The Change

Well, I think it’s really started.

Symptoms:

1. I have acne.
2. My sleep in the last few days has been rubbish for no evident reason.
3. I’m really struggling to build up my long runs because my energy levels are all over the place.
4. It’s been well over two weeks since my period should have started.

1. I’ve noticed these spotty swines popping up either side of my nose in the last few months. I thought, initially, that I should start having a ‘skin care routine’ instead of my usual cold-water splash, or at least get some kind of face cream or something. That didn’t work although I’m not very routine about applying it. These spots, although mildly annoying, are something I can tolerate.

2. Which is more than I can say for my sleep. Suddenly, I’m getting up several times to go to the loo but it’s only a tiny widdle. Plus I’m sounding, according to Anne, like a warthog in labour with my snoring. I’ve always been a snorer, sadly, and most of the time it’s a low-level rumble but at this rate Anne’s going to evacuate to the spare room. Even I’ve noticed the difference because my mouth is dried out. Perhaps I need to tape it shut for the night. 

3. The Garmin watch I’ve been wearing has been telling me the same thing, just in case I wasn’t aware that I was waking up several times in the night. And it keeps giving me a very low ‘Training Readiness’ score because of it. Normally I ignore that number and can push through a run without too much trouble, but I have noticed, that I’m finding it hard to go longer on my long runs. 

This time last year, I ran the Manchester marathon. Although the race itself wasn’t fantastic, I’d managed to increase my miles in the training runs slowly but surely. I have the big 50K ultra on the horizon this year, and I am getting increasingly anxious about getting the training up to a level where I can complete it. This isn’t an injury, or a mental slump. This is something new, and maybe I can dig really deep and pull out my inner Jasmin Paris, but my current excavations have drawn a blank.

Yesterday was a case in point. I began the run with an attitude that I would run/walk the full fifteen miles. My legs for the first three felt like concrete, and I had stomach cramps. Then up to a little after mile seven, I got into a slow shuffling rhythm, my heart rate was low, and I chomped on my chew blocks at regular intervals. I’d made decisions about the route that took me to within touching distance from home after ten miles which was probably a big mistake. The last two miles felt like the biggest effort, my left knee was starting to niggle for no reason, and I just dragged myself back to my front door instead of carrying on.

4. Those stomach cramps felt like period pains and I’ve been getting these sporadically over the last couple of weeks even though I haven’t started my period. 

Is this an anomaly? I had one cycle last year that was about 38 days long and then it went back to my normal. This one is now on day 46.

Am I now in the wildly erratic, no warning phase? So, I’ll have to carry my sanitary products with me everywhere, even on my long run, when they eventually start getting longer.

Or am I done for good? Imagine that freedom.

I know that there are things that might be done to alleviate the symptoms – HRT for example – but I’m still right at the beginning of my second adolescence, so for now, it’s just a case of monitoring the situation because day to day, I’m completely fine. I’m not yet getting hot flushes and my memory is as bad as it’s always been.

I just hope that I can muster enough energy for my ultra, as it would the coolest thing to be able to knock out 50K in my fiftieth year. Time is still on my side, so I need to keep digging.