I’ve tried to deny it.   I’ve wanted to pretend it doesn’t affect me.    In truth I wish I could be done with the whole thing, but alas I’ve still got time to go and it seems to get worse as I near the end of it.   My husband wouldn’t be shocked, but don’t tell him that I am admitting to it; but I suffer from PMS.

Yeah I went there.

Apparently, there aren’t too many places I won’t go:)

Actually there are, but this is a normal thing that women have to deal with month after month after month.

People don’t like to REALLY talk about it other than the off hand comments or jokes, but it’s real.   It sucks and it’s real.

    I always thought men were lucky at races zipping off to use a tree instead of being forced to wait for a porta potty but not dealing with this makes them even luckier.    I wonder if they have anything that effects their moods, water retention, and energy levels every month.    My husband may say me, but he best be careful what time of the month he says that!  Of course if men had to deal with this, it would be a medical epidemic that needed to be studied and a pill designed to fix it.

One thing I will say is that I do notice is that the older I’m getting, the worse it is getting.    Maybe it is because I’m hopefully nearing it’s inevitable end, but then I think there will be a whole host of other things to deal with.    Maybe it is getting worse because in years past, I wasn’t trying to do anything when suffering with it except maybe hide the chocolate and sneak in a nap.   Now I’m out there trying to run a workout and sometimes it just doesn’t work out.

Case in point.

  Friday I knew it was going to be hot, so I went to my local gym to run my cut-down.   I had 8 miles starting easy but getting progressively harder.   I knew it wouldn’t be easy to do in the heat and even though I hate treadmill running it needed to be done.   I get there realizing I forget my towel and also that I wont’ have enough time to do the whole thing.   Already decide to shorten it to 6.    Get set up and go.   By mile 2 physically, I’m moving right along.    Then my headphones die.   NO MUSIC!    They gym does have tv’s but they are all replaying/analyzing the tragedy in Nice.   Now I run to take a break from all the crap in the world.   I need this down time.  This is not what I want to focus on for the next hour.    I end up shortening the run to a 3.2 miles and calling it a day.   Quick miles, but not the miles I should have run and on any other day of the month I probably would have sucked it up.

The following day,  I had 10 miles on the books.   Again due to kids schedule, I know that I won’t have time to complete them all once I adjust (sloooooow down) my pace for the scorching heat (high 80’s – remember this is Jersey not Texas).    Get out there and even though I’ve been running in heat, somehow it feels even hotter.   I want to bag my run almost immediately.   My mind starts with “why are you sabotaging yourself after 2 great weeks of training”  and “what is the point of even doing this.”   The run is a struggle.   My mind is pure negativity.   I have muscle aches.   My stomach isn’t right. My pace is even slower than the slow pace I wanted.   Luckily, I run away from home, so there was no going back until I got in some decent miles.   I ended up finishing with 8 which I’m ok with, but it was not pretty.   I was ready at the end to hang up my running shoes by the end and not just for the day.

Then I had my aha moment.    It’s not that what I’m doing is pointless.   It’s not that I’m a sucky runner.    It’s not that I am trying to self sabotage.   It honestly and simply is that I was suffering (and if you’ve never experienced it you won’t understand why I used the word suffering) with PMS.   Men think it’s an excuse.   Men don’t think it’s real, but the fact is that it affects a lot of us in various ways. It’s also not funny.   I’m just really starting to realize how it affects me.    I so can’t wait to be done with it all.

There is an upside

not much, but I always try to find the silver lining.

I think that PMS makes me a stronger runner mentally.   It sometimes wins the battle, but the fact that month after month I have this negative voice in my head that I have to shut down and work around makes me stronger. It’s like having to prove to the bully that teases you that you aren’t good enough that in fact you ARE good enough.   Then there are the aches, pains, and tenderness that come with it.    I still run through them (most of the time).    This will help on those hard and long runs.

I’m not saying that PMS effects every woman.   I’m not saying that even those that deal with it have the same issues that I do.   This is just me:)

I know I’m not the only one.   I just might be the only one to put it out there:)