Well hello there! It’s been quite awhile — chances are you forgot you even subscribed to this (it’s okay — I forgot I had this thing).
Last we chatted I had to accept that the 2023 NYC Marathon wasn’t happening for me thanks to a pesky stress reaction in my hip. Thankfully I was able to defer my entry and all the funds I had raised for Fred’s Team to this year. So here we are, 2024. You may be wondering what’s been happening with my running, so let’s get to it.
I finally started running consistently with a very cautious run/walk program towards the end of the summer. Things were going well, and by October I was starting to feel more like myself; I could do little workouts and the paces were close to where I was before all the stress reaction nonsense started. But then in early December, I just started feeling bad. Most of my runs suddenly started feeling like slogs. The first few times I figured okay, I’m having an off week, it happens. Holidays are on their way, stress is high at work, it’ll even itself out eventually. But it didn’t… I started getting winded while doing simple things like walking up a flight of stairs. And I’m not talking about the staircase at the 63rd street F subway stop, I’m talking a normal household flight of stairs. I also started feeling hot and overheating easily. I’m talking dripping sweat, needing to take my winter coat off while walking for more than 5 minutes outside. And the worse symptom, my heart rate skyrocketed. It was sitting ~80 bpm at rest, with it jumping to ~140 when walking. For context, my resting HR is usually in the 50’s and 60’s, and easy walking usually put me just over 100. I had no idea what it could be, but I knew something was up. I suddenly felt like I was in the worst shape of my life, when that was far from the truth. So off to the doctor I went…
Thankfully my doctor took my symptoms seriously, and was smart enough to order bloodwork to test my thyroid levels. It hadn’t even crossed my mind that it could be thyroid related… I guess that’s why she is a doctor and I am… not. The first set of bloodwork showed a nearly nonexistent TSH level, and a super high T3 level. That sent me for a second round of bloodwork to test antibody levels, a thyroid ultrasound, a trip to the cardiologist and echocardiogram to just to rule anything else out, and finally and endocrinologist. It was a lot, but I was able to get it all done within a two-week period thanks to working from home with a flexible schedule, and a doctor who helped get me in asap. So by the second week in January I had my answer - Grave’s Disease (and an otherwise fine heart)!
If you’re like me and you’ve never heard of Grave’s Disease until now, don’t worry. You’ve likely heard of Hashimoto’s, and Grave’s (despite its less than ideal name) is essentially its opposite. Turns out I have an autoimmune disease that causes my thyroid to be an overachiever! As soon as I got the first set of bloodwork results back and started Googling, as I was reading the symptoms list it was wild to see just how many I was experiencing! By mid-January I was on medication (methimazole for the thyroid suppression and propranolol for the heart rate issues), and started feeling better within a week.
This is all background to say that I really didn’t run from mid-December to the end of January. I tried a few times before I knew what was going on, but the crazy high heart rate was so uncomfortable and frankly scary. At one point I saw 198 bpm while not really exerting myself and that’s when I knew I needed to shut it down. Thankfully once the medications started doing their thing and I was feeling better, I was able to start exercising again. And re-start my return to running. My endocrinologist told me that as soon as I started to feel better, I could start exercising again… so that was an easy guide.
I’ve been running again consistently for a little over a month, and I think I finally turned a corner last week. It’s been slow going — running has not felt easy and the first few weeks were not enjoyable. It’s hard to feel like you’re working hard and seeing paces 2+ minutes per mile slower than you were running just a month earlier. I kept reminding myself that I have a marathon to run this year and did my best to stay consistent while also doing SLT (megaformer pilates) and strength training.
I’m feeling confident that I can train for and run the 2024 NYC Marathon. I don’t know what the training or race will look like, and I’m trying to mentally prepare myself now to offer up a lot of grace; PRs may be a thing of the past (or maybe not!), but only time will tell. Right now I’m trying to be as consistent as possible to get my mileage up and to a spot where I can jump into marathon training when the time comes (early July). So for now you can find me slogging through base mileage and doing lots of strength training. Oh, and fundraising for Fred’s Team! My goal is the same and all my donations from last year will be moved over to my donation page this spring, but in the meantime if you haven’t donated yet, now is a great time to do so! Click here to donate.
Cheers to being back to training and complaining!!
I'm glad you have answers. That sounds so scary!