Latest / Do Hard Things™ with Siegfried Tiegs / Field Notes: My First Backyard Ultra Put Me in the Hospital (Rhabdo)

Transcript

Field Notes: My First Backyard Ultra Put Me in the Hospital (Rhabdo) · Do Hard Things™ with Siegfried Tiegs

• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever finished a race and just knew something was off?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because last weekend, that was me.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was lying on the ground next to my tent.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: My vision was blurry, nauseous.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Not only nauseous, but like wanting to come out of both ends, and I did not have the energy to make it to the bathroom.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I could see the bathroom across the uh across the grass.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't have it in me to get up.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was breaking into a cold sweat and my pride and ego aside, I looked at Lacey and told her we need to call EMS.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: A few hours later, I was in the hospital with rhabdo.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my first experience with a backyard ultra, and I am happy to report that I'm here today.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I obviously survived it, but in the moment I didn't know if I was going to.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going to share with you my experience for my first backyard ultra.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk to you about rhabdomylosis and my experience with it.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because obviously, if you're listening to this, you are probably one that could be a runner or an endurance athlete because we draw a lot of those folks here.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we talk about, doing hard things, right?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you, I mean, I learned, I've heard about rhabdo.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: This was my first experience with it, and it really caught me off guard, kind of scared me.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to talk and and share with my experience to help you avoid the same thing.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I do hard things so you don't have to.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the bottom line of this podcast is all about, right?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: This whole, this whole brand and movement is all about.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Me doing stupid shit so you don't have to, learning the hard way.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, all right, I'm Sigfree JTs, keynote speaker, high performance coach.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I help driven people who feel out of alignment, find clarity, get back into alignment so they can live a peaceful, powerful, and purposeful life.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're doing here.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And welcome back to another episode of the Do Our Things Podcast.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a field notes episode.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And what this means is I'm just sharing life lessons learned from my own experiences.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, doing hard things so you don't have to.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can learn from my mistakes and live a better life.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: So here's we here we go.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So last weekend, I ran my first backyard ultra and ended up in the hospital with rhabdomyosis, also known as rhabdo.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I'm just gonna share.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are someone who trains, you run, ruck, ride, race, crossfit, whatever, this one's for you.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you crew for someone that you love, this one's for you too, because you need to know the signs and signals of not only for yourself, but for other athletes that you might be supporting to avoid them.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: So here's a quick note: I'm not a doctor, I'm just a guy who spent eight hours in the hospital learning the hard way.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So talk to your own doctor about your own situation.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what my lawyer would want me to tell you.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just sharing my experience.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is for education and entertainment purposes only.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Something like that.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so here's the story.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is when I share the story, I look back, I'm like, well, no kidding, you got Ravdown, dumbass.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So here we go.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh this is me laying it all out there, and uh, this is my own experience.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So Lacey decided on Friday that we were gonna go do a backyard ultra.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: She had the great idea, and here's here we lay the foundation.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: We our kids are in college sports right now and high school sports, and so we haven't had it's it's we're in the midst of soccer and football season, and we've been pretty much go, go, go.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the first weekend that we didn't have anything significant planned, no big travel.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: We did have to go to, we were planning on going to Craig Horseman's wedding.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Craig has been a featured guest, I think this first and second episodes of the podcast, a good friend Craig getting married.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was what we're gonna do Saturday.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we decided, you know what, the weather's beautiful.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted to check out a backyard ultra because we were considering that format for a do hard things event.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like, you know what, we'll go run a few laps and then we'll just go ahead down to uh Craig's wedding.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: No big deal.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Weather's gonna be great.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we haven't been specifically training for this, but we run, you know, we we we we must we can muscle through it, no big deal.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what we did.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: We found the uh second annual backyard ultra in Newtown in St.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Charles, Missouri.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's put on by F3, it was a fundraiser.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not familiar with the format, it's a 4.17-mile loop every hour on the hour, and whatever time that you have left, you kind of have your own tent set up and it's almost like your own pit time.