Stress Relief

60 mile an hour winds, flooding, hurricanes and finance meetings.  Just another Monday, right?  Right!  Well, Sandy hasn't hit upstate NY yet, but there are 20 foot waves from our great lake expected, along with gale force winds and flooding.  Sweet.  So, like any normal person, I've charged up my phone, my laptop and my kindle.  I did *NOT* buy batteries.  What do you even use those for anymore?
Well, in my humble opinion (which no one asked for, but you know I'll share it) I doubt we'll get more than some winds and rain.  Usually, these things that are planned for never happen, while the ones that you do NOT plan for DO happen.  Something about making plans and God laughs...yeah, you got it.  Or maybe it was this?

Oh damn.  Well, enough with the storm.  But my Monday musings, incidentally, do hinge on preparedness.  So I suppose it's somewhat entwined.

So, yesterday, because I'm a moron, I did my long run.  In the 40 degree rain.  .  I had 13 on dock, and ended up doing about 10.5.  Now, it was a bit faster than normal, but I was so darn numb after 90 minutes that I knew another 20 just wouldn't do too much for my health or training.  So I slogged home and finished up inside. 

Aside from the wet and cold, it was a pretty legit run.  But, truthfully, I *should* have run on Saturday.  When it wasn't raining.  And it was in the mid 50's.  Might have been smarter, right?

Wrong.  Yesterday, my mind felt free.  I was un-stressed.  My music carried me along, and I really enjoyed the run (truth.  My legs didn't even hurt because I couldn't feel them.  That's either "winning"  or crazy.  I'll let you decide). 

Saturday....I was so stress hungover from the weekend, that I couldn't run.  So I pounded it out on the bike.  Which made me think.  I know that I use exercise as a stress relief, but there are certain things that I want to do activity wise when I am stressed and that I am GOOD at.  For instance:

Stress relieving workouts (angry stress) :  Bike-all kinds.  Intervals, tempo, you name it.  I can do long rides, too, but the hard efforts get me going.  Kickboxing.  Tae Bo. 

Stress relieving workouts (tired, draining stress workouts):  Pilates, yoga, long slow rides.  Swimming.  Nothing better than shutting out the world out via water-no one can get to you there.

Running does not work when I am mind tired.  It can work when I need to think, when I need to sort out, but when I am beat down, my legs do not want to run.  I can do it,  but it usually doesn't work well.  So I take my three runs a week and do them when I can-no set days, no stress, no mess.

What works when you're stressed? Does exercise help relieve it?  Or are you best taking a day off?

On another, MOST important note, happy happy birthday to my dear Uncle-you're amazing and I love you to bits!

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Edited to add- As I was writing this post, our power went out.  Damn you, Sandy :-P