Last year I trained as hard as I could for the Bethlehem Running Festival. I went in feeling like I could do it and I did. This year I followed the same training plan and went in feeling like I could do it and I did.
This year though, I went in with goals. I picked a goal race. Mine was the 10K. I also planned to start the half with the 2;45 pacer and see what happened. As it was, I ended up running the half with my son. By about mile 9 we came across the 2;45 pacer and we went back and forth with who was in front.
The biggest difference this year though was being on Yorvipath. It allowed me to follow my training plan more closely. Although I will say towards the end, I was less perfect than I should have been. Last year, I was worried about adding calcium supplements and making sure not to crash and burn with calcium crash. On Yorvipath, those fears are less and less, but I do still keep calcium with me.
So how do things compare
While on face it doesn’t look like a huge on the smaller races, there is a huge improvement on the half.
Another big difference is the almost 25 pounds I have lost, but that is for another post.
I do know that I would not have had this improvement if not for the Yorvipath. No, it doesn’t make me run faster, but it does make my body work the way it is supposed to work. I have more energy. I don’t have the muscle cramping and I have not had a calcium crash or anything close to it since I started. Now, I am still figuring it out. I’ve recently upped my dosage and hope to go for blood work this week to see how levels are looking.
So now that this goal is done, it is time to look forward and figure out my next goal.
There will be a day I can not run…… Today is not that day!
2016 was the year I began tryin to take my running to the next level. I was working with a running coach. I had goals. There was no stoping me….. or so I thought.
Then, as I’ve said before, two weeks after running NYC Marathon which I crashed and burned because I went out WAY too fast I had my thyroid out. As you know this was the surgery that left me with Hypoparathyroidism.
I’ve started thinking about new goals now that I am on the Yorvipath hormone replacement therapy. It has gotten me looking at where I’ve been with my running and what I might now be able to do now that my body seems to be working again.
The following year, I wanted to push myself to run another marathon. It was hard. It was hot. I did it. I finished in 5:48:52. My marathon times only got slower from there. I usually finished shortly after 6 hours. My slowest being in 2023 at 7:14.
It was always a struggle. I had to balance the need to replenish my calcium supplies for running while taking into account my kidneys. Then there was also the issue of making sure not to allow calcium to get to low causing a crash.
I pushed myself.
Now that I am taking my Yorvipath, it appears that my body is able to once again do what is asked. Suddenly I can push to hit 12 minute paces. I still. Have much to go, but it is a start. My Garmin even recorded a best pace of 9:24. No, I can’t sustain that but the fact that I hit it is a start.
So as I get ready to train for Bethlehem festival, it is time for new goals…..
I’ve been talking a lot about my pre-training for my October Bethlehem Running Festival races. Pre-training will officially turn into training this week.
What does the week look like now that it’s go time.
4 mile run
5 mile run
4 mile run
7 mile long run
Am I ready for this level of training? I guess we will find out. Here is what I do know……
I am down now over 15 pounds thanks to following WeightWatchers!
I am 100% off all supplements and currently my Yorvipath dosage is keeping my calcium stable. I’ve gone for several runs in the heat, with fast paces, and even shortly before my injection was due without issues. Fingers crossed this keeps up.
I will say that I feel once again like me. I will also say that after Natpara getting pulled once I got used tot his feeling that part of me worries that something similar will happen. Although I don’t think this will get pulled, I think my concern is more about insurance suddenly not approving it. It is nice not to constantly deal with effects of low calcium and have a stable level at 9.6!!!
With that being said, I do feel like I am at a good place to begin this training plan. There are no excuses. If I follow the plan it is on me. If I don’t it is on me as well. As long as my Yorvipath continues to work, I need to do my part.
Currently, I am totally off Calcitriol and only taking one dose of calcium. Last bloodwork was taken when I was taking two doses of calcium. Corrected calcium level of of 9.7. I have yet to get bloodwork with the one dose.
This weekend I went out for two runs.
Saturday
It was HOT. It was humid. I got out early, but really didn’t matter. I am in pretraining for the Bethlehem Running Festival, so I am just testing things out. I also am testing how I feel with Yorvipath. This will give me ideas for training and goals.
Got out the door and about half mile in I realized that I didn’t take my morning calcium since I left earlier than I normally take it. Figured this would bee a good test and I wasn’t worried because I had my extra calcium. So I just kept going. I will say around mile 2 I felt a little tingle in my upper arms. Could have been just due to the heat, but I took my calcium just to avoid any issues especially since I don’t know levels.
