I’m a 37 y/o male category 1 athlete about 28 weeks into my first season of structured training, following the 24 week mountaineering plan (plus extending the base period by about 8 weeks). Everything has been going really well. I feel as fit as I’ve ever been, put away a 4 day hut trip as the first of my “A goal” trips, and now in the midst of more specific work as my “A goal” volcanoes start coming into season.
A couple days ago immediately after a normal zone 1/2 workout of about 2 hours, I was peeing in a very disturbing red/cola color. It freaked me out, and I thought perhaps I was running into rhabdo (which I felt would have been crazy due to the low intensity of the workout). I went straight to urgent care. After a blood and urine test, they identified blood in the urine but no other underlying issues and sent me home. I have a follow up with a urologist to exclude some possible but unlikely causes. It seems most likely that I had an episode of exercise induced hematuria.
While the PA and Urologist had no immediate concerns (including my asks about exercise and the occasional beer), I was wondering from the endurance athlete perspective, how worried do I need to be? Is this a symptom of overtraining? It seems like peeing blood is a red flag of my body saying “yo this is too much”. At the same time I feel great and feel like I’m ready for my A goals for the season. There is sparse information on the web about it, but it does seem like it’s something that happens with vigorous exercise or endurance athletes.
Do I scale it back a bit? a lot? or is this really just something that kind of happens occasionally to some folks?
