A few months ago you may have seen my blog post on blood testing and biomarkers with Forth Edge. If not, read it here!
3 months on and I re-took the ‘Female – triathlete’ test to see if there had been any changes good or bad. A recap on my results 4 months ago:
Results June 2020:
As you can see the majority of my results are in the normal range. You can also see where to click to read more about your results, as well as the analysis comments by a sports medical expert.
Dr Nicky Keay from Forth reviewed my results and said the following:
“Some type of white cells are lower end of range. It is not unusual for endurance athletes to have lower neutrophil count. Nevertheless checking in few months would be advisable. CK (reflecting muscle micro damage) is slightly raised in line with recent higher impact or resistance training load. Assuming that you are not on combined oral contraceptive pill and having regular cycle, LH and oestradiol are low for early follicular phase of cycle.”
After providing more information on my recent stress levels and irregular periods she said the following:
“Yes certainly stress with current situation is being reported to disrupt menstrual cycles in some women. So hopefully cycles will settle. There is also indication that maybe you are bit low on energy intake as T3 lower end of range. So getting good combination of nutrition, training load and recovery/sleep will help.
If your cycles don’t settle over next few months, then I advise repeating the test. “
Results October 2020:
“Overall an excellent set of results with all measured markers comfortably in range. Prolactin only very marginally raised in line with normal physiological variation.” – Dr Nicky Keay.
CK (reflecting muscle micro damage), LH and oestradiol are now in the normal range! And I am please to report I now have a regular period. It seems the pandemic stress has reduced for me personally recently (although my stress levels have definitely been going up in the last few weeks!).
I have worked hard to ensure I get enough sleep, and take time away from social media. It’s not always easy, and I definitely have good days and bad. But this seems to be key in sleep quality & quantity. Now I have started winter training I am working hard to ensure I am eating the right things, and less of the biscuits! Although it won’t hurt from time to time. Balancing work from home and training is a continuous process which I hope I will find more & more routine with as we go into winter.
I made the decision to not race this September because I was far far too stressed. It was a difficult decision but I have to admit that worrying about COVID, the responsible thing to do and whether or not I was actually ‘up for racing’ was making me ill.
I tend to overthink things, and the pandemic does little to help that tendency. Its been a time of change for everyone and personally I have moved country, gained work, lost work, changed coaches, had an achilles injury and then fallen off my bike last week!
Here’s hoping my new winter routine will continue, and I will be able to maintain my health and training performance ready for 2021! I’ll also be closely monitoring my vitamin D now I will be experiencing winter in the UK for the first time in 2 years! Many thanks to Forth Edge for supporting me in my training & racing for the coming year.
If you want to order a test like me please visit forthedge.co.uk
Sophie Kirk - Triathlete 