So yeah – after starting to getting my focus back in the last half of March, things have kind of gone to hell in April so far.
I ended up blowing off a 10 miler on the 1st because of family responsibilities but I knew I had a 5 day weekend so I figured I could easily make it up.
Then wasn’t feeling really good on Thursday (plus we did a road trip to pick up our new puppies) and lost another 5 miles there.
Friday was a bit of blur – was not feeling good and I noticed my weight starting to climb quickly from where I was Wednesday morning.
No running on Saturday either – was just wiped out and I was blaming it on getting up through the night with the new puppies – lost another chunk of miles there. Weight still climbing?
Then came Sunday – carved out some time, weather was nice outside and out I went – I didn’t know if I would get my scheduled 20 miler in but wanted to get some good miles at least…after about 2 miles I had a wicked headache and had to shut down the run. Weight was still climbing as well.
Monday – no run – felt pretty awful and quite tired still. I noticed my blood pressure must have been up too as I could feel the pressure in my head when I would bend over to pick up something off the floor. I was also out shopping with the wife and commented that it felt like I could actually feel my pants getting tighter as we walked through a store. Very strange feeling.
Tuesday (today) – woke up feeling pretty awful but it was back to work time, plus I had to take our son to running club before work – so up I got even though I was feeling really crappy. Checked my weight – and up 7 pounds since Wednesday morning!? Bloody hell. I am pretty big guy and a couple pound swing is not unusual from day to day depending on my running schedule but this is very unusual – and not particularly healthy. Felt pretty awful at work but seemed ok while at my desk in my office – but had to run up the stairs a couple times to help out a coworker and felt horrible each time. Just after lunch I was also standing having a discussion with one of my guys and I started getting chills and feeling a touch light headed. At that point I called it a day and headed home to bed.
Starting to feel a bit better tonight but have now missed another run and if I feel better tomorrow I am still unlikely to get in the full 10 miles that are scheduled. So I will most likely be missing some miles tomorrow as well.
But I do think I have figured out what the issue was – only one major diet change in the past week – I had some black licorice, not a huge amount but definitely more than I should have and it looks like I have had a reaction to it. I have now gone about 24 hours without having any and I am starting to feel better and my weight should start to normalize.
I’m glad I figured it out but that was a lot of miles to miss out on. My next race is on May 3rd so I do have time to recover and get back in the game but it will pretty unlikely at this point I will still be shooting for a new half marathon PR. I will have to see how recovery goes but I am feeling more positive to know that the crash is likely to be a temporary.
I guess there is a new lesson, or at least a lesson learned once more – watch your diet!
Bah.
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