Issue 370 - Mon 12th Jun 2006

Hi,

I hope everything is ok where you are.

Today I want to talk about how talking to people can bring results your way, and how easy it can be to become an 'expert.'
These are positive thoughts, and I'll get to them in a sec, but let me get a couple of negatives out of the way first.

The Football World Cup has started in Germany.
I noticed that one of the games over the weekend was played in what used to be East Germany.
The stadium was built specifically for the tournament.
It was finished early, and came in under budget.

One of the most famous football stadiums (probably should be 'stadia' but I don't care) used to be Wembley stadium in London.
It was knocked down years ago to be replaced by a new one.

At present it is almost double the budget, is nowhere near ready, and there are real concerns about the safety of the foundations.

Hmm...

The second story I noticed came from the newly appointed Home Secretary here in the UK.

This one's a corker.
Having admitted that a lot of his department was not in a fit enough state to do the job, over the weekend, he announced an initiative where the public should 'stop moaning' about anti-social behaviour, and take action.

I've never heard anything quite like it.
I can assure you that if you tackle anti-social behaviour in this country, the worst case scenario would see you dead.
It has happened too many times.
Other cases would be a physical assault, a brick through your window, bullying, etc etc, and the protection you'd get from the law would be 'thin' to say the least.
The most unlikely scenario would be for the yobs to say sorry and go away.

I was staggered to see this policy, but unfortunately I *wasn't* staggered to see the Home Secretary then do an about-turn and distance himself from it, saying it was drawn up by officials.
I know I'm not 40 for another few weeks, but I'm seriously getting grumpy about things like this.

Right, onto the positives...
Last Sunday when I did my long run, 7 miles, I felt so good at the end of it that I went on to do 8 since my schedule had a target of 7-8.
This shows that if you follow a set plan, you can find yourself over achieving your targets, which is a good thing.

The bad thing was that I had my first serious experience of chafing.
And let me tell you, it was in an area where you don't want to be chafed.
Unless you're some sort of deviant.
Which I'm not.
Well at least when it comes to chafing.
Ooh, I was red raw.

I went to a jam session in the afternoon, and told people about my problem, explaining that most running website seemed to suggest some sort of lube or ointment application.
I'm not sure I fancy that, you'd have some staining issues surely?
Imagine if you went for banana flavour - you'd get neighbours following government advice and tackling you about being anti-social!
Anyhoo, after a while someone came up to me and suggested lycra shorts.
The funny thing is, I have a pair from my unicycling days, when I suffered chafing then too.

I had the solution in my draw, and knew it, but it took someone else to prompt me, and that prompt only came about because I had talked about my goals.

This week it was nudging 30 degrees for my long run, and distance running is not sensible in those conditions.
After 3 miles, I was sweating like a pig, more so than normal, and could feel my head throbbing in the heat.
I recognised this as not normal, as I've been doing it for weeks now, so poured a lot of water over me, and slowed right down.
This allowed me to complete the full distance safely and comfortably.

Speaking of comfort, the lycra cycling shorts worked a treat, it was all silky smooth down there.
I wanted to go up and tell people how comfortable I was feeling downstairs, but the only other people out and about at 8am on a Sunday are old duffers walking their dogs, and I'm not sure they would understand.

Ok, that's it for today - remember that you can get great advice if you talk about your goals, and taking repeated action can quickly lead you to getting great knowledge about any field.

Have a good week.
'Til Next Time,
Health and Happiness,
Gordon