Not too bad:)
Today, I intentionally went out not taking my morning calcium as a test. Don’t worry, I was again packing my morning dose. It was still warm but not as hot as day before. July humidity that’s for sure. My today was just to run a decent pace and run the whole thing without walking. While I did again stop to take calcium around 2 miles, I did pretty much run the whole way. I’m not sure if I necessarily needed calcium physically as much as mentally I needed it. Better safe than sorry.
Today was a beautiful run with negative splits, pushing myself but still feeling I could push more.
I am still not sure if the heart rate was right today as that seems low. My resting heart rate is normally in 70’s an I’ve had to watch heart rate from going too high previously. So something to watch. Other than that I really couldn’t have asked for better run.
Sorry that I didn’t update sooner. My keyboard died and I needed to get a new one:)
First world problems. I know.
Anyway 2 weeks on Yorvipath. I’ve gone for blood work twice. They have both been good. Corrected calcium levels were in the mid 9’s. For those not versed in calcium levels, anything under 8.5 is low. But I have to say it is more than just calcium numbers. I feel like my body is working again. Probably because Yorvipath is actually replacing the hormone my body is missing.
I am still in the beginning stage. I am adjusting dosages while lowering daily pill intact. Exciting stuff is that I am no longer taking any calcitrol and still in the 9’s!!!!! I am lowering my dosage of calcium supplements. The goal is to stop them too. I am down to 2 doses a day. More blood work to follow. More adjustments to follow, but it is already worth it.
Right now the biggest side effect I have is bruising from blood work and redness around injection sites. You inject in either belly or thighs and rotate sites. I have also had some leg pain, but not sure if that is from just all I’ve been recently doing. Monitoring.
So now……
WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING?
Well the first week, I admit, I took it very easy. I did not work out. I also had a busy week with school, so I didn’t have a lot of extra time anyway. Then after a week an half, I started at it.
One night I wanted to just run. So I did!
I felt winded. I felt like I pushed myself, but what I didn’t feel was the Hypopara symptoms.
Then I went for a 4 mile walk/run with a friend. I followed that with going and getting ten forty bags of mulch and doing some gardening. IN THE HEAT! I hydrated. I took breaks. I did all the things anyone would do and I felt like I could do it!
Then the next day I went for a three mile run on my own. I tested out a running vest. I ran pretty much the whole thing except for walking to drink as still figuring out the vest thing. No symptoms.
Then I did some more gardening and mulching.
Then the next morning I did more.
All the while not feeling ANY symptoms of low calcium.
If you’ve been here a while, you know about my Hypoparathyroidism. You know the struggles. You know I’ve been waiting and hoping for getting on a hormone replacement therapy.
I started the process. I expected to have to fight my insurance company for approval. I have been pleasantly surprised. I got the call that I was approved.
Then I got a call on Monday that it would be shipped this week. I spoke with the nurse who walked me through the process of the daily injections. I spoke to my doctor and was ready to go.
Logistics:
Went for blood work prior to starting. (Side-note – what I found funny is that my levels were good, but I was still symptomatic with muscle spasms that night)
I am starting on the middle dosage injection.
Going from .25 Calcitiol three times a day to once.
Keeping calcium as normal while body gets used to it.
Going for blood work in three days. Will touch base with doctor and go from there.
Physically
Just going by feel now. Took first injection this evening at 8 pm. I really had to think when I would take it as has to be same time every day. Mornings too crazy especially now while this is all too new. Plus I am usually home in evening.
Mentally
I’m worried about low calcium during transition.
I’m worried about high calcium during transition.
I’m excited. I’m nervous. I’m anxious. I’m all over the place.
At the heart of this though, I am looking forward to my body working the way it should again.
We are searching for that magic pill. Some are even opting for an injection instead. I get it. Sometimes it is necessary. Sometimes there are medical reasons that would require such extreme measures. Sometimes there isn’t except that loosing weight is hard. I’ve thought about other options, but as I mentioned before I signed up for weight watchers at end of April.
I am the type of person that needs a plan. In my 40’s when I lost 20 pounds (before gaining it all back and more), I used the South Beach Diet. While it helped, it is not a healthy diet for me nor did I want so much a diet as I wanted to retrain my brain/body to eat healthy.
So here we are 7 weeks in and 11.4 pounds down.
Steady…. Slow but steady
As you can see from my step goal, I am doing well. Probably because as a PreK teacher, I am rarely off my feet during the day. So that seems to be working in my favor. I am trying to be steady in working out. I, honestly, have not been running since the Brooklyn Half. I’ve been walking, indoor biking, and weights. I have not been as steady on that as I would like, but I do know that I am gearing up to start my Hat Trick Training at end of July. So theres that.
