Damn You, Thyroid Meds

I've been diagnosed hypothyriod, and consequently taking thyroid meds, for just over two years now. And when I say "thyroid meds," I definitely mean the plural form: I take Synthroid, a synthetic version of the thyroid hormone T4, once a day, and Cytomel, a synthetic version of the thyroid hormone T3, four times a day.  T3 is apparently the "active" form of thyroid hormone, while T4 is the "storage" form, hence the Cytomel four times a day--it's used up quickly.  Indeed, I've discovered that I need to time my Cytomel quite exactly, relative to my workout or race, in order to feel normal for said workout or race. This can lead to some stressful times at skating meets, because I need to know exactly when my race will be in order to time the meds, and I need to know at least four hours in advance of the race.  It can also be tough for morning workouts; if I'm skating at 8 am, I need to take the Cytomel at 4 am.  Fortunately us middle-aged ladies get up frequently throughout the night to go to the bathroom...

Still, after two years of tweaking the med timing, I thought I had it nailed.  And my first two weeks of workouts this year supported that; although I was slow, I felt "normal" slow rather than "hypo" slow.  So today, when I headed out for my first long endurance workout of the year--5x4K--I was only thinking about how hot it was (90 degrees), how windy it was (20+ MPH), and how glad I was that I had someone to skate the workout with (my friend Mel).  And when my first couple sets of 10 laps were abysmally slow, and my back got excruciatingly painful at, oh, two-and-a-half laps into the first set, I still didn't put two and two together.  It wasn't until I set out on the fourth set--laps 30 through 40 of 50 for the day--and found myself suddenly skating much faster, with much less back pain, and apparently with no more effort, that I finally realized that my Cytomel timing was off.  (I have no idea why being low on thryoid meds makes my back cramp up so much sooner, but it does.) It sucks to just be starting to feel good 30 laps into a 50 lap workout!  Here's how my sets went, as far as average seconds per lap: 56.8, 56.9, 56.8, 52.3, 51.0.  Yup, that's right--laps 40-50 were almost 6 seconds per lap faster than laps 1-10.

So all in all, I guess it was an OK workout. Even though the laps were slower than last year's 5x4K at this time of year--a workout which I recorded as "the worst endurance workout ever," I might add--it was encouraging to see the lap times I ended up with at the end of the workout, once my meds kicked in.  I also saw, when I looked back in my workout log at this workout last year, that I had used the same med timing as I did this year--and I had speculated that it was wrong, and that I needed to take the meds earlier.  Wish I'd have checked that before the workout rather than after...what's the point of obsessively collecting data if you don't look at it?  Which reminds me, I need to change my watch alarm so I remember to take the meds earlier tomorrow!

Oh, and I'm injured.  It's a skating injury, but fortunately not something that will affect my performance.  I finally realized the origin of the strange left-thumb soreness and stiffness that I've been experiencing for almost a year. I couldn't figure it out--what could a right-handed person be doing with their left thumb that would cause it chronic pain? Then, as I started out on my second set of 10 laps, and reached behind me with my left hand--the hand that is always resting on my back--to hook my thumb into my string thing, it hit me.

I have String Thing Thumb.  (say that 3 times fast!).

My thumb apparently takes exception to being hooked into a string around my waist and then forced to be responsible for keeping my arm in the appropriate position on my back every time I skate.  Fortunately, I discovered that I can just as effectively keep my arm on my back using several combinations of digits other than my thumb, so I'm pretty sure I can soldier on and keep training through the injury...