South of Wedmore, Sweets Tea Rooms.
ooh know it well, you are between Mudgley and Westhay. Not much gravel around there!
1 Like
Probably the ‘droves’?
1 Like
Yes probably. Just be careful of the edge of the road, quite a camber and pretty rough. If you see someone called Marcus or Jamie Williams, don’t attempt to stay with them. 
1 Like
Glad I took a naproxen before the start That was shaky on an endurance bike/33mm tyres! Somehow managed a Strava Top 10; that must have been one of the very long grassy droves, as on the stones the £6k gravel bikes were definitely an advantage.
11 Likes
I rode the last 25km or so with a guy called Jamie.
4 Likes
But was it the Jamie… or the one with the magic torch, to cuckoo land with wordsworth?
3 Likes
If it was Jamie Williams, you did well. That family were at the front of the freak queue when athletic genes were being handed out!
1 Like
Was there actually another rider there, or were you having an out of body experience? 
Have you started referring to yourself in the 3rd person?
2 Likes
I had my bloods tested earlier this week after the health practitioner said it was worth getting them done as it was about 10 years since I’d had them last.
Got a couple of texts the next morning saying that my iron (ferritin) levels were low but not anaemic! And that I should consider taking an iron supplement for a few months. It also said my folic & B12 were slightly over normal and to reduce any multivitamins.
Managed to log onto the app and the value was 29, but I think it’s previously been not much higher TBH, but going on the figures it isn’t far off being anaemic but I always pass the iron test when donating.
I do take an iron supplement which I’d forgotten also has B12\Folic which explains that, but although I don’t eat much meat I thought I got quite a lot of iron from other sources, albeit not heme-iron. Clearly I’m not absorbing as much and I’ve read the suggestion about having it with orange or vit C sources.
Will say there’s not what I’d consider any obvious symptoms, I do get tired but assumed it was mostly the training and know that our training means we need more of it.
So, trying to improve that and see if I feel better. Anyone else had theirs checked? General consensus on google is that males should be around 100, but that’s probably the general sedentary population.
2 Likes
IIRC you give blood don’t you? Quite an effective way of reducing iron stores and ferritin. It’s so effective that it’s the usual treatment for the condition hereditary heamochromatosis where a gene defect causes people to over-store iron. Frequency of blood donation is sometimes guided by ferritin level.
edit: sorry just re-read your post & see that yes you do. So my money 's on that being the cause of normal but lowish ferritin.
Assume heamoglobin and MCV are ok? Actually I wonder what made them think to check ferritin anyway 
seems an odd screening test
2 Likes
Yeah, I give blood and without willy-waving I’m coming up to 50 donations, but not for a few months, back in July. I’m fairly sure chickenboy has that over-storage problem and has to have blood taken quite regularly.
It was just a fairly standard set of tests, just found haemoglobin and MCV and pretty much in the centre of their normal range so no issues there.
I did wonder about the donations but intend to keep them going as feels like a decent thing to do with my blood type.
4 Likes
know someone who suffers from that. Was a top class triathlete back in his day - won a IM 70.3 in Ireland - but problems with his joints started to develop until his ankles completely seized up. He no longer does any endurance racing but is into Hyrox now (he’s also a personal trainer)
2 Likes
I’ll have a steak and your finest glass of Sunny D please waiter. Stellar.
3 Likes
Following on from my reply to @fruit_thief about the athlete I know who has the iron problem, I have just found out his father who I know very well as I raced him many times at tri events (he’s about a year younger than me so we’ve usually been in the same a/g category) is competing in the Hyrox World Champs in Chicago this weekend in the 70+ category..
Personally I don’t like the fella for many reasons, but he’s ideally built for gym and Hyrox stuff and very committed to it, so best of luck to him.
5 Likes
Tropicana, I’m not a peasant even though I’m from Teesside 
2 Likes
A friend of mine ‘reverse engineered’ this and only found out he had an issue when he went to Thailand and had to abstain from his regular blood donations for whatever the required period is and became ill.
4 Likes
Nah, I don’t think a pint of Stella will help Jeff
2 Likes
Same-same here, except sperm bank.
11 Likes
Surely willy waving is a pre-requisite there!
10 Likes