Knowledge without mileage equals bullshit. – Henry Rollins (as read in Danielle Laporte’s new book, White Hot Truth)
This is one of my new favorite quotes. For everything. I love saying it. Thinking about it. Sharing it. It really hits the nail on the head. It doesn’t answer why I am tired. It just answers that knowing stuff isn’t enough. You have to have the life experience to go with it. And let me say, I have some knowledge and mileage from the past year both literally and figuratively. So, why am I tired? To answer this, I need to tell you a little bit about my life, running, eating and how InsideTracker gave me some answers.
For a brief moment let me take you back to when I was in college. To the day I said to my accounting professor that I wished I didn’t need to sleep. He said, “You’ll fit right in at (insert big accounting firm).” It should have been a red flag to me that he had left said big accounting firm to slow down and teach. Fast forward a couple years to my first week on the job to when I was complimented on how fast I walked around the client to get the information I needed and how quickly I got my work done. Add in running. Since I didn’t have a lot of time outside of work, I would wake up early, run from my house to a track near where I was living outside of Cleveland and run back. Run fast and get home fast to get to work fast. See a theme. Me over a year ago, still always moving. Not sitting. One thought on my mind, going fast, what’s next. Living in the next moment. A corporate life, sleepless nights with kids, a husband that travels, running, entrepreneurial pursuits plus not sitting caught up to me last year.
I went for a run in June of 2016 and my legs felt heavy and it was a feeling I didn’t understand. It worried me. So I ordered my first blood test with InsideTracker (you can read about my first test here). This was when vitamin D and iron became my new best friends. I took these supplements consistently. I was pumped. I had answers. I was low in both of these and they cause fatigue. These supplements were going to put the spring back in me and my running step.
All was going well. I had a 7 minute PR in the half marathon. Then came training for Boston. Prior to this my mileage had been to train for the half marathon distance. My body was able to handle the training for this distance and my mileage was low enough that I was able to hide any imbalances. So like anyone trying to train for a marathon my mileage started to steadily increase starting the first week in January. If I really think about it, the last time I felt good was when I ran the Boston Prep 16 miler on my 50th birthday (January 29th). This race was a challenging course (very large hills). It was a training run for me and I felt good. After that 16 miler and as I started to add miles to my long run things started to fall apart a little bit. It was slow. It was after a double long run in February (I talk about it here). It wasn’t that anything in particular happened during this run. It was a combination of fatigue and tightness in my hamstrings and glutes that started to slowly creep in and stick around. It was a tightness that caused me to have to start slowing down. It was feeling tired, more tired than usual, after a long run. It all came to a head after my last 20 miler. I ran it on Saturday, March 25th with the Heartbreak Hill Run crew. The next day I was tired. I mean TIRED! I had no energy. None. Zero.
The good news was I had done a follow-up blood test with InsideTracker on March 20th. It was a long time follow-up to my first one I mentioned above. I knew I would be getting my results any day and was hoping I would get some answers on why the heck I was sooooo tired. This fatigue was different from the fatigue of the prior June. It was starting to really bum me out. Even though the blood test wouldn’t give me the answers to my hammie/glute situation, it would give me part of what was going on inside. I love when I get my results. I geek out on this kind of information. I got good news, my Vitamin D went from needing work to now being in the optimal range. Not so good, my iron levels had not changed from needing work as well as a couple biomarkers had decreased even further. Why? I wanted to know and really needed to know given that Boston was only a couple weeks away. What I found to be the biggest reason was actually quite simple. Increase endurance activity and iron decreases. Each and every time my foot hit the pavement I was depleting myself of iron. The answer, make sure I was eating enough given the increase in mileage and also be aware of the food combinations I was eating. Iron absorption is very important and iron needs vitamin C to be absorbed into the system (FYI: I’m plant based eater). Ok, so now what?
The goal was to get to the starting line of Boston. I had put in the training so now it was time to rest more than I probably wanted to and make sure I was eating enough. Plus I had to cut down on my caffeine. Huge bummer. I love my coffee. However, caffeine blocks iron absorption, which is not helpful when your iron is as low as mine. All this was easier said than done. All these years of going faster and faster and now it was important to my life that I sit down and put my feet up without my caffeinated beverage. I reminded myself what my goal was, show up and finish Boston. So, I cut down to only one cup of coffee and I took more time to rest. I did what I had to do and JUST SAT DOWN.
I think this was almost tougher than running a 20 miler. I rarely stop moving. I usually sit down and then realize something I need to do and get right back up. I did it though. I sat and sat and sat. I finished Boston and thanks to @restdaybrags I bragged about my share of resting, still do in fact. Resting makes total sense. Allows your body to recover. I highly recommend it. So do some really smart people. Like Amelia Boone (read her blog), Brad Stulburg and Steve Magness (authors of Peak Performance), Yogi triathlete…to name a few.
Is that the end of the story, no. This isn’t a movie. I still have work to do. I’m still tired and don’t forget the hammie/glute situation. After running Boston, I also ran The Tenancious 10 in Seattle a week later as well as a 5k a week after that neither of which helped the fatigue or the hammie/glute crap. Sorry, I’m a little frustrated. Remember, the quote above, well apparently I needed some additional knowledge with mileage because as of today, Friday, June 30th, I am still not 100%. Did I mention I am also learning patience?
So what does this mean. It means rest combined with some lower mileage. I am also getting help from a nutritionist, Foundation Performance to figure out my imbalances and get the hammie/glutes happy again, Woodshed Strength for weights and conditioning, and I work with the best coaches Yogi Triathlete. One more thing, I gave up caffeine, and for right now am drinking decaf (more on that in another blog). It means I need to go slow to go fast. I’ve got some big goals down the road. I’ll keep you posted.