Does running lift your mood?

Today was the first day I managed to get out for a run since last Thursday, and I was determined to run today because I've been a right moody cow since the weekend, and I'm convinced I feel down when I don't get a run in.

I was at parkrun on Saturday of course, but not running.  I had volunteered for marshalling with my son.  Crazy idea. It was 1degree celcius when we arrived.  We were wrapped up warm of course but I would rather have been running to warm the blood up.  Also I had been out drinking cocktails and wine til 12.30am the night before so I would have rather been curled up in bed.  I can't let down my parkrun marshalling duties however. Marshalling is fab, but it made me sad I wasn't able to run.

On Sunday I planned to go for a 10km run with my Chelmer Roadrunner girls, but my helpful husband had the hangover from hell - you know one of those that involves a lot of time in the bathroom and the rest of the day in bed.  Soooo annoying.  So that meant I had to stay home and entertain the boy, and even take him to his Little Kicks football group.  That was NOT fun - I was the only mum and when the dad's joined in I didn't have a chance to put my hand up and say I have never ever played football in my life!  hahaha. The four and five year olds were much more impressive than me.  I was not in a good mood by the end of the day.

Monday - lots of work, stressed and anxious about work, feeling like I couldn't be arsed. Got home really late - missed Monday night run group, the Dynamos.  That was annoying.

Tuesday - meetings, lots of work, feeling really anxious and grouchy and went to bed a bit teary.

And I know that tomorrow - Thursday, my usual Chelmer Roadrunners day, I am also busy and have a meeting that clashes with the run group time.  So I was determined to get out and run today before I bashed someone over the head. seriously.

So, I dropped the boy at school and decided to just run a couple of miles. The trick for my brain was that if i said - I'll only do 2 miles - it didn't seem like such a big thing to do.  The problem was i kept bumping into other mums around the school!  For some of them that made me change my direction to avoid them, and for others it made me run faster to impress!

Anyway, i did just do 2 miles out and back from the car park, but they were a good 2 miles.  It's lovely and flat around the school for starters!  The first mile I ran in 10 mins - very quick for me and the 2nd mile I decided to do a bit of fartlek/speed play, so sprinted from one lamp post to the next, then slow jogged or walked to the next lamppost, then sprinted again etc.  Another 10 minute mile.  Very happy.

I'm determined not to leave it so long now before I lace up again.

In fact I'm tempted to try and 'streak' (a run streak is where you set a target to run every day for a set amount of days, like lent, or advent) or if not streak, but as a minimum force myself to go out at least every other day just for 2 miles.  I think for so long my runs have been a big deal - doing 10 mile Sundays and 5 mile mid weeks that take up a fair bit of the day what with driving to meet people, having a chat after, cooking a recovery lunch and getting showered etc.   I am going to change tack therefore and try and do a little often for the next few weeks until we go on holiday, just to keep me going and to try to keep the grumps at bay!

Does running cheer you up?
L x

Post race

I've been shattered and lazy all week. Had a very painful sports massage on Monday and have been hungry as anything since the 10 miler on Sunday.

Was quite stiff and sore so decided to rest my legs for a few days - skipped my Tuesday run, and then went back to my running group this morning. I was a deadline so had to be a quick one and I did pick up my speed and ran 2.9miles while completely out of breath! It was good to push myself like that as I would normally take it very easy on a recovery run post race.  It was really really hard going but felt wonderful when I finished. I was glad I pushed myself. I also got progressively faster which is a nice graph to see!

Still a way to go to get back to my PB times but it's a good start! It also makes me feel positive that I can push myself to do speed again like this and it's ok, so maybe the elusive 30 minute 5k is possible later this year. I hope so!

Looking forward to marshalling at parkrun on Saturday with my little legs!