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the top of the hour, you line back up and then you go on the next one.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: What I like about it, it's really not based on speed.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: It I mean, there's strategy involved because you don't want to have too much time sitting around, but it's in your constantly with people, which is I I like that versus you know running like a 50k where it's which a non-stop race.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the format is everyone essentially DNFs, which is very humbling, and the last person standing is the winner.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's basically a last person standing event.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And what they do is you pay a fee to get in, and then they have a jar.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So every lap you line up, you put a dollar in the jar, and then half of it goes to the fundraiser, half of it goes to the winner.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And for this one, it was the MS MDS charity.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the format comes from Biggs Backyard Ultra in Tennessee, put on by the infamous Laz, the same host that uh puts on the uh the Barclay marathons.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think they're actually gathering this weekend.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: So they have international runners coming from around the world to do this 4.167 miles every hour on the hour.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And 24 hours is exactly 100 miles, and they will go on.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the the races have been going on to uh go for more than 100 hours, so significant distance.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the pace sounds really easy, but that's the trap.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's the trap.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So essentially, Lacey and I lined up.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was a beautiful morning.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think our first lap was at eight o'clock in the morning, and we lined up and we did our first lap.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: We had about 15 minutes to spare when we were done.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful route through Newtown.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Newtown St.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Charles is a pretty cool neighborhood.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: They uh it's it's kind of unusual the way they laid it out, but it's a bunch of like uh different town homes, and they've got like little stores, and everything just looks really beautiful.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of reminds me of oh, what's the movie?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: The Stepford Wives or something like that.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like uh just just really cute little called new town.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's got little canal, so there's like waterways through there.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's kind of pretty.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you kind of go through the town, and uh, what I love about it is that I love I love Halloween, so there are a lot of Halloween decorations, just a really cool, cute little town.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so you run through the neighborhood, and then on the back side, one stretch, you kind of run on Cinder Trail, so some like light gravel, and then you come back into the neighborhood.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the same lap over and over again.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: So lap one, no big deal.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Came in, you know, and we had 15 minutes.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: We just, you know, uh drink some water and electrolytes and lined up for the second one, second one, no big deal.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And as we were kind of getting into third and the fourth, the fourth one, we started to kind of feel it.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: The temperature was kind of going up a little bit, and we were kind of getting into some distance, you know, 16 miles.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was lap five when we had Lacey started getting some cramps in her legs.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we were thinking about maybe going trying to go for seven or eight laps that would have put us at the 50k distance, but we also had to get to Craig's wedding, so we're kind of under a time crunch.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: But she started to really feel it on lap five, like a big difference between lap four and lap five.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of so she started getting the muscle cramping, and her friend Jen came in to cheer us on.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And with Jen being there, she's like, you know what, I'm I'm good to go.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you know what?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: If I've got time to spare, I'm gonna go ahead and go for one more.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And but I knew I was starting to feel it myself.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I lined up for lap six.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when when we started taking off, I started my my light jog turned into a walk, and I'm like, okay, I'm really hitting the wall here, but I can I can finish this out.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll walk it and we'll be done.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: We'll go get ready, we'll go to Craig's wedding.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And about halfway in, when I hit the gravel, right before the gravel cinder, it was interesting.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I saw this girl on the side, she was puking, dry heaving, and we're kind of cheering her on.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, do you need anything?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then and then past her, and I started walking on the cinder, and then she came up to me and she was just asking me, Hey, how are you pacing right now?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think you're gonna finish this lap?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking, crunching the numbers.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I legitimately don't think I'm gonna be able to make it.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't, I don't have any more gas in the tank to really jog, and I'm really feeling like not good.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt this before, and I'm like, okay, I'm just hitting the wall right now.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's no no big deal.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just kind of push through it.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: We'll finish this lap call today.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then she decides to go ahead and take off because she was looking for someone to pace her into the the, you know, make the cutoff for that lap.