2026.06.03: A Topsy Turvy Day

Preface

For the most part, I like to think my mood stays fairly consistent throughout the day.

Sure, I get hangry from time to time. A rough workday can push me in one direction or another. Sleep, social energy, stress, food, and a dozen other factors all have an impact. But generally speaking, I don’t think of myself as someone whose mental state swings wildly from hour to hour.

This post is about one of those exceptions.

It’s a small anecdote about a not-so-great day, a run I wasn’t looking forward to, and how that run helped pull me out of a funk.

How the Day Was Going

I'll be honest, I was having a rough day. Nothing catastrophic happened. Nothing was truly wrong, exactly. It was just one of those days where even though nothing's really going right, nothing is technically going wrong, either. No real accomplishments, and no real failures. Trying to identify a culprit, I can't point to anything specific. In fact, the common denominator across the day was...me. At the end of the day, I'm responsible for how I approach the day, how I respond to what the day throws at me, and what I need to do to change my own physical, mental, and emotional well-being for the better.

Some of the factors over which I have control and which I believe contributed to this general, undefined sense of malaise are the following:

• I wasn't able to get my run in at my usual time (lunchtime warrior over here), which meant that I was going to have to squeeze it in after the family was home for the evening.
• I skipped lunch (never a good idea).
• If I took any breaks throughout the day they were few and far between and not sufficient to recharge the mental batteries.
• Oh, and as mentioned, I didn’t feel productive at work. I didn’t miss any deadlines. No one was hounding me or piling on work. It was just a general, unidentifiable feeling that I could have done better. I know everyone has off days, and I think that’s what this was: an off day that happened to be 100% in my head. I can be my own worst enemy. I attribute this tendency to capitalism and my slow and inevitable demise into corporate dronehood.

All that being said, the workday was over (I'd escaped work for the day), I’d eaten dinner, taken a salt tablet to help stave off a headache, tried to get rehydrated with some water, and finally headed out the door for an evening run that I was, to be honest, not looking forward to.

How I Escaped the Funk

Well, it's safe to say that shortly after starting this run that I was in all honesty dreading a switch was flipped and a weight that I hadn't noticed was lifted. It’s truly amazing what an hour outside on a good run can do for your mental state.

I can’t stress enough how the simple act of, in my case, running can have such a significant impact on my well being. It’s wild.

Find what works for you, what helps you recharge or reset, and just don't let yourself forget that it truly does help in improving your spirits.

The workout was supposed to be simple enough: a two-mile warm-up, a fast two-mile interval at around a seven-minute-mile pace (which I knew going in would be tough), then a one-mile cooldown with some walking mixed in.

At least, that’s what I thought.

I started the warm-up at an easy pace and gradually picked up speed toward the end of the second mile, trying to time it so I’d be at the right pace when the interval started.

I was running. I was feeling strong. My steps were light, my breathing was relatively under control, and I was nailing the pace. I know this route like the back of my hand, so I had a rough estimate of how far I’d gone and how much longer I had to hold on.

Then I heard an unexpected ding.

I looked down and realized my interval session hadn’t actually started yet. In fact, I was still in a walking segment after the warm-up.

Which meant I had been absolutely booking it during what was supposed to be a walk.

For four minutes.

Thank goodness it was only four minutes, because I was already feeling it.

At this point, I was past the point of no return. My only recourse was to finish the "walk" segment (which was now just an unofficial mile of my interval session). Then, I went straight into the actual two-mile interval with almost a full mile already under my belt at something close to race pace. Somehow, I managed to power through. Barely. I think both of the actual interval miles still came in under seven minutes, maybe around 6:50 or so.

You best believe I made the most of the walk break after the interval session. I needed a brief respite. I started out my cooldown run at a nice, easy conversational pace that reflected how I felt post-interval - tired but glad I survived and pushed through.

But then the right song came on that turned my cooldown from a standard, run-of-the-mill cooldown to something...else, something beautiful.

The song was, checks notes, “Only Human — MPH Remix” by KH, Four Tet, Nelly Furtado, and MPH^[1].

“Only Human — MPH Remix” by KH, Four Tet, Nelly Furtado, and MPH

Goodness gracious. What a banger.

Honestly, the whole Four Tet Essentials playlist on Spotify^[2] carried me through that run. Just one jam after another, each song somehow with the right tempo at the right time. It powered the whole thing.

And somehow, after a rough day, after nearly sabotaging my own workout by sprinting through a walk interval, after clinging on through those two fast miles, I ended the run on a high note.

Apparently, it was World Running Day, too, so I got my 5K in. Oh, and this run — the one I was dreading, on a day when I felt generally down in the dumps — resulted in two new personal bests: my fastest 2 miles in 13:55 and my fastest 5K ever in 22:11.

Here's the workout in question from that day in time:

In Summary

Sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes, the switch that pivots your mindset from funk and malaise to something genuinely funky is found in the most surprising places. And if you’re lucky, it might even leave you on a high note.