At OFS, one of the PE staff has a t-shirt that simply says "megalomaniac". At first I thought it was just another one of the seemingly random english language t-shirts you see in Asia. Now I've got a different perspective:

OFS has a 400m track and I started the couch-to-5k that Nathan did a year or two ago. My first week I did 400m, walk 100m, 10 times and ended up with blisters. I lanced the blisters and pushed the second week to 800m jog, 50m walk, 400m jog, 50m walk for over 4Km of jogging. But then the third week just took off: 

  Tuesday   1.2Km jog, 50m walk, 800m jog
  Thursday  2.0Km jog, 100m walk, 1.2Km jog, 100m walk, 800m jog 
  Saturday  2.8Km jog, 100m walk, 2.2Km jog
  Monday    5Km jog

What kept me going this last week was a factoid from some study of a crazy Czech long-distance runner that said that the human body sends shutdown (am in pain) signals to the brain when it still has 30% capacity left (do you recognize the article?). I figure that my big enemy in SG = heat exhaustion, so drink lots of fluids and I should be able to more or less just ignore what my body says.

It seems to have worked out. Granted my feet still have stupid little holes in them on the sides from where toes rub into other toes. Those heal slowly, although I think the post-jogging swims have helped with that.

Given what I tend to think about when on a running track (stuff I'm going to do when I get to the end of my run) versus what I think about when I swim (push, pull, breathe), I get the feeling that the megalomaniac t-shirt girl runs as well.

Or maybe there's some other equally brain-whacky sport? ;)

"Given what I tend to think about when on a running track (stuff I'm going to do when I get to the end of my run) versus what I think about when I swim (push, pull, breathe)" Interesting. I tend to think about my mechanical motions when running (deep breathing, full strides, push off w/ ankle, etc.) and don't concentrate as much when biking. BTW, after running for many years, off and on, I think I'm definitely going to put running on the back burner and put way more emphasis on biking. Running just seems way too hard on the joints.
After many years of running, my aunt just tossed in her running towel due to injuries. Running seems great for short-term tone-up, not so great otherwise. I'm going to run for a bit more, I'd like to get to where I'm running instead of jogging for 5Km. --Patrick
"more or less just ignore what my body says" -- I've been reading Brain Training for Runners, and that has some interesting things to say about fatigue. Good show! I've been running on and off since a little more than a year ago, after shunning athletic endeavors for most of my life. I started running 5k races in March and I've done 4 (vacation and some non-running injuries slowed me down this fall) so far this year. I actually feel good about it, and good that I can focus on meeting my goals (maintain pace, observe stride, monitor HR & breathing, etc) while doing it. --Rich