The Rowe Family Blog

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything.  Training for this marathon has been a real challenge.  The mileage hasn’t been much of an issue but it turns out that I managed to end up with “iron depletion.”My iron levels are fine but I’m low on stored iron.  For most people this isn’t a problem at all but for a serious endurance athlete (which I still have trouble considering this of myself) it is a problem.  Unfortunately most Doctors will not know this because they don’t treat atheletes and therefore assume you are like everyone else.  My ferritin level (which is a measure of stored iron) was right at the bottom of the normal range.  Again that’s normal for a sedentary person.  Not someone that’s running 60-70 miles per week.

My runs suffered.  I suffered.  My family suffered.  Looking at my log you can see my running gradually got slower and slower.  I lost motivation and was pretty miserable.

I’ve been taking iron pills for almost 3 weeks now and I can’t believe the improvement.  I feel like I’m myself again!  For the last two weeks I’ve cut back on training.  I’ve also lost some key training time due to illness.  Still, I have to believe that I have enough in “the training bank” to buy myself a Boston Qualifying time in Vegas.  I ran an awesome half marathon in September and I’m feeling good when I run now.