Mood elevator

I woke up feeling OK physically (refreshed from sleep) but horrible mentally. I had 2 awful nightmares - one involved a horror-movie type thing happening to my family (can't remember details, thank God), and one was about me teaching a Kindermusik class (I teach piano, but not Kindermusik, in real life) and flubbing big time, because I hadn't prepared. Bad dreams always leave me a bit off, and these were no exception. The Kindermusik dream left me feeling incompetent, even though it was just a dream. Then I got on the scale, and that was NOT good. I've been eating well since returning from vacation, but it's not reflected on the scale (yet - it will be! - obviously I'm feeling better now). Plus, I am VERY sore this morning from doing a lot of squats and lunges in weight training yesterday. Oh, and work was terrible yesterday - can't go into it in this public forum, but just take my word for it, it was not good, and it is on my mind.

All of this combined to make me feel very icky, and I was sorely tempted to skip my hard track workout. But I am glad to report that I didn't. I drove to the track, and there was a running club there. Ugh. It's hard to share the track w/them, because they get the inner lanes (faster) and then it messes up my splits. I almost went home then, but I didn't. I warmed up, and my plan was to do 3x400, 800, 1200 in 2:12, 2:32, and 6:54 (faster than 5K pace down to 5K pace on the longest interval) with just enough rest for my HR to recover to 120 in between intervals, and 3-3:30 rest in between sets. I started off figuring I'd be horribly slow and that I'd quit and go home. After a slow start of 2:14 on the first 400m, I kept going and did the next 800 in 4:29 and the 1200 in 6:53. Cool! I felt smooth and good, despite my achy leg muscles. And, the runners weren't as hard to deal with as I thought. I actually was able to time my intervals around theirs a little, and I was able to do my whole workout in lane 2 and lane 1. I did the 2nd set in 2:09, 4:30, 6:50, and the 3rd set in 2:12, 4:30, 6:53. Awesome!

The best part is that this hard workout, executed according to plan, lifted my mood enormously. I feel great now, and am attacking my day with vigor. Before I lost my weight, I remember a lot of mornings that I woke up feeling emotionally crappy, and the feeling persisted all day sometimes. Since losing weight and starting to exercise every morning, I still wake up moody (not as often) but almost always feel SO MUCH BETTER after working out. I'm telling you, exercise is the best anti-depressant ever!