W8D3. That sucked beyond the telling of it. See, the last couple of weeks, the onset of Glaswegian winter (rain, black ice, more rain, cold, more rain... in its defence, the rain hasn't been so bad this year, but I value my legs too much to run on black ice) has pushed me back onto the treadmill. And, because it's bloody hot in the gym, I need water. Or my brain thinks my body needs water. Or I want water. Or something. Whatever, I can put my water bottle in the little hole next to the armr rest thingies, so I do. Except today, I forgot my water bottle, and, standing in front of the water bottle machine at the gym and thought. "Huh. They have stuff other than water. I could really go for something a little different today. Hey, their Powerade is cherry flavoured..." You can see where this is going. It turns out that Powerade while I'm running makes me nauseous. Really nauseous. I felt like crap the entire time, and when I got off the treadmill ended up dumping four-fifths of the bottle and refilling it with water. Water has never, ever tasted so good. So, I was a bit slower today than I have been, and the last eight minutes seemed like absolutely forever (although this is something that's worse on a treadmill anyway, because the freaking clock is right there), but the important thing is that I didn't quit. And now that I'm home and I no longer want to throw up, I still feel way better for having run than I would have done if I'd not run, nausea and all.

iang999 -- gloves, hat, two shirts. I'm spending Christmas with the family in Newcastle, where it will be cold and I won't have access to a gym, so it'll be running outside or nothing. I'm determined that it won't be nothing. So, layers. My flatmate just told me that I can't ever quit running because now she can sense my stress levels rise when I haven't for a couple of days and I've been a much nicer person to be around since I got home this evening compared to how I was toward the end of the weekend.

I haven't been running since thanksgiving I feel horrible but work and school are insane and I don't have the energy/time. I have one more week of finals and then I am going to readjust my schedule and get back out on the road!

Wow - sounds like everyone is dealing with big challenges in their running life right now! Good for everyone finding ways to still get out there. And the cold that some of you are dealing with - brrr! We are having a weirdly dry winter so far in Oregon, so I haven't had soaking wet running shoes in weeks. My only adjustment has been running after work at my new job and racing to catch the bus afterward - I admit I haven't had time to stretch post-run. I started my last week of OHR today, and I think I'll hold steady on distance for a while. I am starting to be able to feel pain my knees and such, so I think my joints need more time to adjust before I add any more distance to my long runs. Good luck with your winter and holiday running, everyone!

I DID IT!!! Okay, let me preface this by saying that when I was at school, I was the least sporty kid in the universe. I knew it, and, just in case I hadn't figured it out for myself, my teachers reminded me of it. Constantly. Sorry, but I still don't see the point of standing around in a muddy field with a hockey stick for hours on end. And, because there were plenty of kids in my class who both liked and were good at sports, they didn't see any reason to encourage me, which meant that I got the positions where no ball was ever going to come my way, which meant that I hated sports even more... It's a vicious circle. I liked swimming. I'd been a swimmer for years, but, at my school, they didn't think athletics was a real sport (real sports had to involve bats and balls and mud and 'teamwork' with people you hate) and so I got to do that maybe twice. I remember that we had one phys ed lesson that involved running, and that it involved me being made to run a mile around the track. I finished last. Dead last. So last that my teachers and classmates mocked me about it for weeks. That kind of turned me off running. All of my school reports from phys ed teachers told my parents that I couldn't do sports, was unfit, and didn't make an effort in class. There was a very "look, no, you can't, so don't even bother trying, because you'll just waste our time when we could be dealing with these talented people" attitude. Today was my W9D1 of C25K. I ran for 30 minutes, I felt good at the end of it, and the whole point of this very longwinded post is to say this: YES, I CAN!