28 Days Later

Photo of the estrogen molecule courtesy of www.3dchem.com

Disclaimer: Those of the non-female persuasion may not care about the following post. You may read at your own risk or you can move along and pretend there was nothing to see here.

When I opened an email at work on Tuesday and wanted to cry, I knew something was up.

When Tuesday night I felt completely weak and out of it at Pilates and couldn't even consistently keep the elliptical above 6.0 MPH, I knew something was up.

When my Wednesday night tempo run took everything I had both emotionally and physically, I wanted to blame it on the something that was up.

And yesterday, when I could barely drag myself out of bed in the morning, I realized that, yes, something was here.

Just what is that something? I'm sure many of you have guessed by now.

My freaking period.

The only scientific studies I can find doing a simple google search that deal with estrogen and exercise (at least, the only studies I could decipher) indicate that exercising decreases the amount of estrogen in your system. Which is, of course, why we're told to exercise when we're crampy and feeling like death warmed over. There are probably myriad other interactions between estrogen and exercise that I'm not aware of as well. I just know that in my own personal experience, during the few days preceding the start of my period I'm a complete failure when it comes to most exercise.

And then, of course, the next few days most everything between my knees and the bottom of my sports bra hurts and I'm exhausted.

And then I'm fine.

But right now I want a nap, an Advil, and a pretzel. Followed by a piece of chocolate. Or maybe a chocolate covered pretzel.

And then maybe I'll squeeze in that two mile run I skipped yesterday.