7:3 Run past the trees, see the wood...

[ktsok]

This one is for E27 who is feeling low. I was going to wait a bit longer before unveiling the graph in the picture, but now seems to be a good time.

Are you sitting comfortably?! The x-axis (horizontal line) shows how I was feeling during the run itself, and the day after. The y-axis (the vertical) travels from despair to buzzing, passing through doubt, neutrality, and positivity.

As you will see, the C25k journey is somewhat of a bumpy ride, and three times I have found myself in the pit of despair, or the slough of despondency. However! Five times I have risen to buzzing heights. Positivity is the dominant force and the polynomial curve shows a gentle upward trajectory.

Extrapolating from this data: Running can be really hard sometimes. It affects your mood. Sometimes it’s great. It gets better over time. 😜

Regarding the run tonight: I was really looking forward to it as this was my Tuesday night on the athletics track. I really, really, really like this holiday from the hills. Then yesterday I was laid a bit low with a headache, a stomach and a bladder. I will say no more, other than I had a miserable, uncomfortable night thinking about whether I am young enough to have ‘early’ onset menopause. This morning I took my son to school, took a day off work, took a pill and lay in a dark room waiting for the pounding in my head to subside. I don’t usually suffer from headaches - thank HEAVEN. For those of you who do, you are complete troopers. It’s miserable.

So my expectations for this run were very low. I mean - I took a book and reading glasses and a thermos, as well as the running shoes.

The internet told me I should not not run with a headache as it would compound the pounding. The internet also told me it might help. So I started, completely without expectation. And guess what? The headache cleared, I felt good, and my average pace matched my best ever 1km pace for 4 whole kilometres.

I don’t need a graph to tell me, after 7 weeks of this, that my next run, or the one after that, is likely to be hard. And I hope after that hard run, I will remember that the run after that, or the one after that, will be buzzing.

Happy running, chaps 👟👟👟👟👟👟

[Couchpotato2 Graduate]

Love this! I thought at first it was the graph of one run, which makes sense for my runs Glad it made you feel better.

[ktsok Graduate in reply to Couchpotato2]

Oooh I wonder if there is a correlation there between one run and all runs?! You know, the way a twig is meant to look like the branch and the branch looks like the tree? 😂

[Couchpotato2 Graduate in reply to ktsok]

you are messing with my head but yeah what if it was all cyclical...

[CatMo13 Graduate]

Wow what a great graph! Re menopause I had lots of bladder woes from age about 44-47 and then since have realised it was peri menopause symptom for me. (Am now over meno and 51 yrs) Glad your headache was cleared by the run! Happy running to you too .

[ktsok Graduate in reply to CatMo13]

😳

[CatMo13 Graduate in reply to ktsok]

Yours probably isn’t though as you are a lot younger😊

[ktsok Graduate in reply to CatMo13]

43 here, so I’m afraid it isn’t beyond the bounds of possibility. Ah well. 🤷‍♀️

[Ethelbert Graduate]

❤ that graph! I also really like the idea that the next buzzing run is always coming. A good thought to hold on to when it gets tough methinks.

Peri-menopause can last a very long while. The full blown thing has a lot to answer for with me - in retrospect if I'd started this running malarkey a lot sooner, I think it'd have helped my mental state enormously. Flippin' hormones!

[ktsok Graduate in reply to Ethelbert]

🙉🙉🙉☹️🤣