Beer with me

i hate typos. funny coming from a huge offender as of late. it's painful i know but bare with me. okay, kidding, beer with me. i'm not quite the smart cookie i was a year ago. in fact, a lot has changed. overtraining syndrome rocked my world and i don't mean in the good way.

so... "what's wrong with me?" i'll answer it once and for all. i get asked this quite frequently and then more times then not, get insulting responses. "i've over-done it before too. i had to take, like, 2 WHOLE weeks off!"

the blank stare they get back from me has little to do with comprehending and more so with how much i want to punch them in the babymaker.

yes, it's overtraining syndrome:

it started with chronic tiredness, unusually high resting heartrate, night sweats. i stopped getting period, got a sore throat for 3 months, and blisters that wouldn't heal. i would get light-headed when i'd go from sitting to standing and my performance got stale. my speed was decreasing despite my increasing training. i complained to my coach but thought it was just normal ironman training fatigue.

then, i couldn't get out of bed. i would lie in bed crying because my muscles ached and hurt so bad. i would wake up exhausted. the slightest of efforts would require tons of rest. any muscle output would immediately generate lactic acid. walking up a hill, i nearly blacked out and my heartrate shot over 200 beats a minute. scariest thing ever. my labs consistantly found no estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, a vitamin D deficiency, an underfunctioning thyroid, and a dropping white blood count. my boy had stopped working.


7 months later, i've made some gains but still can't train. this past week i exercised twice and 2 days later, i needed 4 hours in bed after waking to gain enough strength to face the day. damn. fo shizzle it's stage 3 chronic overtraining syndrome. i used to think chronic fatigue was bullshit. not very sensitive for the therapist but true. this kind of deep fatigue can be equated to mono. 


so why did this happen? not sure. my training was very rigorous as was my personal life. at the time, i worked an extremely stressful new job, in a new city, with a newly broken heart. i threw myself into training and pushed more and more, thinking i was doing the right thing until the wheels blew off.


my treatment? living a fun, good life. after 7 months of full-on resting and hormone replacement therapy, it doesn't appear to be restarting my non-functioning immune and endocrine systems. the fuses are still blown out and there aren't any medical answers on how to restart or shock the systems into working again.


january 1st is coming on way too fast. i've learned not to expect miracles or quick success. this is the slowest, non-controllable process i've ever been involved in. i can't push harder. i'm starting to think that even 8 months won't be enough time and 2010 triathlon season will be a bust. the 2 half-ironmans i'm in and the ironman are a no-go. if i can even do them, they will be training races.


i've thought about selling my pimped out race bike and walking completely away but i'm unable to. i still miss training and racing with all my heart and hope to get back out there. so this christmas season, i'm asking santa for my health again. i'd appreciate any prayers, positive thoughts, offerings to the tri-gods, and/or healing energy you can spare.


i'll work on keeping the positive attitude and you bring the beer. here's to health!