Athletes & Iron

Iron Deficiency / Anemia is one of the issues that has plagued our team and runners around the world year after year. Running may seem like a simple sport, but there are many nuances that can make or break entire seasons, and iron levels (serum ferritin) are one of them.

To break it down as much as possible: running demands a lot of energy from the body. Energy is created a through a few different biological reactions, but for pretty much all events that last beyond 2 minutes, nearly all of our energy is created from the AEROBIC pathway - meaning oxygen is used to help create this energy. In order for our body to get oxygen to the muscle cells, it needs to be transported via our bloodstream, but more specially IRON is what transports it. When we don’t have enough iron, measured by our stored levels called FERRITIN, we simply cannot make enough energy to match the demands of running. At least, not at the level we’re used to. It’s not uncommon to see runners see performance decreases by 1-5 minutes in races, let alone be exhausted during practice and even more fatigued during the day.

Runners are susceptible to this because as we run, we cause very small microscopic tears in the capillaries (blood vessels) in our feet which leads to a loss in iron stores. Females are even more susceptible to this because of monthly blood-loss due to their menstrual cycle. This is especially challenging for vegans/vegetarians or people who simply don’t like to eat red meat as that is the most bio-available source of iron. That said, there are plenty of non-meat sources of iron!

It is recommended that we check this vital performance metric every so often with a simple blood test (especially at the start of summer training and start of the season as it’s quite challenging to get from a low number to a high number while continuing to train). Below I have listed a few articles and other resources on this topic, but feel free to reach out to me with any other questions you might have about it.