Things haven't been goin so well for my running recently. It all started last summer when I had to miss cross due to a ankle injury. After a few weeks I got back into running and started building for indoor. I had some descent training, but when I finally got to race like a 3k I'd start ok but then hit a wall real hard. I thought it might be just getting back into it but then one 5k it was so bad I had to drop out because my legs just would'nt function.
So my coach said go to the doctor get a blood test. I did and I had anemia. This was in January and I started taking iron and was on my way to getting better. So I continued to practice during indoors but didnt race.
A couple weeks ago I got another blood test and things are in the normal range, ferritin was up to 36 and I was feeling strong in practices and so on. I felt like I was ready to race.
So here it is, my first 5k race for outdoors. I thought I may even be able to PR. I felt that we were running pretty conservativly and that I'd even have a decsent kick at the end. Then all of a sudeen with about 1k or so to go the same thing happened. It was like a wall and my legs just wouldnt move. I finished but it was as if I was crawling almost 1 minute slower that I should've. I've run 16:30's for 5k and my last 200 was 47 or 48...
So what could the problem be? I'm running 85-95 mpw. my iron levels are good. eating well. Does it still take more time to recover from anemia? Coud it be something else?