Exercise and relaxation are good for your health 

I'm writing the early part of this on Friday evening sitting relaxing at Forge Dam listening to the sound of water pouring out of the pond and down into the city - very therapeutic.

In my last blog I spoke about not feeling so good and some of the underlying reasons - mental exhaustion, the weather and aspects of my personality that I have learnt to live with. Well I’m pleased to say that after a month which for long periods have felt like living under a dark cloud, I am feeling much better.

A couple of weeks’ holiday over the Easter period seems to have done the trick although I’d be lying if I said it felt like it at the time. Ailsa and I spent 10 days in La Gomera, the smallest and least touristy of the Canary Islands, to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary (yes I know, you get less for murder these days!). Despite it being a very relaxing time physically in a beautiful location (both the island and where we were staying), mentally I was not in a great place - struggling to unwind and have fun, not wanting to socialise, finding it difficult to have meaningful conversations with anyone - in other words, I wasn't great company. I did however, stay physically active throughout the holiday period - a couple of early morning runs along the beautiful coastal path, a few light gym sessions including some free weights which is rare for me, swimming, outdoor bowls, crazy golf and even some recreational water polo - plus I hired a motor bike on one day and we hired a car on another to explore the island. On the bike trip I got a bit carried away and so almost ran out of petrol, ending up coasting the last few kilometres on a near empty tank (fortunately it was mostly down hill so I just about got home safely). I also read 4 books - biographies of Eric Liddell and Nelson Mandela (2 incredible men who lived amazingly impressive lives), Henry Blofeld's autobiography describing life on Test Match Special, and a John Grisham crime novel. All sounds great doesn’t it? - but believe me, it wasn’t, mainly due to the way I was feeling.

Then last weekend I went to the Sheffield Hallam parkrun, still not feeling so good, did the run but hardly spoke to anyone. I felt really low on energy, just about managing to pip Steve Haake at the finish who was taking it easy preparing for the half marathon the following day (hope it went well Steve). I was certainly not in the right frame of mind to blog about my experiences after that - nothing worth talking about, indeed at the time it occurred to me that I might never blog again.

It's been back to work this past week and now that I’m feeling better - 'normal' you might say whatever normal means - it’s time to think about others rather than being so wrapped up in myself. I find this so much easier when I'm in a positive and optimistic frame of mind. On Saturday morning, having overslept and so too late for the parkrun (unusual for me), Katie and I embarked on an 8k run up to Redmires followed by breakfast at Forge Dam cafe. Earlier in the week we did a medium intensity interval training session followed by a gentler run a couple of days later, so by Saturday I was able to experience some kind of training effect or what sport scientists call 'steady state' (look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about). This was a regular occurrence in my younger days when I was training more intensively, but is rare these days. For me the physical and psychological benefits of this cannot be underestimated. 

So the moral of this week's ramblings I guess is that exercise, reading and holidays are good for your mental health, as are caring for others and not working too hard. But of course we knew that already didn't we? - putting it into practice can be more challenging.

Until next time - happy parkrunning.

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