running and mental health
somewhere aounr the sprig of 2022 i was told by a physical therapist that i should not run anymore. i am sure he was looking at my data (herniated disc, DDD, etc) and following what his training taught him. i listened, and i decided to follow his direction. after all i was an avid exerciser and any excuse to trade one for a different was good for me. this is what i thought.
i was taugbht to run by my dad when i was around 13. I remember doing laps around the neighborhood, and on one of my first instances of running i remember receiving some "motivational" advice from my dad, whilst puking my guts out. i learned to push through that over time and pretty soon i was beating my dad in the mile time. i played other sports in school, mainly basketball and soccer, a few seasons of American football. in most of those sports "taking a lap" was some sort of punishment for doing something incorrectly, breaking some sort of rule. i had friens that were on the cross country team and I remember seeing the phrase somewhere (i think on their shirt) "our sport is our sport's punishment. clever, i thought, and true. as i played these sports i still kept up a running habit on the side. usually it was a mile route we had which took us running past a long stretch of cow pastures on a country road. i could clock my time and judge how i was improving.
running was simple. I could just put on my headphones and put one foot in front of the other, quickly, until i was done with me time. but most of all i felt how good it made me feel after the run. i was always soaring. my senior year of high school i stopped playing all sports to concentrate on playing drums and having a good time with my friends. i lifted weights duing PT at school, and after school i still kept up a running habit. i was good at it, my long legs could stretch their way and the endurance i build made me feel great. i did it for myself.
ater I joined the Navy i still kept it up. PT tests were a breeze. i found favorite routes everywhere i lived. i chose nature routes, trails. close to home to get quick ones i had short routes. when i lived in sicily I ran my first half marathon. I ran a number of 5k and 10ks.
in the middle of running there was alwqays a point where it started to hurt or make me uncomfortable. the writer steve magness wrote "endurance sport is mental training. you are alone in your head for long periods of time with ever increasing levels of discomfort. you have a concrete goal that half your mind is screaming to abandon. you repeat this day after day and have no option but to figure it out". i put myself through voluntary physical discomfort and pushing through it i felt a small personal win.
hypervintilation and stress response
breaking through mental blocks.