For the past few weeks, I have not been well. I am not sick per se, but definitely something is not right with me. Starting with the beginning of the training segment, I was 142 lbs., the same as I have been for a couple years now. Within a training segment, generally my weight will fluctuate from 142 down to 135 when I'm peaking.I always weigh myself post run and use that as a good gauge of how much I need to be refueling and rehydrating. It has generally been a good guideline and I have used it since college with relative success. If my weight shifts drastically, it usually comes at a period where my training is in the trash. Either I am getting sick or am not getting enough calories in. There is a very real point where the tank just gets run dry. That brings me to the present.
Currently, over the past 3 weeks, my weight has been dropping...a lot. As of February and even into March, my weight stuck around 140 (give or take 2 pounds based on what the run was that day). Then in April, 135 became the norm, but I thought nothing of it. Workouts were actually going better, not worse, and such a small amount could be attributed to a normal margin of fluctuation and even the added speed work I have been doing. By May, 132 was my guideline and now, I've hit under 130 for a week.
I have been eating the same foods, in the same or even greater quantities, but I have hit the 120s on several occasions this past week. Workouts have started digging deeper and deeper into the tank too. Last week, I raced a 5k slower than I split during the 10k earlier in the month. For the first time in my life, I still had gears to spare, but the tank was on "E" for the last mile or more. I usually suffer the opposite direction.
Now my problem is figuring out where to turn. Do I go to a regular doctor?...a nutritionist?...voodoo? I don't know! Should I get blood work done? Some have suggested I could have gotten worms from eating sushi or that I could even be anemic (I take iron every day though and eat a lot of red meat). I usually would not worry about something like this, but now I've lost almost 10% of my body weight in 2 months and there is no end in sight.
Since I lost my hearing in high school, I have had a sort of distrust for the medical profession and have only gone in for sports physicals since then (and emergency room stuff when I was hit by a car). I do not want to go to a doctor, but I might now have to. I guess that is one of the responsibilities that goes along with being an adult: I have to take care of my body.
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