Anemia and Training Question

Unless your doc told you to back off, there should be no need to. Best response I have seen for an anemic runner (10+ on the hemoglobin) was a 4 minute 5k improvement after 3 weeks of iron supplements. You may not see that change, but you sure will start feeling better in a matter of weeks.

Well he didn't tell me not to, he just told me that my iron was low and i was anemic. I get the test results back in a few days and should be able to post numbers. Should i continue to try to do tempos/fartleks as well? Or should i just stick with easy mileage? Jtupper, i figure you're one of the most knowledgeable people on this message board so i'd like as much help from you as possible. Thanks.

I was very anemic for a long time and had no idea. It got to the point where I could barely finish our 5k time trial and then I went to get blood tests done. My hemoglobin was rediculously low-somewhere around a 2. It took a long time for me to feel normal again although I hadn't really known what it was like because I'm pretty sure I've been anemic since I started running. From that point on I DNFed my first race back and then slowly I brought down my times to a new PR. I was doing low mileage and for the first time I'm doing relatively high mileage. They say it takes 6 weeks to feel the effects of the iron supplements because thats how long it take your body to fully replenish the red blood cells. All I can really tell you is to listen to your body and if the mileage is too much-back off or if the pace is too fast- slow down. Let your body recover and dont push your body beyond recovery.

i'd kinda like to hear more as well so i'll bump this

This is quite similar to what happened to me. I became so anemic by soph. year of college that it took me 28+ minutes to finish a 5K, up from 20:40ish in HS (girl). I am guessing I had been at least mildly anemic for a very long time because my last year of high school running was very frustrating despite increased training, etc.

My ferritin was 1 at this point, and my hemoglobin was 7. (I think the previous poster is referring to ferritin of 2, not hemoglobin... you couldn't survive at 2 for hemoglobin I don't think.) Anyway, in response to the OP it depends on how anemic you are. No one told me to cut back, but I was so anemic that anything other than a slow jog made my heart race. It also made me kind of dizzy. I just did really slow running most of the week and took days off when I felt tired or even just didn't feel like running.

Once the iron kicked in.... I ran 18:40ish shortly thereafter. Pretty surreal experience.

I'll chime in with my experience and more questions, as I've had it in the past and have it once again.

Freshman year in college I had a ferritin count of 5 and felt like there was no possible way I could break 5 in the mile (was a 4:19 miler in HS). I was diagnosed somewhat late in the year and was told it would be a matter of weeks until I felt better. I never really felt good for the rest of that year (about ten weeks), though by the end of that I was running marginally better. The next fall I had somewhat of a breakthrough and went on to make the varsity team of a D1 school in XC and broke 3:50 for 1500. Point of the story: it might be a long time until you're ready to run fast again, regardless of how you train.

Now, post collegiate, I have a ferritin count of 12. I don't feel nearly as bad as when it was 5, but my runs are all painfully slow (used to be able to run 6:00 pace no problem, now anything under 7:00 is tough) and my races have suffered tremendously. I have the same questions you have about whether training should be modified until I feel better.

Anyone else have any experience of training through anemia and having a big breakthrough? I'm looking for a bit of motivation. I think i'm going to just split up my days and do 7/7 doubles every day at 8-9 minute mile pace along with strides but no real workouts. Hopefully by September i can start incorporating workouts and be ready to really roll come late october.

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one thing that contributes to anemia (besides being a female) is adding miles. footstrikes burst blood cells and if your body is struggling to replace iron that certainly won't help.

in general i think your theory is sound, however i think a better strategy would be to reduce your overall work intensity to 80% in both mileage and pace. you can gradually build up as your ferritin increases. some years ago i was diagnosed with anemia and after 9 months of iron supplements my improvements were tremendous. in a 9month period my all out 1 mile race pace became my 5k race pace.

When you are struggling with this problem, the toughest things to do are threshold and interval workouts because you just won't be able to handle the paces you feel you should be capable of. On the other hand, reps often go pretty well because you are running relatively short runs (typically 200s and 400s)with adequate rest between the runs. I'd suggest some sets of rep 200s every 3rd day or so, and try do do them comfortably fast and with lots of recovery time between runs. After a few weeks you will feel more up to some intervals and threshold runs, and steady longer runs will also feel much better.

how many 200's/400's would you suggest? and should i drop any from my regular mileage of 80-90 mpw?

jtupper wrote:

When you are struggling with this problem, the toughest things to do are threshold and interval workouts because you just won't be able to handle the paces you feel you should be capable of. On the other hand, reps often go pretty well because you are running relatively short runs (typically 200s and 400s)with adequate rest between the runs. I'd suggest some sets of rep 200s every 3rd day or so, and try do do them comfortably fast and with lots of recovery time between runs. After a few weeks you will feel more up to some intervals and threshold runs, and steady longer runs will also feel much better.

This is completely off topic, but I figure this is as good a place as any to ask.

In a recent Running Times article on summer training, you recommended a 12-day cycle with 3 workouts and a long run. I was wondering if there was any particular reason for going with this cycle instead of the one you have in DRF?

better to email jack.daniels@nau.edu lolz also

Well, I went from being pretty anemic and doing terrible for a year and a half and now I'm on iron and doing well again. Last xc season I was doing 21's and should be around 17 flat this season. The thought of how slow I was makes me sick, but I'm really looking forward to seeing my times drop by 4 minutes.

for anyone knowledgable on iron supplements, is it better to take them consistently, or say 3weeks on, 1 week off (what i'm doing now), just that i heard somewhere this was a better cycle than every day.

Also, I take about 100mg iron in a tablet with 30 or so mg iron in liquid form, is there much difference and is this a suitable amount for someone who's had such problems?

Many thanks.

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