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm not gonna do it.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: So she took off and I'm like cheering her on, like, hey, great rally.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: That was freaking awesome.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can throw your guts up and you're gonna get back up there and get back after it.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go, do hard things.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And but internally, I'm like, I'm stepping one foot in front of the other, and I'm like, I'm just starting feeling worse and worse.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I find myself like by myself, and I'm trying to jog, and I'm like, I just don't have anything in the tank.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I get to the end of the cinders with about a mile and a half to go, and that's when my vision got super blurry.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I started all of a sudden, like this big wave of nausea.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't get nauseous very often, but I had a big wave of nausea, and I find myself on the corner in the grass, and I get on my hands and knees for a minute, like, I just need to take a break.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: I keep my head above my heart so I don't pass out.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And a motorcyclist came up, he saw me, and he's like, Hey, do you need anything?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, No, I'm I'm good.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be able to muscle this through and get back.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I get up and I start and down the sidewalk, and I'm getting back in the neighborhood with about a mile and a half to go, and I would say about half of that.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: So with maybe a less than a mile to go, I find myself sitting on someone's porch and I'm just I'm just dying.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, man, I'm I'm just like feeling so out of it right now.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: My vision is super blurry, I just don't feel good.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the the blurry vision wasn't going away.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I get up and I just kind of okay, like I'm gonna walk this thing in.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it was funny because Lacey and Jen were on the corner, like cheering me on, and Lacey was kind of making fun of me a little bit, kind of poking fun, but I don't think she really realized how bad I was feeling.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I went into the finish line and I went directly to my tent, and I basically just laid down and I crawled myself up into my chair.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: I grabbed a Coca-Cola because Coca-Cola, when you're doing hard things, it's just so amazing.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't drink it any other time, but the this the sweetness, the the carbs, I don't know, just tastes amazing.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I tried to drink a Coke, they got me an empanada from the food truck, so like a food festival going on.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Food smells so good, and I was hungry, but I like I just couldn't choke this thing down, and it was it tasted good, but I just I was so nauseous, and then I'm I'm just not comfortable.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I get back, I'm laying back on the ground again, and I'm finding myself, I didn't realize it, but Lacey's like I was rolling around on the ground, and I found myself like next to the another group encamped, and I got so I had a wave of like blurry blurr vision and nausea, and I thought I was gonna actually shit myself.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I could see the bathroom, but I could not get up to go to the bathroom.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm literally probably gonna shit and puke right here.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so huge wave, and then I broke out in a super cold sweat.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, I and I was contemplating like, can I ride this out?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: But when I broke into that cold sweat, I told Lacey, I look at her, I'm like, we need to call EMS.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so she got the race director, we called EMS, and I had to put my pride and ego aside because I was like, man, I really don't want all of that drama.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I really just don't want to deal with that.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's so embarrassing, right?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And but I knew the right thing to do because I knew that things were off is to call.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so they pull up, and actually I started feeling better when they actually arrived, but I was still out of it.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Man, my vision was still blurry.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: But they came up, they took my vitals, they asked me questions.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was still coherent, and my vitals were showing that my heart rate was super low.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: My blood pressure was like 78 over 50, normal is around 120 over 80.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they asked me if I wanted to go to the ER.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I got in the ambulance, they could give me fluids.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked at Lacey and I'm like, do I really want to go?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, here, I hate, I hate going to the doctor.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been in an ambulance.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is super embarrassing.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: People are watching, but at the same time, I'm like, I need to do the right thing.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it would be really nice to get fluids because I need to get to Craig's wedding, and I I know the fluids instantly will make me feel better.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, yeah, let's let's go, let's make sure everything is good to go and check things out.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: So they put me in the stretcher and they gave me a little ride in the ambulance, my first one.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and they were great.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was Danny and and Grant had a great conversation with them while I was in the ambulance, but they hooked me up with uh with an IV.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: They got me into the uh the hospital, the ER, and they, you know, they got me all set up.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: They did an EKG, they took all my, you know, they took blood, they've got me pumping with more the zoopran to keep me from getting sick and all these things.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so cold, and I'm I'm just hungry.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like I burned so many calories, didn't eat a lot, but I'm just like cold.