Muddy Runr Girl’s BodyBlog

… OK .. I’m back … and now that Spring Break is over and the kids are back in school, I can sit down and string together a somewhat comprehensible sentence or two.

So, where I guess I left off was that I had taken a stack of:

Phenylethlamine HCl (1500 mg)

Caffeine (200 mg)

Ephedrine HCl (25 mg)

on an empty stomach and felt very good, mood-wise. I went out for an hour long trail run and even managed to run up certain hills that I usually just power-hike. I didn’t feel the fatigue in my muscles on some of the more difficult sections of that route — and yet I was hyper attuned to every muscle in my body — or so I felt.  I didn’t feel any abnormal jittery-ness or that my heart rate or blood pressure was doing anything out of the ordinary.

Overall, I felt really good about this stack. Upon doing some further research, it seems that the addition of a MAO-B Inhibitor will prolong the effects of the PEA (which only lasts for several hours by itself). Apparently, an MAO-B Inhibitor is a much safer form than a straight MAO-Inhibitor … and I found a guy who used the Fo-Ti herb which is a natural MAO-B-Inhibitor with much success.. plus, it’s WAY cheaper than the prescription medication, Selegiline, which many people already stack with PEA to prolong the feeling ….

I didn’t feel any harsh crash or pronounced lethargy or sleepiness after the stack had worn off… just that the really heightened, focused, energy level, and very happy mood just kind of gradually faded into my normal baseline state.

Also, after reading up about PEA and how it affects brain chemistry, I feel it should be used on a limited basis… not as a part of your daily regimen of energy stacks. You can build up a tolerance, so best to just use this stack if you wake up and feel very low on the motivation scale … easier said than done though, cuz on this stuff, you feel totally awesome!

Adversity is inevitable.

But it’s what we learn from the challenge - what we give and what we gain.

One day, several years ago when I was out on a run through some private land near my home, I was having a whole helluva lot of trouble keeping my mind on the task at hand. Anyone who has face planted into the dirt after tripping on a root that seemingly appeared from nowhere knows full well how important it is to keep your mind alert and your eyes on your path to keep from busting your ass when you’re out in the woods.

A lot of things were happening in my life at the time; the kinds of things that rarely end in rosy memories. I was struggling with life - like all of us do time and again … and I couldn’t see any light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. If there was light, I was convinced it was simply an oncoming train.

So I was vacillating, during my run, between mulling over my life’s problems and, conversely, trying to keep my wits and limbs intact while running along the trail. I had to stop the run. One of the most important lessons to learn about running is that you have to know when you should walk.

Now, I found myself in the middle of the woods, about a 15 minute walk out in any direction. I had to get rid of the thoughts swirling though my head and had to do it fast - total anxiety sensory overload was imminent.

I walked along the trail back the way from which I had entered and noticed, for the first time, this incredible young tree which I had been running past for over a year.

I stepped off the trail to get a closer look. The tree looked almost like a helix - it was slightly spiraled for most of the length of its thin trunk. It was the coolest freaking thing I had seen in a really long time. It was so beautiful and graceful.

Slowly, I realized how and why this beautiful tree came to be.

It must have had a vine wrapped around it, strangling it, when it was a young sapling. Yet, with the vine choking it, the tree still managed to grow. And over the years, the destructive vine perished, withered away, and was no longer alive… and the beautiful scars which were testimony to the tree’s tribulation remained.

All this profound enlightenment flooded over me in the matter of a few seconds - but it was so powerful that I still think of the phrase that came to my head that day, “Wither The Vine” when I am going through difficulties… knowing how temporary even the toughest times will be - that even the most stifling trials in life can’t last forever.

It’s important to remember that difficulties in our lives may leave visible (or invisible) scars - and when the situation of the moment which feels like it is strangling us fades and is resolved… we are infinitely more beautiful and stronger if we persist and  continue to grow through the hard times rather than allow those Vines of Life to constrict and smother us.

OK… so the first place I went wrong was to break my rule of never running on a new section of trail the first time … hike before you bike it or run it … much better to “leisurely” discover the obstacles in front of you than while careening down scree at 12 mph in the rain.

Yeah.

It’s a half hour into my morning run and I was really settling into a good cadence. The rain was softly falling through the succulent budding leaves that are just starting to emerge on the trees overhead. It’s a little chilly but the tech-layers are doin’ their job, and I’m just focusing on the feel in my quads while scanning the trail for goopy spots to avoid sliding out and pulling my adductors. It’s a typical early Spring day - with appropriate weather to match. I think the meteorological term is “yucky” for the current conditions. Oh well - Carpe Diem, rain and all….

So I’m enjoying the fluidity of the flat and gently winding virgin trail that is unrolling ahead of me. When from around a turn, I see that the trail drops off and vanishes down an undeterminably steep hill.

“WTF?!”, I think to myself and you can almost hear the cartoon-like screeching noise as I try to slow down without sliding out on the wet earth. I trot to the precipice and begin to pass over the small ridge, heading down the side of the hill - my feet gave me little notice that this was the plan; to keep moving forward.

Momentum is a nasty little thing when you need to stop quickly. And Friction was off playing cards with Common Sense, apparently - ‘cuz I was picking up speed down a hill whose trail bed was comprised of exposed smooth natural stone blocks - like nature’s slick pavement. Just not sure where the end would come, and if I would be a heaped bruised mess at the bottom of it.

“WTF?!?”, I said aloud this time - but no reply was forthcoming. “Yeah - I’m in deep shit now.“, I thought … zigzagging down the hill, trying to jump into the brush that lines the smooth (and crazy-slick) rock trailbed. Prancing like some kind of goofy circus pony, running on my toes, picking up my knees really high, trying to limit my shoes’ surface area that came in contact with the wet stone to keep from slipping and falling.

I could see the asphalt road and the trail head parking lot just ahead down the hill, so I felt a sense of assurance that the paramedics would be able to spot me quickly…  I continued my rapid descent (on foot - not on my butt yet) and somehow through all this mayhem, the thought occurred to me that this section of the park must have once been a quarry about a hundred years ago… this stone looks just like the peculiar red color colonial house building stone of local historic homes that still stand in the area. I’m such a dork - only I would have this idea pass through my head as I plummetted to my certain demise.

I managed to finally jump off the side of the trail, into the mud and scrubby bushes in which were hidden several lovely little thorn bushes I recognize quite well, called Autumn Olive.

Yay me.

Everything stopped. The squishy noises I was making, the string of profanity that I had unconsciously been uttering, and all I could hear was my labored breathing, and feel my heart pounding in my throat. After one, possibly two seconds, I also began to feel the awaited sting of where the bushes scratched the 5″ of exposed leg between my capri tights and socks.

I had jumped off the trail at just about the precise location where the exposed stone went back under the earth and no longer posed a danger.

Again, yay me.

This entire panicked rampage down the hill must have lasted about 8 seconds, but that was 8 seconds longer than I wanted to spend in this predicament.

I hopped back onto terra firma and walked the several yards to the end of the trail onto the asphalt service road. Following this road back to where the parking lot is located, I passed a small clearing that was pretty strong evidence that this was, indeed, a retired quarry — and looked up the sheer rock face that was abandoned so long ago as a working stone quarry.

This isn’t usually the kind of “thrill of discovery” that I typically embrace during my run … I like finding weird colored fungii or finding a funny dirty word carved into a tree… But maybe, it’s also about discovering that every once in a while we need to come really close to falling on our proverbial asses, to appreciate everything in our lives which keeps us upright most all of the time.

Until I see you again, this is the Frugal Gourmet. I bid you peace.