Hi
I was feeling more tired and had some bad results at races and workouts for past six months so I decided to have my blood checked. It showed my ferritin at 10.
I am 18yo male.
Over the summer I averaged 80mpw.
Is the low iron reason why I feel weak and havent improved for that time?
Should I supplement iron? In which form? How much? When could I expect to feel better?
Any other tip is well appreciated.
2-3 days completely off to help kick start the iron supplements that you definitely need to take twice a day. Start eating more red meat and do not take the iron supplements within a few hours of calcium intake . It will take about 4-6 weeks before it’s above 30 which will make a huge difference. You will see a little improvement each week. Run on soft surface and probably don’t need 80 Mile weeks as an 18 year old . 50-65 while building ferritin levels up.
Take supplement with oj and on empty stomach. Don't take after workout.
You're looking at 4-6 weeks but catching it now could have saved your season.
Hey! When my ferritin was 11 had other important blood values on the lowest end of normal (but not technically anemic... Even though most were less than .5 from below normal, lol) I couldn't even walk across my very small campus without taking a break because I would see stars.
I took iron, ferrous sulfate tablets, on an empty stomach 2-3x a day with orange juice and avoided calcium within several hours of taking iron like the plague. I cut down most distance runs in both pace and duration and focused on interval work because my endurance was already trashed from such slow running by the time I found out about my low ferritin. Added to distance runs veryyyyyyy slowly (like 5 minutes more every other week) and in about 6 weeks, felt substantially better. Ferritin was in the low 30s.
TL;DR don't expect to keep 80mpw for the short term and be okay with that. Lots of iron supplements with Vitamin C. Focus on working on what you can, and be patient when you feel like crap. It'll come back if you do the work.