Out of My Comfort Zone
For 2021, This is My Brave is excited to announce the second annual Brave the Storm 5K virtual event. This year’s event will take place the weekend of June 11-13. We’re building on the success of last year’s inaugural run so, for 2021, we want to create momentum leading up to the event. That’s why we are encouraging all of you to sign up today to join us. When you do, we hope that you will also commit to getting active / staying active NOW when we need it the most — in the winter months of the pandemic.
Each month leading up to our Brave the Storm 5K weekend in June, we plan to feature a Brave alum who will share their own story of how physical movement has helped their mental health. We hope you find these posts to be a source of encouragement for you as you undertake the Brave the Storm 2021 challenge.
For this blog post we are pleased to share the reflections of Karen Trudel from This Is My Brave New Hampshire (Fall 2020).
When I became a young lady, I did not understand what the big deal was. Sure, I started my menstrual cycle, but little did I know how that would impact my mental health.
On the day of my first menstruation, my grandmother–my memere– took me out of school to go to lunch. That in itself was special. This helped me realize my life was somehow different, but I had no idea how serious the impact that a monthly cycle would have on my life. I experienced the same monthly discomforts as most women but also faced confusing and alarming symptoms as well. I endured years of discomfort and scary symptoms before doctors diagnosed me with PMDD (Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder).
PMDD is a more serious diagnosis than PMS. I was depressed and suicidal two weeks out of the month. Along with those feelings, often, I was extremely irritable and would cry at the drop of a hat. I could be working and all of a sudden, I would be crying for no reason at all. Also, my breasts were often very tender.
My search for relief was long and exhausting.
There were times when I would try to eat my feelings, and other times when I tried to run from them. I tried running from NH to OH to college, only to find my emotions were still there. Then after college, I changed jobs often and, sometimes, I would get better in an instant. But guess what? That never really worked. I was still me and the emotions were still out of control. But, I finally did discover something that miraculously helped: exercise.
When I moved to Concord, NH, I found an incredible group of people who trained for triathlons together — my peeps, as I call them. My tri-peeps and I would exercise together and support each other in many ways. At the time, most of them did not like to swim and I thought I couldn’t run. One day, one of my tri-peeps, Brian, saw that I loved to swim, and he asked if I would be interested in meeting him and another group member, Amy, for a swim. We made a plan to meet in early spring at a local pond to focus on swimming. I had no wetsuit but I didn’t care because swimming was how I cleared my head. That was 2014.
My tri-peeps helped me to see that another way to help me feel better is to get out of my comfort zone and try new activities. With Amy’s encouragement, I added biking and running to my training. Running was extremely challenging for me. I would push myself to run a little further everyday. On the street in front of my house I’d run from mailbox 1 to 3. Then, walk the next two mailboxes.
As I ran I noticed a funny thing: I would notice the messages I would send to my brain. Most of the time, when I first started running intervals, my messages to myself were, “This sucks!” and “Why am I bothering. I don’t like running”. Now, when I run intervals, I challenge myself to run for a certain amount of time, and I do not send myself negative talk. When I am done, I am happy. The endorphins are flowing, and no matter what exercise, I ALWAYS feel better that I did something today.
Right now, I am dealing with a chronic pain issue, but I am in PT. My goal is to get back to riding my bike to hopefully compete in my 3rd sprint triathlon. And on October 17, 2021, I plan to do my first half marathon. I survived having stage one breast cancer in 2019, 4 rounds of chemo, and the implant surgery 2/19/2020. All things considered, my mental health has improved 90%. And I try to exercise everyday so emotions do not control my day. I rewire my brain with the help of exercise so I can control my day. Sure, I have gone through a lot, as we all do.
Get out of your comfort zone and see what you are capable of. I surprised myself and still do. I bet you will too!
Karen Trudel (New Hampshire 2020) is a resident of New Hampshire, and has been for most of her life except for attending college in Ohio and living briefly in North Carolina following college graduation.
Karen is an athlete and exercises to cope with her mental illness. She most enjoys swimming.
When she moved to the Concord area of NH, Karen made great friends at the local YMCA. They encouraged her to broaded her horizons and begin running in 2013. The rest is history!
With the onset of the pandemic, Karen’s normal exercise outlets — the Y and her tri-peeps training group — were no longer available. As a result, Karen had to stop working out for a time. She was able to sign up for virtual options instead and has completed several challenges in this virtual environment, including a 50-mile challenge (which she actually doubled). In 2021, Karen hopes to reach the goal of a 500 mile challenge while also training for a sprint triathlon in October.
Check out Karen’s original performance on the Brave stage in October 2020 here.
JOIN us for Brave the Storm 2021 and let’s get active together for mental health!
