Chasing the Runner's High

I’ve never been much for the idea of the runner’s high. I find I usually just feel tired and sore after my workouts, not happy or excited. I often feel satisfaction when I’ve completed a new distance or run a better time, but that’s not the same as some big endorphin boost. Maybe it’s because the runner’s high is supposed to kick in after particularly long, hard runs and I just haven’t been working hard enough.

However, that’s not to say that working out never improves my mood. Yesterday was a very dark, dull grey day, complete with fog in the morning and a chilly drizzle all afternoon. I had been working steadily throughout the morning at my desk, facing that dull greyness and feeling more and more like the day. It was a real struggle to drag myself to the gym at 3:30 and the walk to get there through the cold drizzle didn’t help my motivation. However, the workout itself went quite well and by the time I left I was feeling positively cheerful. As it was only a resistance workout where my heart rate rarely got over 130 beats per minute (and I only burned 350 calories through my warm up, workout and cool down), clearly it not the high intensity that made the difference.

In fact I’m wondering if the problem wasn’t enough intensity, but too much: I was so out of shape that even the slowest run was at 80% or more of my maximum heart rate so of course I was exhausted after even half an hour. If that’s the case, I could be in for some serious runner’s highs as I continue my slow runs and my fitness improves over the next couple of months. I’ll let you know how I feel after my run today.

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1792.44	106.90g	214.35g	55.30g	0	26.79g
	24%	48%	28%
Calories burned through exercise:		352

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Gluten Free fruit muesli	70g
	Skim milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
08:30	Black Tea	500mL
10:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
10:45	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Apple	110g
12:00	Orange, mango and cinnamon tea	250mL
13:30	Whole Scrambled egg with 2 egg whites	3 eggs
	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	175g
	Mushrooms	110g
	in butter	5g
	Raw tomato	130g
	Sponser chocolate Recovery Shake	20g (1 scoop)
	mixed with skim milk	150mL
14:45	Green Tea	250mL
16:00	Workout - resistance training
	TriBerry Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
17:15	Sponser Protein Snack bar	1 bar
19:45	Chicken in Loyd Grossman Thai Green Curry sauce	188g
	Basmati rice	50g (dry)
	Spinach	25g
20:15	Lindt Excellence 70% cocoa dark chocolate	20g

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.