As the bridge to 10km is a slightly more technical forum on the running front I just wanted to share a bit about my journey becoming a kidney donor and how i have had to be careful with my runs around test days.
In the early days of the tests I wasn't running that much or hard as it was just before I started my HM training for last year and then the next lot of tests came after when I was recovering. Then there was a long break as we waited for MrRfc to be ready. In that time I stopped my events as I have found out that I am more prone to colds and things up to 3 months after a HM. Reading some more about this I found that it was not so uncommon, I eat well and look after myself but the HM was body stress on top of emotional stress and I decided with my doctors not to put my body through that as we didn't know when I was going to be needed.
All the tests that I had done in late 2015/2016 had to be repeated January this year so they could check I was still a suitable donor and it was going to be safe for my long term health. When my kidney function came back It had dropped 15 points, still in a nice healthy range but a drop. Four weeks later came the call we have to check it again as they were not to happy even though it's in normal ranges. The call came a week before I was to take the test. After talking to my consultant I realised I had had a really good run two days before the test. A push yourself, PB, come on Here and shout about it sort of run. I still remember coming home from it, high fiving MrRfc when I got in, it was that good. The upshot was the body needed to heal from that. I'm not a doctor or nurse (so if anyone can explain it better please do) but it is something to do with your creatinine levels as this is needed to increase to help recovery of the muscles you have broken down, at this time you also need more hydration to deal with the process, so higher creatinine levels and slight dehydration will drop your Egfr levels which is the blood test they use to look at your kidney function. It's only temporary and in a couple of days it has all come back to normal but boy did it give us a massive scare for a little while.
I stopped running for a few days before the next test and made sure I was properly hydrated and it was fine but it does go to show all the little changes that go on at a molecular level when we run.
I'm aiming on putting my running shoes back on May/June and will have to be very aware of kidney health and hydration as my body learns to do everything it needs to do with one kidney. I have also be told I should stay away from any protein supplements, bars and shakes and things as well as it's a lot for the kidney to process and it won't be good for me.
So when your planning your runs and there are some really heavy ones in there spare a thought for your body that is doing all this work behind the scenes on your rest days. Rest is needed especially the harder you train.
Wishing you all happiness and health
Rfc x.