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they, you know, just in the ER, just waiting, is what it feels like forever.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and I had my I still had my shirt on, so the the sweat, you know, every time that you work out and then you you're still wearing your sweaty clothes, you get even more cold.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So decided to put on a gown.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, they took all my vitals and they're like, the doctor came back in, like, you've got rhabdo.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, rhabdo, whoa, really?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I've never had that before.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard about it.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: My CK was over a thousand, and normal is under 200, my potassium was over five, normal is around three or so.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And bottom line is I spent about eight hours in the hospital, and they were I still had blood pressure issues.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're pumping me full of fluids.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't know if I was going to be able to go home that night or not because my my blood pressure kept fluctuating, but ultimately it finally stabilized, and the labs were showing that my kidneys were working and ultimately let me go.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what we did was we grabbed a hotel near the ER just in case there were any signs or symptoms I could rapidly get back in there because we were two hours away from home.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is rhabdo?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, rhabdo is short for rhabdomyelosis.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Rhabdo means rod, which is the shape of your muscle fibers.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Myo means muscle, lysis means breaking apart.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So rod, muscle fibers, breaking apart.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Rhabdomyelosis.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's when the muscle breaks down so fast and what's inside the cells floods your bloodstream faster than your body can can process it.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what's called rhabdo.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens is when your the these three things are CK, which stands for creatine kinase, it's an enzyme that lives inside your muscle cells and helps them make energy.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when your muscles break down, the CK will leak into your blood.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so the more CK that's in your blood, the more muscle is broken down.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why the doctors test for that.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: So mine is over a thousand, and that's five times more normal.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the next thing is potassium.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: This one hits your heart.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Too much can throw off your heart rhythm.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then myoglobin, this is the one that hits your kidneys, and your kidneys have to filter it, and too much clogs them up.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like your sink when you're your kitchen sink when you're, you know, after eating and you've got all the food particles and they clog up.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's just kind of what's happening inside your kidneys.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: The cells are larger than what the kidneys can basically clogging up the kidneys to keep your kidneys from flushing out everything.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the real danger.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they're really considered with.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the treatment is ultimately pumping a lot of fluids because the fluids will flush your kidneys and protect them.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and the the crazy thing about rhabdo is you can't really tell how bad it is by feel.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to have a blood test, they got to check your numbers.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is where it gets kind of crazy for athletes.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do athletes end up with it?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here's some stats.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So in the military, uh, just pull some stats.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: In 2024, there were 464 cases of exertional rhabdo across the active duty force.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: About four in 10 were hospitalized, so a significant amount.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And recruits and basic training get it more than 13 times the rate of everyone else.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because, you know, from that perspective, it's someone that is fairly sedentary doing a lot of exerted exercise.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I was at Leonard Wood, you know, we would have the best sapper competition.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so you've got seasoned athletes coming in, you know, uh tactical athletes, and they get it because of overexertion.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: We had it with our lieutenant trainees.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was pretty fair fairly common, fairly common.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in college football, and but this is back in 2011, but 13 Iowa football players were hospitalized after off-season workouts, so pretty significant.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: They just came back from winter break, and their symptoms were soreness all over and tea-colored urine.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like 13 from this one team.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, here's just some examples of that that stood out to me.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, 2017, three Oregon players were hospitalized after workouts that came right after six weeks of being off.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the so they had an hour of continuous push-ups.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's the level of exertion that these athletes had.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in spin class, one medical report counted at least 46 cases of rhabdo after a spin class.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: 42 of those people were taking their first class.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So here's so we're noticing some trends.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Big break going into something that uh significantly difficult.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the pattern.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Time off, something new, big jump in intensity, the same muscles over and over again.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that was it.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's that was me.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: That was me.