Iron

[Nate Pennington]

I agree with Camille 100%. I think many runners have not kept an eye on their iron levels and in turn have run less than their capability. I often wonder how fast I might have run in high school or college had I known about this when I was a little younger. I can remember at Malone College coach Jack Hazen and I having in-depth discussions of why I was not an NAIA All-American yet. I was pushing out top Kenyans in training yet when it came to races and also in some of the workouts I just did not have the strength to maintain. I was at the 2008 Olympic Track and Field Trials last year and ran into him again and as knowledgable a coach as Jack is and as many years of running (17) I have having my blood tested was never something we considered. I credit my coach (Lisa Rainsberger) for changing my running around. I do the same thing Camille does..take liquid iron with Orange Juice..along with a multivitamin. I spoke with Dr. Joe Vigil over the phone about a month ago and he terms it a 'iron tonic'..he suggests taking a 250mg vitamin C tablet along with the liquid iron(1 teaspoon) and OJ. My teammate, Dan Browne, keeps his iron checked regularly and says his usually hovers around 100ng/ml..prior to running 2:19 at the 2007 CIM Marathon I had my blood tested again and my iron levels were found to be at 63ng/ml...probably the highest they have EVER been in my ENTIRE running career.

All I can say is prior to the CIM Marathon and keeping a check on my diet and iron consumption I was running some of the strongest long runs and workouts that I have ever done and these were at over 6000ft elevation. I went out the first mile in 5:32 at CIM which would turn out to be my slowest..by mile 4 I caught up with the lead pack of Kenyans, an Ethiopian, two Canadians and a Russian and was running what felt to be a very comfortable pace despite sub 5 min miles. I passed 20 miles at 2:16:15 pace with the 2006 defending champion from Kenya and shortly after he dropped out...my last 10K I faulted but that focus on keeping myself physiologically healthy finally helped me to realize what type of speed I could really hold. You can't rule out your poor training sometimes to only diet, lack of sleep or 'thinking' too much..you have to ensure there isnt something physiologically wrong..sometimes the running community jumps to conclusions about what they think happened to elite runners...their most of the time wrong when it comes to top level running and low iron levels can be at the very source of the problem.

Hope this helps.

In Running,
Nate Pennington
www.natepennington.blogspot.com