The Half-Mary That Never Was…Overtraining?

I think I saw the signs coming from afar, but chose rather to ignore them…

It started with strange sort of ’spells’ where my heart would beat a bit funny, I felt tired, like I needed to lie down…then the last week before my mini-taper started to feel really, really tough. Keeping a sceptical eye on my heart-rate monitor I saw my HRMaxs were going up ever-so-slightly, I was becomming a bit crabby… the athlete’s worst enemy outside of the injury- overtraining!

The week before my half-marathon I began having all-out dizzy spells where I had to get on the floor fast because I was going to faint (this first happened at a Blonde Redhead concert in Paris, luckily we were just behind the sound board and it was in a bit of a pit so I could sit on the edge and not have to leave…). The spells became more and more frequent, and I started having constant stomach pain and feeling like I was going to be sick.

Not fun.

So, despite all the desire in the world, and the hard work, too, I opted out of last Sunday’s half. Actually, my visiting mom sort of talked me out of it, or maybe better yet gave me permission to opt out. I felt horrible, like I didn’t even feel like I could run. I was chilled and had goose flesh and was tired.

The good news is I went for my first run today in a week. Felt great, just a baby run mind you, only 5.5mi, but I figured since I haven’t had a spell since Thursday I could try. My stomach is sill jacked, but it didn’t keep me from running.

I had some blood work done and I’ll get those results back tomorrow evening, so at least I’ll know if it’s anemia. Could also be electrolytes (I have been having these very abnormal cravings for salt).

Hoping to ease back into training this week…