EFS is the culprit. It turns out I’m one of the small percentage of people that have a problem with sucralose (splenda). It’s not bad in small doses, but I guess over time it built up to a toxic level in my system. We figured it out on Friday morning. I had run on Thursday not thinking that EFS could be the problem and that run was just awful. Of course I was also drinking EFS on the run.

So by late Friday afternoon I am on HEED. I had taken several over to Dr. Von Bergen to check and after some testing HEED seemed like the best for me, as long as I open a magnesium/potassium capsule into every 2 scoops because the sodium to mag/pot ratio wasn’t right for me.

It seems like it’s working. HEED is definitely nowhere near as sweet (well duh… after reading up on it on Friday I learned that sucralose is 500 times sweeter than sugar). My run on Saturday was bad, but it was better than Thursday. I managed about 1.5 miles of which half were walking after I hit the 0.25 mile mark. Today was even better. I actually managed to run 1 mile before stopping to stretch my calves and ankles. Then another 0.5 miles before I had to totally stop because my feet were going numb. I limped the last quarter mile home for a total of 1.75.

Pathetic, but at least I’m improving.

Mom & Dad called yesterday and we talked about it for a bit. They reminded me that no matter what I’m doing way better than I was 4 months ago. Even 1.75 miles would have been a stretch, toxins or not back then. Plus, my mid-week 4 & 5 mile maintainer runs I was doing the week before last were unheard of before I started this program. So that’s definitely cool.

The bad thing about this is I might not be ready for the half in December. I’m going to try and get as far as I can, but I may need to shoot for another one later on. Mom says there’s a marathon in Mobile in January, so perhaps I’ll drive down for that if I am not trained enough for December. I’ve only got 1 more week before I need to start my cool down so if next Sunday is bad I’ll know.