Training 7/1-7/7

7/1-  Good news and bad news.  The good is that the sensitivity to Maca is nearly gone as I predicted.  The gap in performance was only 24 seconds per mile on Montreat.   I DO need to take the TRS every day, with a day off every 10-14 days.  Other than that, I can miss a dose of any or all "key pills" every now and then and I will barely even notice it.  Healthy people take that for granted but for me after so many years of baffling and extremely maddening reaction to stuff as benign as Calcium and Vitamin C,  it's YUGE!!  It would have been unthinkable at this time last year.  MAYBE, this is the end of my long nightmare but I know better than to get my hopes up.

Bad news is that I was awful today for an unrelated reason.  I had been taking excessive charcoal really just to get rid of it and have one less bottle in my cabinet.  Bad call.  Yes, I am upset but because it was an elective pill and not a key pill, I can live with a bad reaction.  Add to that, I exceeded the recommended dosage.  If I had simply taken 1 per day, I might have handled it.  3 laps at Montreat and I was no better than a 3:36 (10:48 pace).
Distance=1.0

7/2-AM 3 miles at Gold's in 29:30 (9:50 pace).  A good deal better than yesterday but I was expecting a LOT better than this.  That's it for today.  I'm traveling this evening.

PM- I was able to squeeze in another 3 after all.  Time is down to 26:28 (8:49 pace).  MINUS 61.  I'll take it.  Should be back to the new normal within about 2 days.
Distance-6.0

7/3- 2 mile trail run in 15:38 (7:49 pace).  Not bad at all.  Done after a long day and after dinner.  Took NO pills except for the TRS spray last night.  Figure I am right around 24 for 3 miles right now.  I bet that I could have broken it with a late rally.
Distance=2.0

7/4- AM- Again, NO pills for the 2nd straight day.  I am starting to feel it but I wasn't horrible, which is encouraging.  Finished with 4 miles in 34:27 (8:37 pace).  Faded on the back half (16:52-17:35) but it was slightly uphill and the humidity was tough.
Distance=4.0

7/5- COLLAPSE!  Took all the pills except for stand alone B-12, which I left in Birmingham.   Only 1 mile at the track in a time of over 10 minutes.  I thought I no longer needed the stand alone B-12 but I was wrong.  Extra B-complex was not enough.  I can go 2-3 days without it, which is better than needing it every day, but no more than that.  Again, it's maddening but I can live with it because it's simple fix.  I'm going with Liver Beef for a couple months as part of the plan to keep the Zinc/copper in balance as part of the rotation.  Unfortunately, this is probably it for the week.  There will be no relief until I get back home on Sunday and can take the B-12.
Distance=1.0

7/6- Unplanned rest day.

7/7- Double good news.  As I predicted, I was immediately better after taking the B-12 when I got home.  Didn't have time for a real workout though.  Tried some Charcoal to assess my tolerance and I was actually slightly better with it (2:33 vs 2:28).  Added a lap cool.  The relapse early in the week occurred only because I took mega doses for several consecutive days.  I'm still pitching that bottle but as I expected, I would have been okay by following the directions.
Distance=1.0

-15 miles on the week.  YTD- 607
-2 relapse but 2 important lessons. 
1- I can handle a day or 2 without any pills except for TRS but no more than 2 without a "key pill".  That's okay.  Because of my genetics, I will probably never be free from pills but knowing that if I forget one every now and then, I won't be hurt unless I get stupid 3 straight days.
2- Negative reactions to pills will happen ONLY IF I over-dose it for 3 straight days.