Knocking Down Walls

It's been almost 3 weeks since I had my blood tested and discovered an iron deficiency. The good news is that it's iron deficiency and I can do something about it now in my pre-season. The bad news is that it's iron deficiency and I'm in a constant state of tiredness/lactic acid fatigue.

If I've learned anything in this early part of my season, it's patience. It will take 120 days until my blood is healthy again, and at least 30 before I start to notice a difference in how I feel. I'm also teaching my body to be more efficient during this process. Running at a lower heart rate and slower pace than I'd like has taught my body to recover faster. The 20+ miles I ran yesterday hardly feel like half that distance, however slow they may have been.

Through the frustration of iron recovery, I keep pushing forward with consistency as smartly as possible. The name of the game right now is getting healthy and having fun gearing up for pre-season. Knowing that I'll be rocking my training in a few months if I let my body heal and recover while building my iron stores is incentive enough to tone it down a few notches now.

Train smarter, not harder - more relevant now than it ever has been. I am learning more about myself during this time, but am determined to knock down the walls in my way and become the athlete I know I can be.

Thank you to John O'Neill at CRC for his advice and guidance. And the kicks in the rear.