A LOT of stuff is Long over due...particularly: one race report from Desert Tri. Here is the quick version of that one: IT.WAS.COLD...IT WAS WET...but hey I stayed upright and even got to meet a newly minted pro! Charisa and I have managed to be at 4+ events, but never have managed to actually meet. So this was a long overdue hello.
The race itself was pretty uneventful aside from the rain that started coming down when I got to t2 and never let up. My swim...was awesome. I took 13 seconds/100y off of my Malibu swim time and 18 seconds/100y off of my Vineman 70.3 pace. Those ridiculous drills all winter have paid off HUGE. The bike went ok considering i was FREEZING. Avg pace decent and I really just cared about staying upright and not getting too cold. The run...i couldn't feel my feet for the first loop which was tough and my pace showed. A bit slower than I had hoped, but reasonable for me ~8:30mpm.
Overall it was an alright race. I came into somewhat...fatigued and was happy that I did well with it. The problem...that fatigue has gone from 'somewhat fatigue' to 6 weeks later I can barely get out of bed kind of fatigue. The week after the race was horrendous and now i'm ok except post any sort of effort the next day I am peeling myself off the floor. It's not good.
And I've seen the doctor and they bled me...good news: i'm pretty darn healthy. not so good news: um...maybe lowish ferritin levels? So my doctor: we are going to refer you to a sports medicine doctor. Maybe you are over trained?
um...ok...no...i'm not over trained. And considering how much non-training I have done in the past month I am REALLY not over trained and now i don't get to see the doctor for another month. By that point I'll be as non-overtrained as possible and i'm not thinking this is going away any time soon.
really...miss optimist is at it again. Actually it might be more like 'miss realist'.
Actually miss optimist is wondering if her triathlon season is actually more likely to be over in exactly 12 days...post Super Seal.
Wildflower Long Course is off the table due to a few things...mainly though: i can't get past this fatigue.
I'm not doing Ironman (see the last post)
Here's the thing...my normal doctor doesn't know what's wrong. My nutritionist is starting to suspect I put myself on the brink of adrenal exhaustion during graduate school and the fact I do endurance activities is exacerbating an underlying issue. The problem with this suspicion is...what IS adrenal exhaustion?
Here is where mainstream medicine frustrates me. With the adrenals...you are either healthy or you have Addision's disease where the adrenals have completely stopped working. I don't have that...all my blood work looks great. But this other possibility is just so...vague and well not well studied. But that being said it was through this holistic pathway that we found out that some health concerns that have plagued me in the past 7 years are due to a simple folic acid/b12 issue. No one in mainstream medicine took the time to test me for that...which quite simply makes me pretty mad and skeptical.
But while my skeptic is fighting with this one thing I do know: i'm tired and no one can tell me why. My training in the past 5 weeks has wrecked havoc on my body after any effort and more importantly...PAST all of this triathlon stuff...i'm way more worried about the fact I can barely peel myself out of bed for work. Screw triathlon...that's a hobby. I have bigger fish to fry in this whole issue.
And this is where i almost wish I had a tangible injury. THAT at least you can go to the PT and it doesn't impact your daily life...it might make training a drag for awhile, but THIS...ohhhh..THIS is no good. No answers.
So...what does this mean? I don't know. But I took that picture above on my slow bike ride on Saturday to remind me: I'm still a lucky girl.
Or the whale watching excursion where I got to see a bajillion dolphins and share a beautiful day with a friend...I'm a lucky girl.
Or spending the afternoon shopping and hanging out with a good friend of mine I've known since elementary school and now lives in San Diego...I'm a lucky girl.
I have a lot of things that are really great in my life right now. I am a bit frustrated with my current state of training and the reality my body might be asking me to: slow down. Time will tell.
2 comments:
You did great in desert. Who expects freezing cold and rain in Palm Springs? Isn't the whole point of going to Palm Springs between December and April to escape that (and more extreme forms of) weather? When the conditions get so bad that dropping out is a mental option, finishing becomes pretty good.
Sorry that you are having some health issues. Must be contageous. I had similar (but not as serious) issues last winter (and still deal with it). My doc did the full battery of blood tests (she's a triathlete too) and said Vitamin D deficiency (and diet), for what its' worth. It is really frustrating to be tired and not have any idea how to get over it. Wish I had more concrete information.
Isn't overtraining just more training than the body can recover from without rest? That's not an absolute number, but a reflection of the state of your bodys' ability to recover. Stress, sleep, medical history, travel etc. all impact recovery, even for the same person. 2 miles of running every 3 days would probably overtrain a chain-smoking, alcoholic heroin addict.
No way - that totally sucks. I'm going to ask the obvious...Mono? Sure sounds like it with the total exhaustion. You getting enough iron, etc? Enough sleep?
Undiagnosed issues are the worst. And then you get sucked into the vortex of doctor appointments that go nowhere.
Good on you for thinking positive thoughts. Not easy at a time like this. I'll send some your way. Big hugs.
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