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: A format I've never done before.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Same loop, same muscles, every hour on the hour.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I learned about myself.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Soreness doesn't exactly mean you're fine.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: At first, your muscles will break down and it feels like pretty normal soreness, but normal soreness will peak, you know, a day or two after a race and gets better.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: So rhabdo pain.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: So this is like for the crossfitters out there, people get it after the Murph.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the Murph is a big workout where you do 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and then you you do it with weighted vest with a with a mile run at the beginning and the end.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Significant load there.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and so for this happens in CrossFitters more than it did.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: My case was just a little bit different, but I want to I want to share this with you because what happens is you can get rhabdo like days after the big event.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're noticing that your soreness hasn't peaked and you've got significant muscle swelling, that is a sign and indicator of rhabdomyosis.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have that in my backyard ultra.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of was hit also with the I mean, uh, because I was in the the middle of the event, but it was also my dehydration and the the the low blood pressure.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so here's something else that I learned is that oftentimes I know a lot of runners will take like ibuprofen and that'll mask the pain, but after a long effort, it can add additional stress to your kidneys.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the same kidneys that put, you know, rhabdo puts at risk, and it masks the signals that are harder to see, hear, and feel.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so you gotta be cautious of that because I know I have taken painkillers during an event, and it just masks the pain.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then another thing is you got to make sure that you're hydrated before you go into the event, and then not over hydrate during the event.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: So too much plain water can drop your sodium.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's called hypo hypotremia, hyponutremia, where you're drinking too much water.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big uh challenge with uh military trainees, and what that can do, the symptoms are nausea, confusion, and and whatnot.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you drink too much, it basically flushes out your electrolytes.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my challenge was that I went into it dehydrated and I took electrolytes and I had too many electrolytes, so you can overdo it with the potassium and whatnot.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, so here's here's okay, let me let me share with you my perspective now that I look back, and this is embarrassing to lay out, but now it's like I look at it and like, duh.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm 48, so I'm no spring chicken.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna stop, but I've got to be far more aware of like going into events.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: I can't just rely on sheer grit anymore.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to be careful.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: I went into it dehydrated.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: I look at the 72 hours beforehand.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: I had not been drinking, but there was like Wednesday night, I had a couple old fashions and a beer, so three drinks, and then the next day being tired, I drank a little bit of water, but I over-caffeinated, and that was on Thursday, and then Friday, Lacey makes the decision.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, I need to start drinking some water, but it wasn't until later in the day, I'm like, oh man, I'm kind of behind the power curve.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I even the days before that, though, I've been doing a really good job with my I generally do a really good job with hydration.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: I try to drink about a gallon of water a day and stay on top of it.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was just an off week.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and so bottom line is I just went into this thing, dehydrated, and I look at the 72 hours leading up to it, was not properly, you know, doing what I needed to do in a new format that I hadn't trained for with the stopping in it, and the heat, and and I was super tired, I wasn't sleeping well that week either.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember like when we got up that morning, like I felt like I could have gone back to bed and probably slept most of the day.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was super exhausted, and so I think it was just a perfect storm for me because I've done way harder things and I've muscled through things before, and that's what kind of surprised me.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: But it was like a perfect storm for me, and so that's you know, I won't do that again, and I won't recommend that for anyone to do that again.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so here are the signs of uh of rhabdo, critical signs.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: So dark urine, like the color of tea or cola, that's a big one, muscle or pain or square.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Swelling way beyond normal soreness, peeing a lot less than usual, and then nausea and vomiting.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And my signs were blurred vision, nausea, sweat that came out of nowhere, heart rate that was off.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you see the signs and symptoms, you gotta let someone know.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this is really important for those that you know, we we we tell people to push through.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I see all the you know, I'm I'm really inspired by those videos where you got people at the finish line, they're crawling on their hands and knees and pushing through, like that can be incredibly inspirational, but they might be pushing too hard that could lead to damage.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so discerning like when do we push hard things and and and and grind ourselves to the finish versus you know, stopping, that is a hard one.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: That is a hard one.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are the athlete and you're determined and stubborn, you know, you could make the wrong decision.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're supporting someone, you need to know, you know, when do we stop, right?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so before your next race, you might want to write down and indicate, you know, what are your stop signals?