6 Sep 04 - 12 Sep 04

[El Gordo]

Pull yourself together, MLCM, you're starting to make sense. This will never do.

Congratulations on your first week of proper training. Your virus frustrations remind me of a problem I used to have - a pain in my chest that would kick in after just a mile or so. Bad enough to make me stop running. For a while I thought it would never go away, but eventually it did. I decided in the end that it was a kind of stitch, and starting more slowly seemed to help.

Glad you saw the good side of the rain. I've probably said this before, but the mistake people make is to treat it the same way as they'd treat it if they were walking to work in a suit. In that situation, the rain is your enemy. If you're out running, you've no reason to fear getting wet. You're going to have a shower in any case. It's only when you abandon your normal cowering, and decide to cackle and spit in the eye of circumstance that you turn the tables. You simply have to decide to enjoy it. It might be different if it's the start of a very long run and you're worried about getting cold, but mostly, it's really no problem. Just the opposite. It becomes a treat.

All you have to do is decide that it's going to be a treat.