it's raining today...

I'm managing some testing at work at the moment.  As anyone who has ever done this before will know, this is often a very frustrating process.  I've had one of those days today where nothing really worked and I spent a lot of time running around from tester to tester, trying to help them to make their way through the testing.  It's not going very well, and by the end of the day, I had a dull ache behind my eyes and a strong urge to just go straight to bed.

I didn't go to bed, of course.  When do I ever listen to my body?  I went for a run, of course.

I knew I would be going out, and the very thought of it helped me to relax during the day because I knew that it would help to work the frustrations of the day out of my muscles.  In fact, I said to one of my colleagues during the course of the afternoon that I actually hoped it would start raining before I set off. I meant it too: I went running in the pouring rain on Monday night and it was a very satisfying experience.  You can only get wet once, so once you are wet, what's the problem?

I got my wish.  By the time I got on my bike to ride home, it was raining, and by the time I set off on my run, it was coming down in a steady stream.

Was the run easy? No.  Did I go very fast? Not really.  But I went out, and that's really what matters.  Another five miles in the bank and a good honest ache in my legs, not the weasel stiffness that set in this afternoon as I sat at my desk and was causing me to hobble.

Besides, what could be better than being completely alone with your own thoughts, running in the dark and listening to Scott Walker?