I like a plan. I like an easy plan. I have found the plan that is now working for me. Tracking which I’ve tried before and never stuck with seems to be working for me now. I think the overall approach to Weight Watchers is what is working for me. I’m not just tracking my food. I am assessing and thinking about what foods I am eating. The daily points have made me think, “is it worth it” when thinking about food choices. I am also encouraged to move more to get more points!
I still don’t feel like I am necessarily on a diet, but on a healthy eating path. When I pack my lunch, it is both tasty but also weeding out the easy to grab processed foods.
Breakfast, lunch and snack for the day.
That being said, I am still eating a cookie which I track. The thing is I am thinking just one cookie and not several. A small piece of ice cream cake and not a full slice. I don’t want to deprive myself. I just want to find the balance.
I’m not going to lie though…… I know hitting my goal weight is going to take time. I know it’s going to be harder than I want it to be. I know. I know. I know….. but, but , but ……….I am now one pound less than I weighed in last seen 2019. So that is a win! I am also a little less than 5 pounds away from my first goal weight. Then after that 15 more.
It is going to take time. The weight didn’t go on over night, so I can’t expect it to come off overnight either.
Today, June 1st, is Wold Hypoparathyroidism Awareness Day.
If your not part of Hypoara community, you probably never heard of it. That’s ok, I never heard of it till 9 years ago when I joined it after my thyroidectomy in November of 2016. I joined the estimated 70,000 to 100,000 individuals in the United States who deal with this…
Told you I was rare:)
Anyhoo…
As I told my family when I had a serious calcium crash recently, I carry it well. Or at least I think I do. Maybe I don’t, but it’s my story to tell. So I go with I carry it well.
I do what I need to do, deal with what I need to deal with, and still know that there are those with much worse complications than I have.
I am lucky.
Yes, I have to take my daily pills
Yes, I deal with low (Hypocalcaemia) calcium symptoms….
I am lucky because due to the location I live in, I have been able to learn from and be treated by an endocrinologist who not only is familiar with this disorder, but also is a leader in the field. She runs FDA studies which I’ve been also lucky enough to participate in. I am currently half way through a 3 year study on how Hypoparthyroidism effects the body. I feel like without her guidance, I would be in a much worse place physically as the I saw 2 other endocrinologists since being Hypopara. The first one I saw right after diagnosis had no idea and had me taking way too much calcitriol. My first 24 hour urine which I got after starting with My current endo had levels almost 600. (Normal is under 300. For those with Hypopara, try to keep under 350 which I am)… High urine calcium levels can lead to kidney issues.
Anyway…. Many people ask what exactly is Hypoparthyroidism as they say they take calcium too.
Many people ask, “What does this mean?”
Here is the science part:
The Parathyroid’s job is to create PTH (Parathyroid Hormone). With HypoParathyroidism, your body no longer produces this hormone which controls calcium levels in your blood as well as phosphorus and vitamin D too.
The reality:
Without PTH, I need to regulate my calcium among other things through prescriptions and supplements….
Calcium and calcitriol
I need to do this multiple times a day to keep levels up. It is a balancing act as the healthy body normally adjusts these things on their own. Also needed levels change depending on activity levels, stress and daily factors up to and including the weather. It is not one size fits all. As I’ve said before, think diabetic adjusting levels without way to check insulin levels since calcium can only currently be checked with bloodwork.
Symptoms/levels can and will appear/change whenever they feel like it. Symptoms from brain fog, muscle cramping and spasms,fatigue and more…. I work very hard to be business as usual
Sometimes that doesn’t work out so well.
A crash like this is a rare occurrence for me. This was a bad one. My doctor understood why I had my friend drive me home and not go to ER for calcium infusion. As I said to her, I knew I had the meds at home to handle it and was afraid at how long it would take to be treated/understood at hospital. The concern for extreme crash would be “cardiac event” as she called it. So there’s that, but I knew the meds were working, and I do not play with my health even if it seems like I do. I was in contact with her immediately after and she directed me in my recovery.
At my last visit, we did discuss how while this crash was bad how I have been more symptomatic recently….more the tingles, muscles cramps and such. We are starting process to get me on the newly FDA approved hormone replacement therapy. It will be a song and dance to get approval as it will be no surprise…… IT IS MAD EXPENSIVE. Like big, big, big expensive.
So we shall see, but there is hope soon…. crossing fingers and toes!
So on this World Hyporathyroidism Day, I share with you that I know we all have our own struggles, that we are all rare, and that most of all we just keep need to move forward.
When I started training for the Brooklyn Half, I thought realistically that a 2:45 was not out of range with enough training. My last two prior half marathons have been just under 3 hours. So it was not unreasonable to think with push and training, it could happen. It was a reasonable A goal.
As you know, training had been going well right up until I hit a few speed bumps with my calcium. I missed some runs due to not feeling up to it and then there was the whole fiasco of the calcium crash.
