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What the Doctor Said.Mar 21st 2008, 3:16am
 

 

What the Doctor Said.

Published by
dtmack   Mar 21st 2008, 3:16am
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For some background information on blood and why it is important to endurance athletes my blog last week might help. I will try not to repeat what I wrote last week, but I'm going to switch gears slightly and write about my training situation at the present. My intention with the marathon blog is and was, to bring in a number of different prespectives, from nutrition, training, injuries, interviews and sometimes, my personal experience.

That being said my situation has gone from bad to worse in the past day, and my mind is racing as too why and how I let this happen. Yesterday, a doctor got my final blood results back and his first words were: "Well Danny, I've honestly never seen data like this before." Not what I like to hear in a doctors' office after I have been feeling like shit...."Your hemoglobin has dropped more than I have ever seen in a person over the past 4 months."

Refering back to last weeks blog, hemoglobin is another word for red blood cells, and red blood cells carry oxygen, when we run we kind of need oxygen....a.k.a. this is not good.

In September right before I started my last hard training build-up to the marathon trials I got my base line blood levels taken, so going off that data my hemoglobin has dropped 10.7% since that date. To put things in prespective if athletes can get a 1-2% gain that can be the difference in barely making the Olympic Trails and making the actual team. Putting things in my prespective, I went through the 2 mile mark in an indoor race up at University of Washington and I was 20 seconds off pace and about ready to pass out, so I DNF'ed. A silver lining right now, is at least there is a reason, for a bit here I have been wondering if I was just a "wuss" mentally. The doctor was actually surprised I could run period.

Now the big question is why, and what do I do to fix this, can it be fixed? Looking back at what I changed, the obvious thought is an altitude tent. I started using one to help gain red blood cells, not lose them. Also, those little tents and generators are pricey and a not fun to use. But, my mindset was I just want to get the most out of my body, so I gave it a shot. With the help of a supposed knowledgable person I had a solid protocol for using the tent. After talking to a different specialist last night (side note; this guy is one the most intellegent, caring individuals I have ever met and I would highly recommend him to anyone with questions he is Corey Hart out of the Physio Performance Lab in Boise, ID), he could not believe that the protocol I used was recommended by someone whom is "knowledgable" in altitude tents. Now, I need to say I'm not blaming this other person, in the end we have to do enough research and make a intellegent choice. Problem is that altitude tents are still hugely unknown, and people react differently. The smart way for me to use it should have been much more conservative. I will actually talk about altitude tents next week, but for now back to hemoglobin.......or lack of.

There are a few reasons this could happen; 1) I am rare and have a negative genetic response to altitude tents, 2) I have some internal bleeding going on and don't know it, 3) I have some weird chornic disorder that is just showing it's now in my blood count, 4) I have a hormonal problem that did not show itself until now. I will know more in the next day or so because I'm going to the doctor tomorrow, though my gut is saying #1 is the main problem, plus I have been sick, plus I might be overtrained considering I have a fulltime job on top of running. But the important thing to take away from the experience so far is to make knowledgable choices in the doctors/coach/experts or whomever we choose, and even after we choose a good doctor/coach/expert etc... question, and question again.

doctor

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