yeah, i'm trying to be more aware of my diet and make sure i take my vitamins and iron. hopefully this will work, i'm still thinking of seeing a doctor since this has been a reoccuring issue but i'm just hesitant to waste more money on a doctor that may not know anything.

Are you eating and drinking enough?

What is your height and weight?

How many hours of sleep are you getting a night?

How many miles are you running?

How many workouts are you running per week?

Are you going to the well in your workouts?

look for a doctor with an athletic background. ask at a hospital, physical therapy rehab center and/or a health club for a doctor (member) with an open and sympathetic mind toward treating athletes. tell him/her your recurring problem an be prepared; think over what has happened to you and have your history with you. you might be less likely to waste money and more likely get an answer. let us know what happens as many of us go through this.

I can see how soneone might suggest chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia here, but I suspect that is simplistic.

The inability to drive your HR higher could have central or peripheral origins. At the minimum get your vitamin D and PTH level tested, along with serum magnesium. The D and magnesium are neuroprotective and might help improve your sleep quality.

Neither of these possibilities explains the low HR, however. Youre looking for explanations which cover all of the bases directly or indirectly, including the anemia issue.

My personal hunch here is that you may have a less common nutritional deficiency. Not in the mood to deal with the letsrun blowback here on this one. If you care to, email me directly and I will forward you the references you need to share w/ your physician.

dsrunner

ps

If you can, try to dig up your CPK levels for me, will you? My guess is this was elevated yet dismissed due to your training schedule and treadmill performance.

dsrunner, can you post your e-mail address so that I can e-mail you. these problems in the past have played major roles in keeping me from running and finally forcing me to leave one of the greatest programs in the country and ultimately quitting collegiate running altogether. I've been running now with no issues for a little over 5 months using a slow buildup but now that i'm getting my mileage back to a decent level (60s) I'm starting to fall off and my last two long runs were total busts.

I could post the longest letsrun post ever on here to describe the whole ordeal but right now i don't want to do that.

Anyway, dsrunner, you seem to be very knowledgeable and I'd love to speak to you about some of this.

guess i gave up my identity on that one. this is the name that i normally post under.

bump

have you had a TSH test..could be hypothyroidism. does it seem like you are colder than people around you?

i did think about hypo or hyperthyroidism as well. I know that's not as common in males but after reading about rupp and some of his problems that occured as well. thanks though, that's another option to check about.

still, dsrunner, can i get your e-mail?