Just got the call from my doc. Good news: Bloodwork came back normal. Bad news: This confirms that the problem was somewhere in my training.
I get the full results by fax tomorrow morning. But, for the curious, the ferritin level was 35. My notes say a female endurance athlete should be, at minimum, somewhere in the 25-50 range. So that’s a good number, although perhaps not great. I’ll see what the other iron-related readings are (he did the whole shebang) and decide if I want to supplement anyway.
Meanwhile, Coach Kevin is putting the frosting and sprinkles on a nine week basebuilding schedule. I don’t know the details, but he’s said it will be different from the previous basebuilding schedule because I’m fitter this time around, plus he’s allowing for the horrible summer heat and humidity.
A nine week schedule sets me up to start training for CIM at the start of September. That yields a 14 week training cycle, including the taper. I think this will work better than Newport’s 22 weeks.
But more on that in a bit…
Filed under: basebuilding, coaching, physiology, training | Tagged: blood work, ferritin |
Races Like a Girl 
I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours….
My results from a december 2008 test:
Iron: 133
TIBC: 339
UIBC: 206
Ferritin: 88
Iron: 103
TIBC: 456 (although that may be high due to birth control pills)
UIBC: 353
Ferritin: 35
What does it all mean? I’m still reading.
I honestly don’t know what it means, other than that my doctor told me my #s were fine. I was hoping a few other people would pipe in as well — we’d get some idea of the range.
BTW, I’m on birth control as well (Seasonique) — I imagine different ones have different effects. I do eat a ton of red meat, spinach, and vitamin C (vit C supposedly assists in Iron uptake)
Congratulations (I think). You’re hinting at an early peak in training, perhaps…
What can i tell?.
I think that you know what is happend and you nows what is the solution…
follow your heart and feelings.
Yes you can!.
Rinus.
That’s good news – you don’t have to edit the post-mortem before publication 😉
I’m curious about the new schedule – pretty much agree 14 will work better than 22 – I mean, Nate Jenkins is getting by on 7 for the World Champs. Ask Kevin about a shorter taper too.
Good luck with the new training regimen. I hope it works out, and like the others, I’m curious to see what it looks like.
What’s CIM? Is that the one in Sacramento? Sorry if you said earlier and I missed it…
Wonderful news, maybe not retroactively, but for moving forward, all systems go. I also think 14 weeks sounds way more palatable than 22. I can’t wait to see the new details – if there’ll be less recovery percentage vs. GA runs, what your planned paces will be etc. (though heat/humidity must have their nasty contribution). Anyway, you’re going to smash CIM, obliterate it, even.
I’m in the midst of a 12-week cycle, which is on the short side. My fault for running marathons so close together. 14 would be better. My “base” is the previous marathon cycle. Nate Jenkins, with his short cycle, is an elite with incredible base fitness (and he wishes he had more time).
Training in the late-summer heat for a cool-weather marathon is interesting. I wonder if it’s a benefit, like training at altitude for a sea-level race?
I’ve always suspected there’s a psychological benefit to going from training in harder conditions to racing in more favorable ones. The disadvantage I find in training in heat and humidity is that you have no idea where your fitness really is until you’re not running in those conditions. So the fall races are something of a surprise usually.
I’ve got a half marathon in South Africa in late Sept (should still be on the cool side then), so I should get a good idea of where I am after a summer of basebuilding from that.