In speaking to my doctor, she was advising on the side of caution. She thought it would be prudent not to run. In talking though, she said if I didn’t push and did a lot of walking that would be for the best.
That was the plan…..
So how did it go……. Here’s the recap
I prepared the night before. Carefully not only laying out my clothes, but also getting all calcium/meds ready to go. Taking extra just in case. I decided to go back to adding powdered calcium to my water. Thinking that I would take plain water at water stops which worked well. On top of that, I took a dose of my calcitriol/calcium at 4:00 am before leaving for city. I also upped my normal calcitirol dose at this time.
The morning of the race started off with alarm not going off leaving me 20 minutes to get ready which is why it is good to have everything ready to go. Nothing was forgotten.
Get into the city to find that the parking that NYRR said was available was not in deed available. That provided some added stress as we were parking at the finish line near Coney Island and then needed to take train to Prospect Park for the Start. We were lucky to find a small lot that actually was very reasonable at $20. Dawn was right when she said, “they could have charged double and we would gladly have paid.”
Then off to the trains to go to Prospect start. Get to the Corral for our 8:20 start time. Before the race started, I took my normal dose of calcium/calcitriol. Then go to start my watch and realize that for some reason my Garmin did NOT charge!!!!!!!
Now I wasn’t running for time. I was planning to listen to my doctor, but I’m still a runner and like my tracking. I also thought it would be good to keep me in check as I do tend to start off too fast in big races. I also run faster than I can maintain or should be, but it was what it was.
I was running all on feel.
It was strange not to have a watch to watch. Although out of habit, I looked at the blank screen several times during the race. I took off at what I felt was a comfortable pace. I was feeling good. Then at the 5k water stop, I saw the 2:45 pace group and realized thats not where I should be.
I had to remind myself that my goal this race what not so much a time, but to keep my levels in the zone. I also realized that the conditions were very similar to the day I had the big crash. It was HOT. It was HUMID. The heat is not my friend. I was sweating.
With exercise everyone burns through calcium, but their bodies usually replenish by taking from bones. No worries though because this is a normal process and is actually good for bone health. For those of us with Hypoparathyroidism, this does not happen. There is no calcium regulation. So as our body burns up the calcium through sweat and heavy exercise, it must be manual added with our supplements and meds. Downside is that we just have to make educated guesses when to add.
Yesterday I hit it right – with the added meds and I do think the added calcium in the water. My doctor said it takes about 20 minutes for the meds to hit which is why it is important to add before feeling low. So thats what I did.
So I ran by feel. I walked a lot. I reminded myself that I did a lot of walking in training. When I walked, I power walked. When I ran, I ran by feel.
As you can see I did start off too fast. I adjusted. There were times that I thought I could/should run and push myself. I reminded myself that I needed to finish a smart race. A race that was more about being smart. I had no idea what time I was going to finish, but honestly this was my B goal.
It was a good day. A day to prove that I can do hard things.
After seeing my Hypopara Endocrinologist, we talked about how I’ve been been more syptomatic with low calcium symptoms. Yes, there was the crash after my last 10 mile run, but there I’ve also been having “normal” low calcium symptoms on a regular basis. Things like muscle cramps, tingles, and muscle spasms.
These are just things you get used to.
Here’s the thing….. You forget that these are not normal. They are just your normal.
In talking with my doctor, we don’t see any reason for the changes. My only thought is that I may have been under stress but even then.
I’ve run more marathon’s with Hypopara than with out at this point. Even with all my marathon training and Hat Trick training, my calcium has not been this bad. The only thought I’ve had is that I did used to run with powdered calcium in my water. Although I haven’t done that in years.
I’m going to try again. While it really is never a good thing to try something new on race day, I will be adding powdered calcium to my water. I will still have my regular doses with me, but I’ve got to figure out dosing.
Again, there is no way to measure calcium levels in real time. My doctor did say that it is better to go too hight than too low.
We also talked about my last crash and while she said it was smart to go home to where my meds were to make sure to take care because if it continued to go lower instead of regulating that it could cause a cardiac event…. And that based on my account and documented photos, it was a “severe crash.”
Now being she is the medical profession, she did caution about running Brooklyn. That being said, she also said as long as I did it smartly it should be ok since I’ve completed two other 10 miles runs in training. I also said, that I would be smart and if I end up having to walk a bunch, I will.
I will get to the start.
I will get to the finish.
I will be smart.
I will probably be very slow.
I do not anticipate that I will meet any A goal that I once floated at the start of my training.
The upside…… I am still moving.
Plus I have the hope of now getting on the therapy replacement plan and then it will be game on.
The Accidentally Running Mama 