I hate having a needle in my arm–but today I voluntarily had blood drawn.
I’m walking the walk and getting my blood tested for serum ferritin levels–this is a way to understand iron levels in my blood. As you may remember, when I met with the MIT track coach last month, he encouraged me to learn more about iron levels in the blood of endurance athletes. I found this discussion of iron and athletic performance and health very interesting, and wrote a post about this:
http://www.mvrunning.com/coachs/be-as-strong-as-iron/
And so my next step is…I’m not just going to talk about iron levels, I’m going to get my own levels checked!
It was pretty easy for me to do this; I called my doctor and he wrote up the test request, and it took less than 10 minutes for me to stop by the test office and have them draw a little bit of blood (I admit, I hate that part; but it really is not that bad). If you are interested in getting your own test, you can ask your doctor to test for serum ferritin as part of your annual physical; you have to request this test, it is completely optional and not part of your regular physical.
I should hear back from my doctor in the next week or two, and we will see what he says. Keep checking mvrunning to see what I learn about the test and my own results. I hope this is as interesting to you as it is to me! By the way, our friend Josh Cox is already talking trash to me about blood; when I told him I was doing this, his response was to send me HIS levels–as an elite athlete, he monitors his blood levels every few months. I’m kind of intimidated! But I also think it’s pretty cool that me and the Monta Vista endurance athletes are learning about tools that elite athletes use to make themselves better.
Happy running everyone!