“The Athlete’s Check-Up: Why Blood Work Matters More Than You Think”

I don’t know exactly when it started, but I have a pretty good idea. It’s one of those things where everything is fine until it's not. It sneaks up on you then hits you hard. 

I haven’t gone to a primary doctor in years because, well, laziness? I felt like I didn’t need to? I was able to go about my life and training with no problem, so since I was generally healthy, why did I have to go to the doctor? I know, big mistake. But, I know there are others who feel the same way. 

It was the Watervliet Arsenal 5k in September 2024 when I knew something was very wrong. Leading up to the race my marathon training was not going as planned. It was very difficult for me to hit paces that should have been easy. I took the rest days and down weeks seriously, but it just didn’t cut it. During the 5k, I started strong, then quickly unraveled half way through. It was like my heart was ready to jump out of my chest and I couldn’t get enough air. 

The next day I called a doctor and took a down week following the race. Perhaps I was overtraining? But I could feel that I wasn’t. My mind and legs wanted more speed and mileage and I could feel the fitness inside of me, it just wasn’t coming out. 

I continued training for the Philadelphia Marathon with the bare minimum of miles and I had no desire to do anymore than what was prescribed. My mental state was strong, but my body was not. It was difficult to run distance at a faster pace while shorter, faster work was much easier. 

Marathon day came and in my mind I was optimistic but also knew I couldn’t run a far distance at a faster pace. My assignment was to run with a friend who was averaging 8:15 per mile. I know that was going to be challenging and sure enough at mile 10, I just couldn’t keep up. My legs started hurting and breathing started to labor. The wheels quickly came off and the group I originally wanted to run with passed me trying to encourage and pull me along but I just couldn’t stay with them. It felt like my quads were going to rip off my bones. My pace slowed to 11:30 pace with a heart rate of 160+. Anyone who knows me, knows this is not how I roll with heart rate. My heart is usually very low. I knew when the heart rate didn’t go down while I slowed, I was in trouble. I walked a little, cried a little, but mostly kept my shuffle. I couldn’t wait to finish so I could stop exercising until I found out what was wrong with me. 

Friday after Thanksgiving I had my first doctor's appointment in a very very long time. I got blood work done thinking I had low iron, because thats what 99.9% of females have. Low and behold, my blood work came back and my iron was high with low toxicity, 267. I was shocked because usually females struggle with low iron. Luckily it was in the low toxicity range, but finding out the cause before it got into high toxicity was crucial. I cut out foods that had a lot of iron, researched food that helps lower iron and went down a rabbit hole of causes and what could happen if it continued to increase. High iron levels have the same effect as low iron, fatigue and labored breathing. 

I took 2 full weeks off of exercise. Then I introduced easy swimming, a few short runs and bike rides and a lot of strength. My activity level went way down to allow my body to recover. After the new year I was excited to see if my levels went down. They did not. In fact it went up. It was not exercise, diet or hemochromatosis. So, it had to be something else. 

Throughout 2024 I closely monitored my sleep, stress level and HRV to see trends. My sleep was continuously inadequate, HRV tanked and my stress level could not go down. Even when I tried relaxing at home, work and on rest days, everything was still out of whack. I got an air purifier hoping that would help at night, I picked up reading, drank filtered water instead of tap water but nothing changed.

With the help of my primary care doctor, we narrowed it down to possibly birth control and changed the type I was on. After 2 months, I finally started seeing and feeling improvement in stress level, HRV, RHR, sleep, focus and energy.

I never would have found the issue of iron surplus if I wasn’t running. By not being able to hit paces I should have been able to, was a red flag. Reflecting back, I think this started in CIM in 2023. The second half of the race, I fell apart and knew deep down something was off with my body because of the way I was feeling. I thought it was the heat, but the heat never affected me THAT bad. Fast forward to Cheap half Marathon, I got a PR and a sub 1:30, but I feel completely flat at the end of the race and wasn’t sure why. I was confident I could be a little faster and knew deep down something was wrong. 

The moral of the story is trust your gut and not what other people say and go see a doctor. When you are in the thick of training, eat right and monitor your stats, you know when something is off. Follow your intuition.