A New Normal?

It's been a busy spring and summer, but not in my usual busy summer way. Ryan and I have been playing in the mountains, but not nearly as much as usual or as much as we want. It's been an amazing but challenging year. We've had some major life changed in the past year with getting married, new jobs, and moving up to Tahoe.

The biggest struggle for me has been working night shift. I now know how extremely lucky I was as a new grad getting a day shift position right out of school.  I've always been a morning person and embraced early morning masters swim and going to bed at 830pm.  My secret talent used to be sleeping. I would sleep a solid 8+ hours a night and take naps in the afternoon.  Moving up to Tahoe meant working from 7pm to 730am. What I've found over the last 7 months of working night is that I am definitely not meant for night shift. I felt horrible all the time. Imagine getting on a plane and flying halfway around the world and switching time zones by 12 hours every 4 days. Then imagine not really getting the crap sleep that you do on an airplane. It felt like I was getting a series of 20 minute naps instead of really getting into deep sleep. We tried everything to get better sleep from blackout blinds, white noise machines, melatonin, valerian, and finally benadryl. None of it was working. I couldn't sleep during the day or night. To top it off I started gaining weight like crazy despite starting to train for Western States. I probably only swam a handful of times this spring and summer, but I did keep running. Ryan was getting more into ultra running and had signed up for his first 50 miler. I had a minor setback in February to March with an ankle sprain that left me sidelined for 4 weeks, but by April I was running pain free again. I kept plugging along with training for Western States, but I was feeling increasingly fatigued and the weight gain continued. I was up 25 pounds from December. It was frustrating. We were running about 60-80 miles a week and eating healthy. About a year ago Ryan and I switched to a plant based diet.  We eat vegan at home and cook most of our own meals, but fudge the rules a bit when traveling or dinner with family.

May 18th was a turning point. I was signed up to race the Silver State 50 miler in Reno. It is a fun former hometown course that I have always really enjoyed. I started the race excited, but I just never felt right. I had no energy and wasn't enjoying the day at all. At about 25ish miles in I sat down on the side of the trail and all I wanted to do is take a nap. The great thing about trail runs is getting off the course once I knew I was pulling the plug. I walked most of the last 8 miles just to get to the aid station where Ryan was waiting for me. I was really heartbroken about dropping, but I just had nothing in me anymore. We drove straight from the race to the clinic to see if we could get labs drawn to find out what was happening.  About a week later I got the call that I needed to get in to see a doctor because of abnormal thyroid levels. BOOO!! My TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels were elevated meaning my thyroid wasn't working like it was supposed to. I'm not sure if night shift was the trigger for my thyroid meltdown, but it sure didn't help. I'm not a big fan of taking medication, but I knew I couldn't go on feeling like I had for the past 6 months. I was depressed, emotional, and felt a bit like I was going crazy. After talking with the doctor I started taking synthroid for my thyroid and sleeping medicine so that I actually get some rest.

So here I am 6 weeks into taking medication and while I don't feel 100% I do feel like I'm digging out from under this avalanche that hit me. With the sleeping meds I'm able to get 6 hours of solid sleep. Yes, it's not ideal for me, but it's much better than not sleeping at all. Amazingly the weight is coming off with no extra effort (10 pounds in 6 weeks). My moods have been more stable and I'm feeling much more like myself. I get labs redrawn next week to make sure my TSH level is where it needs to be and to adjust my synthroid dose.

I ended up surviving Western States (more on that later) and am getting ready to run Tahoe Rim Trail 100 this weekend. I'm not sure how my legs are going to feel, but it is so exciting to start feeling normal again. Thanks Ryan for being the best husband and being my rock as we went through all this.

family run time on the rim trail

 Yosemite trip, 50 miles in 3 days