Doctor’s Visit & Tri Training – All in a Day’s Work

So yesterday I headed off to the doctor’s office for myself -something I rarely do.

Yet I felt that some things I’d been experiencing warranted a blood draw.

In the past three weeks I’ve been extremely tired. I’ve also had some episodes of dizziness/lightheadedness – one of which was the blackness washes over you as you walk across the room variety – no fun! I’ve also had a few headaches – one a migraine that not even ibuprofen could fix – and I’ve been feeling rather run down.

As a distance runner, I sometimes don’t know how much of what is going on with me is due to not training correctly and how much could be an issue – so I figured I’d let an expert decide.

I did find out a few things:

1. I’m not anemic, my first thought
2. My blood pressure is low but normal, she says, though it came back at 114, which looks ok from what I can tell (runners have lower blood pressure anyway and it appears low is under 90)

She mentioned I could be experiencing drops in my blood pressure throughout the day, which would explain dizziness.

I’m not so sure it is that, though. She did a CBC, and I’ll get the results in a few days.

I have tried not to google anything (lupus comes back!) but that’s hard for me. However, I believe part of this could be training related. I’m wondering if:

1. I’m not getting enough sodium based on the change in humidity from Ca. to here
2. I’m not getting enough food for my training needs (I have lost a few pounds and I’ve mentioned before that’s not good for me)
3. I’m not getting enough rest

So, I’ve decided to make a few changes in my fitness and diet.

1. Eat more calories. I’ve been doing this the past few days to see if I can bring my weight back up. I lost 3 1/2 lbs, which for me is quite a bit. I want to be back up to my regular weight as quickly as possible. I don’t want to have to keep a calorie journal because i do so poorly at this – and I don’t have time. But if need be, I will. (big sigh!)
2. Drink Gatorade on long runs. I’d stopped doing this when my runs dropped below 10 miles. Now I’m at 10-12 so I want to add it back in. However, as humid as it is here in the summer, I think I’ll add it back in one runs over 5. And I will mix the gatorade with water since the straight stuff about kills me to drink!
3. More rest. I’ve been going to bed and trying to get 8 hours a night.
4. Drop back to 5 training days, two off. I added a day of running a while ago so I’m doing 5 days of cardio. Then I would do strength on Monday and Friday so I was actually working out -even if not cardio – almost everyday! Now I will only do 5 days, whatever I can fit in. That’s it!
5. Cross train. I want to do my first tri next fall so I’m adding in swimming and biking – today I biked for the first time in a while, only 3.5 miles after a 3.1 mile run. When the pool warms up enough I’ll begin swimming.

I’m not sure if there is something weird going on in my body or if I’m just tired and overtraining and not training responsibly.

I do know that when I’m training for a race I’m very cautious about what I eat and what I weigh and how much I rest, and when I stop training all of those great words of wisdom head off with my running shoes. So, perhaps I’ve just been making poor choices.

In other news . . . .

I’m excited about cross training. I miss swimming, and think that once this summer ends and winter rolls in again I’m going to join the Y so I can continue swimming workouts. I really feel 5 days of running for me is a lot – maybe I’m not yet ready for that many miles and two young kids, or maybe I need to reconfigure my workouts some so I’m not always getting up at 5 AM and I can have some sleep in days.

I have to pull up the tri I want to do and post it. Once I get my goal out there, there will be no turning back!

Happy running (biking and swimming!) Off to the Burger King play area – yes, I said it, I do live in a small town now! – for some entertainment for the kids until I go grocery shopping. My mom is coming in for Easter and I have a new menu planned – can’t wait!