Runners Who Have Had Anemia: How Much Did You Improve With Treatment?

The biggest source of iron in iron-fortified foods nowadays is cereal. What do you eat your cereal with? Milk? A milk replacement? Calcium? There you go, it's no longer a good source of iron. You won't actually absorb much of it. Same goes for most leafy greens. Iron is one of the trickiest to get an adequate amount of, especially if you don't eat meat. It's really hard to get too much iron unless you have a genetic condition (which almost exclusively occurs in males, especially white dudes, but is worth screening for) or supplement like crazy without actually checking your iron.

FWIW txRUNNERgirl has been running super well after supplementing :D

I eat barbed wire and shit nails every day. This keeps my iron levels in balance. It also benefits my day job as a carpenter.

I was going to wait to race before posting, but so far my workouts have drastically improved. Even my easy runs feel much better. My legs don't burn when I run uphill and I finish my runs fast instead of dragging ass like I used to.

I'm actually lactose intolerant, so eat my cereal dry..

This is what I've been thinking. All I've read is that we never get rid of iron. If this were true, even if you were just a little over the daily required intake, eventually you would build up an extreme amount over years. People eating daily red meat/beans and such would always be over the recommended daily iron. Theoretically they would get iron poisoning, but this doesn't happen.

There must be some negative feedback involved. Maybe the body absorbs less iron when iron stores are high? Otherwise, there'd be lots of sedentary males with iron poisoning later in life, and not just those with a genetic condition.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

I was going to wait to race before posting, but so far my workouts have drastically improved. Even my easy runs feel much better. My legs don't burn when I run uphill and I finish my runs fast instead of dragging ass like I used to.

wow, good job.

I'm going to try and find a dr. that runs. Getting a ferritin test shouldn't be this hard. it's actually recommended as a regular health screen.

UPDATE: New 15K PR!

Old Time: 1:10:11 - 2003 LABOR DAY 15K RUN - Fort Worth, TX

New Time: 1:07:32 - 2014 RESOLUTION RUN SERIES 15K - Steilacoom, WA

It's a "soft" PR because I have not raced many 15Ks in my life, but I'll take it. Plus I felt like a new person during the race. I felt relaxed and strong even over hills, and I negative-split the time. I feel like I could have run even faster, but after the turnaround I was by myself.

I haven't felt this happy about a race in years and I can't wait for my next one!

UPDATE: New 8K PR!

Old Time: 35:54 (5 miles) - 2011 AIR FORCE APPRECIATION DAY RUN - Mountain Home, ID

New Time: 33:32 - 2014 SHAMROCK RUN - Portland, OR

Again, I felt amazingly good and ran consistently the whole time, even with a big hill in the last mile. Before that would have killed my legs.

Finding improvement after correcting and sustaining appropriate ferritin levels is a complex art. It depends partly on the Lydiardian training regime to be followed but also requires judicious pre-competition mastering for optimal performance.

I had the same symptoms back in 1980 and finally went to the doctor and my iron levels wee very low. They put me on the over the counter iron supplement Fergon and within I was feeling great! A couple of months later at the Olympic Marathon Trials I PR'd by over 4 minutes and ran 2:16:01. I still take Fergon and have my blood checked every 6 months or so. All the best to you!

Xenon can you share the name of your doctor? I have the name of one doctor from Tom Cotner, but she is not accepting new patients.

Hardloper wrote:

This is a good thread though. I am thinking about getting my ferretin checked when I get back to work as I am at high risk (family history, vegetarian, lots of coffee) and have felt more tired and sleepy than normal in the last few months.

If you dont mind…why are you vegetarian?

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Update: I talked to my actual doctor today and he has ruled out anything else that would cause my fatigue, so he said supplement iron and we'll check ferritin again in 3 months.

I generally is on the lower end when it comes to iron.

My doctor advised me to just take 2 iron-pills a week. Thats it.

nump