And the results are in!

I had my 'email appointment' with the very sunny Dr. Albert today (how British GP practices have leapt into the 21st century!), and he was pleased to inform me that my blood tests were nothing but good news. I have no signs of anemia whatsoever, and most interestingly, my serum ferritin (measure of stored iron) is higher than it's been in the last 4 years at 31.2 ug/L. As a reminder, I've been getting my haem and ferritin levels tested since I started running seriously 4 years ago, and the latter has always been dismally low (9 ug/L at it's lowest, 19 ug/L at it's highest in spite of eating as much lean meat as I could ingest, and also supplementing with cocktails of ferrous gluconate, ferrous fumerate and liquid iron). Even more remarkable, I took this test at the end of a month where I quadrupled my riding volumes and right at the end of 7 consecutive running days in Cyprus.

No one could be more delighted with this news than me, although Dr. Albert comes a close second. He enthusiastically instructed me to 'keep up the spinach!' Proving the power of the psychosomatic, I suddenly feel exceptionally energized and am wondering what I should do with these extra stores of iron. I think I might up my running volumes. And needless to say, I am now going to feverishly research a possible explanation for how I have achieved greater levels of stored iron as a vegan than at any time in my meat-eating past. Since 20% of the female population are struggling to do the same, I feel a mild delusion of grandeur that I might be on the cusp of something big.