That darn menstrual cycle....

I've been really busy at work and have been feeling pretty tired and stressed when I'm not at work so the blogging has kind of fallen by the wayside.  I haven't even felt like running and when I am running, it's been just a mental struggle to get through each mile. 

Since I have been doing this for 90 days now (WOW!!!), I have started to notice a pattern.  The week before I get my little monthly visitor, I am exhausted and not really in the mood to do much of anything, let alone run.  I also get insomnia, which confounds the exhaustion problem. 

I did a little bit of googling and found out that this is completely normal:

"The hardest time for women to run fast is about a week before menstruation begins (a week after ovulation). That’s when levels of the key hormone progesterone peak, inducing a much-higher-than-normal breathing rate during exercise. The excess ventilation tends to make running feel more difficult." (Source)

So... since I should be expecting my period at the end of this week, I have just decided to "go with the flow" (you like that little pun there... lol) with what my body is feeling. I'm not going to punish myself with the extra miles that I'm scheduled to run but go the distance that my body "feels" like running that day until the cycle starts all over again.

Struggling to run miles that my body just doesn't want to run, simply because it's written down on a sheet of paper is so demoralizing and plain old, NOT FUN.

Running is supposed to be fun.

I'll be back later with a recap of the last few days' run stats.  But for now, enjoy this little blog post about "How to Run with the Flow of Your Menstrual Cycle." She says it all so much better than I can!