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: What are the signals?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then make sure that your crew is aware of that because when you're out of it, you're not you when you're in the thick of it, you're not making the best decisions.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Your crew needs to know the signs and symptoms of these things.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, so as I look back, I'm like, well, no kidding, I got rabbed though.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like I just I did not set myself up for success, and I feel really stupid about it, but it is what it is.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I have this learning experience, I won't do it again.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we have to learn things the hard way.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so the recovery bit, okay.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, since then, I have felt really tired, just taking it really easy.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: I uh supposed to have an adventure race coming up in two weeks.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Really disappointed.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go ahead and not do it, and I'm just gonna take it easy for the next couple of months.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to go back to the hospital this week and get my labs just to make sure everything is working fine.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, I've just been doing yoga and just kind of stretching and you know, think of like Jocko, like, okay, I can't do what I want to do.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Good, and it's an opportunity to focus on something else.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll focus on flexibility and yoga and strength, but taking it easy.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna get my labs checked out, make sure everything's going well, and just take it easy for the next couple months until I bounce back.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, what else do we want to say about that?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, bottom line is be careful.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is a real risk to athletes, know the signs and symptoms, and hopefully you don't get it.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I've known, like I said, as I just recently knew some people that got it that are super fit in the crossfit realm.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it it'll it'll it can kill you.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's something not to not not play around with.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that this I hope this episode was useful for you.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about my experience, we talked about some signs and symptoms, what rhabdo is, and you know, maybe maybe create a checklist of what to do uh to be aware of, like you know, what are your what are your personal stop signals?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and yeah, keep getting after it, but be smart.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta be wise about what you're doing.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're listening to this, you know, most of our audience here, probably somewhere between the 30 to 60 realm.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is humbling, but you're no spring chicken.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta be careful.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: The things that you used to do, you can still do, but you must do it wisely.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: You got to be wise about what you do.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, but in the meantime, be on the lookout for the Do Hard Things Backyard Ultra.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: I love that format.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been looking for things that are scalable to people, but now that I know this, like I'll definitely be the next time I do one of these, I'll definitely train properly and be fully hydrated and prepared for it.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something that you go into willy-nilly, but I love the format.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if this episode helped you, we would love to hear back.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you've had Rhabdo in your own experience, I'm missing something.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Please let us know.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: We've got this basically, I've created a blog on the Do Hard Things coaching website.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: So there'd be a blog about this.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: So add your experience there.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to share.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not part of the Do Hard Things Nation Facebook group, go join us there.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: We've got uh great conversations, daily journal prompts in there.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, this is really cool.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a powerhouse lineup of guests booked.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Lacey has done a great job of like finding.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've got like 20 guests lined up, and they're all incredible.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I do have been doing some quick connection calls before they come on, and I'm really excited.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: So in this season of the podcast, we've got an epic lineup of people.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be some great conversations.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you like and subscribe.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a new feature.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you want to be a supporter of the show, you want to put some wind in the sales here, there's an opportunity to become a you can support the show with a monthly reoccurring donation.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're not asking for a lot, but every dollar helps us try and keep uh marketing and advertising out of here as much as possible.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want to support the show, the link is in the show notes.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to learn more about what we're doing, if you're ready to level up, you want some support, go to do our thingscoaching.com.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for merch, you want to be part of the community, go to do our thingsnation.com.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got do our thingscoaching.com, do our thingsnation nation.com.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Join us in the Facebook community, check out upcoming events.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: We'd love to see you there, either in person or virtually.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's all I got.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, keep doing hard things, and we will see you in the next episode.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go, do hard things.