Monday, March 8, 2010

Running is cognitive therapy...

Since the first glimmer that I might be able to run again (last spring, so coming up on one year ago), I've intuitively known that primal running would be an integral part of my ongoing recovery for my bludgeoned brain. I had no idea of the extent (By God's grace, I still don't and this is just the beginning!).

For the past week, I've been testing out going for a run when my brain is fatigued. I'm not at all sure what prompted this, because it feels incredibly counter intuitive to my lived experience. But running has become so efficient for me, that I return from a run with more brain energy than I left with. I have no idea what the limits of this are, but I'm in the process of testing them out.

Yesterday, I ate something on my "avoid" blood type diet (4-5 bites was all). I asked my wife if it was on my avoid list because it just either tasted funny to me or I was beginning to feel "off." I dropped rapidly last night (perhaps I should have immediately gone for a run?! I may get brave enough to test that extreme at some point) and was still recovering this morning. It was a "hard" brain day. So I decided to test it out. I could barely make it out the house, but once I was running, I was doing better. Inertia limits the ways you can fall, so my brain was less panicked about that (at least that's the part of the equation I've figured out so far). I ended up running 5k, though it felt like 30k. (brain injury has a way of making life seem that way -- the expenditure of an ultra-marithon to accomplish a walk around the block.). I even "hit the wall" 3/4s of a mile in, and felt my body shift to fat reserves by 2.5 miles. Arrived home and I'm more at a "medium" day in terms of brain fatigue. Amazing stuff! And I owe it all to primal running and primal (Buteyko) breathing!

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