Proof

Re-discovered how running intervals help my depression...like whoa. No other form of exercise does anything for my mood. It's got to be intervals, a bit like HIIT. I run for a minute, walk for two minutes, repeat five times. I can do hoop drills which are cardio intensive, I can go for a long incline walk, I can do lyra, derby...none of that impacts the chemicals in my brain. Running intervals do. I discovered this years ago, when I first started derby, and someone suggested C25K to help my endurance. I kept getting stuck around week four or five. Until I just gave up and would do the above, run for a minute, walk for two minutes, a bunch of times. And I was blogging privately. And I started to see a pattern in my mood vs when I would do these runs. It still took until this week to realize that it's the only form of exercise that touches the chemicals in my brain. But it feels like someone turns on a faucet in my brain. If you don't know what that feels like, you don't know what that feels like. But I do.

Anyway I hadn't done a run all last week. I was doing hoop drills instead. Still burning same amount of calories in the same time frame as my runs. But my mood TANKED. I tried to spare this blog from the worst of it with my last post. But lemme tell you...when my mood is like that, it's quite dark inside my head. Quite unpleasant, indeed.

Friday, I did a run. I usually do a long incline walk on Fridays to burn extra calories for the weekend. I didn't have it in me. I just did my 20 minute running intervals. And per usual, around two hours after, the faucet turned on. I felt amazing. And it carried over into Saturday. I went to lyra. And had an amazing time. And something clicked...my performance (or my attitude about my performance) at lyra is much improved if my mood is happy. And how do I help keep my mood happy? These runs. Nothing else will do. I now have proof.

We were all working on sequencing. I wanted to also work my straddle. My first attempt was so great! Another student, who's seen me struggle with straddle, saw how great it was, and asked me if I was filming that. No, of course not. I tried again, and it was also very good, and she asked again if I was filming. Nope. So by the third attempt, I filmed it. I think maybe it wasn't as good as the ones I didn't get on film, but it was pretty improved. Proof that it's improved. Look...