Original content from Movable Mom
Happy Memorial Day Weekend wrap-up! I took a couple days off from the blog and other blog reading for a silent memory of our fallen soldiers. This turned out to just be such a busy weekend for me. I ran a lot of errands, a party with friends, a swim play date, discovered wood rot in one window (yay), some bicycle fix-ups (more on that later), a new iPhone 5 (more on that later too). Phew! I’ll have some posts later this week about some of those topics, but let’s get caught up a bit on running and body things. Today’s post is about: strong runs, low iron levels, and a tuna noodle salad.
A week of strong runs
I reached my goal last week of hitting at least 15 total miles – in fact, I ran 16 miles. Since I ran the Carmel Marathon and have been dealing with foot recovery, I wanted to make sure to stick to the 10% rule on increasing my weekly mileage to heal, rest, and recover properly. So far it seems to be working well. It’s been a month and I’ve ramped back up as:
Week 1: 5 miles
Week 2: 10 miles
Week 3: 12 miles
Week 4: 16 miles
So, give or take a 10-15% increase in weekly mileage. Nothing at all killer or grueling. This month of May was meant to be a recovery time and I really wanted to give my body some much needed down time.
Low iron levels?
Even though I’ve been running and recovering well, I have started to get suspicious of my body and the affects of marathon training. I started having some “lethargy”. Not on my runs, oddly enough all of my runs have been strong, zippy, and solid. But throughout the day, I’m noticing more “lethargy”. My immediate suspicion is low iron.
Runners lose more iron than non-runners for a multitude of reasons.
Through your feet – Foot strike hemolysis is a process where red blood cells are damaged when the foot hits the ground, thus reducing your hemoglobin levels.
Through sweat – Iron is lost through sweating. While the amount of iron loss isn’t staggering, for a runner working out in hot and humid conditions, the losses can easily add up.
Through the intestines – Iron loss through the GI tract is fairly minor, but there may be a cumulative effect over months of running that leads to iron deficiency.
Female runners – Female runners have an especially difficult time maintaining proper iron levels since they also lose iron during menstruation.
I’m going to start taking an iron supplement at night before bedtime and drink a little more orange juice to make sure I’m getting the vitamin C in to aid in iron absorption. I’m also going to add in one meal of ground beef each week. We’re not huge meat eaters and my husband has been told to avoid red meat as much as possible, but he is a runner too and a little ground beef is probably ok. I’m not due for my annual physical until next February when I get some blood tests with it so for now, I’ll keep an eye on this. If I feel it’s not getting better, I’ll contact my doctor. I’ve read about this low iron problem with several of the regular female runners I follow so I know this is not an uncommon situation.
Sources of iron rich foods and a tuna noodle salad
While gorging out on red meat isn’t the best choice to up my iron levels, there are some other options! Tuna is one good source so I made a tasty Chobani Tuna Noodle Salad this weekend. It is perfect for the hot summer months and I often make big batches of pasta salads during the summer to keep in the fridge ready to eat cold.
Recipe:
Boil approx. 1 box of macaroni noodles (I chose Barilla Plus Omega-3 pasta)
Drain the noodles and add them to a large storage bowl
Add in at least 3 pouches or more of tuna packs
Add in one bag of frozen peas
After it’s cooled a bit, add in two heaping spoons of Chobani plain yogurt (more if you want more “creamy”)
Add low sodium Lawry’s Seasoned Salt to taste (I used quite a bit because this was a big batch of pasta salad)
Do you worry about your iron levels with marathon training?
Original content from Christina
