From my previous post - on Sunday I went on a long run. I'm on week two of a four week cycle so the long run was 12 miles. My legs were sore, I pushed through, and wrecked my legs.
Then the mystery started. On Tuesday, my legs were still wrecked. This was quite surprising as I've been running pretty regularly and it wasn't like I pushed really hard on Sunday so I couldn't figure out why my legs were still so sore. I also began to have an occasional heart palpitation (not sure if this is the correct term but kind of like a heart-hiccup). In any case I played it safe and didn't work out. Wednesday came along - still sore (though not as bad). What the heck?
On Wednesday I had a sudden craving for bananas. This is strange because though I do eat bananas in my cereal on occasion, it is definitely not my favorite member of the fruit family. But, knowing that cravings are normally the way your body tells you that it needs something, I ate one. Then I had another. I stopped at two.
Later on in the evening I was looking some things up on the web about heart palpitations (wasn't bad enough to send me to the doctor, but enough to make me wonder why). Turns out that heart palpitations can be a sign of a potassium deficiency. Hmmm.... Craving bananas.... Bananas have potassium.... Hmmm.... I went ahead and had another one.
Today the legs were much better. Was able to get through my usual workouts without trouble. Heart palpitations seem to be gone. Could be a placebo effect but I'm not taking any chances.
In the winter I don't worry so much about electrolyte and mineral replacement. But thinking about it I should be worried about it. During spin classes and runs on the treadmill and even outdoor runs in the cold, I'm still sweating quite a bit, still losing electrolytes and salts. With my workout schedule I definitely should be replacing this loss but for months now I haven't been. This is what I believe led me to a deficiency.
Looks like I'll be buying endurolytes year round now. That and eating more bananas. At least until I get the urge to start climbing trees. Then I'll have to cut back.
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