Iron Deficiency
Iron Deficiency has become one of the most common explanations for surprising stagnation or even decreases in performance of endurance athletes.
There have been several notable cases where Iron deficiency has been diagnosed and then performance has turned around drastically and quickly.
I will start with Todd Smalling http://tinyurl.com/y2vsozfA Tennessee high school runner who competed a few years back. He was a pretty good runner during his junior year, I believe he ran around 4:40 for the mile etc. But coming into his senior year he seemed to be running very strongly. In the early season Tennessee Classic race he finished second to highly touted Ben Hubers http://tinyurl.com/yyfkt6f of Georgia. They ran 14:57 and 15:03respectively on the tough 2.98 mile course http://tinyurl.com/y2b3kku Later in the season Smalling contracted a stress fracture in his foot that effectively ended his season. Hubers went on to earn an 18th place at the footlocker national meet. But Smalling cited his unbelievable increase in performance to a diagnosis of anemia. He began taking iron and eating a steak at least two times per week, which allowed him to get his cross-country times near 15:00 minutes.
Another example is that of James Strang from Baylor school in Chattanooga. http://tinyurl.com/ydumebs During his senior year of high school, he was running high mileage but was unable to go much faster than 4:40 in the mile. In his first meet of his senior cross-country season he ran around 17min. He then had a physical and was diagnosed with anemia. After a few weeks on iron supplements, he ran 15:10 in the state meet (course slightly shorter than 3-miles), 26 seconds behind winner and future Georgetown standout Andrew Bumbaloughhttp://tinyurl.com/yebqf5f . The iron continued to take hold and Strang saw his performances drastically increase. In the footlocker south regional, he beat Bumbalough running 14:51 for the 5k course to finish in third place in the region race… his same place at the divisional state meet.
And one of the most recent and most visible cases is that of Oklahoma State superstar German Fernandez. Everyone knows of German’s freshman year success. http://tinyurl.com/y6rekyz He was Big Twelve champion in cross-country, he was leading the chase pack behind Chelanga and Rupp at the NCAA cross-country nationals, till his Achilles took him out of the race with less than 2k to go. Then he went to the indoor boards and ran nearly 3:55 flat..http://tinyurl.com/d8v4wz breaking the collegiate and indoor world junior mile record. Then he capped off this tremendous year with a national title in the 1500m outdoors. But he struggled early during his sophomore year. Coming off of injury he was not running his full mileage load and “only” managed to be the fifth man on his national championship cross-country team. The low mileage and recent injury were pegged as the reasons for his performance level. But as indoor season approached it was obvious that his progression was not as it should be and they began to do blood tests… and what do you know, the verdict, iron deficiency.
It seems that about 9 times out of 10, seemingly unexplainable stagnation or decrease in performance level can be explained by iron deficiency. So how do we combat this common ailment?
Well the most obvious and what I’ve found to be most effective is to TAKE IRON in supplemental form.
But it is important to go about taking iron in the correct manner, otherwise it will be ineffective. For instance, research has shown that the average absorption rate for iron pills is about 2-4%. And things like Vitamin D and Calcium block most iron absorption. http://tinyurl.com/yekahdcSo it is important to avoid ingesting these types of things while taking the iron. Also, liquid iron has a better absorption rate than iron in pill form. Although Vitamin D, Calcium and Caffeine block the absorption of iron, Vitamin C aides in the absorption http://tinyurl.com/dk762q. So taking the iron away from meals and with crushed up Vitamin C tables (500mg) and/or some orange juice.. of course orange juice w/o calcium.. can help in iron absorption.
