Slowly maybe

I ran Monday morning. I went a mile further than last time (4) and at a faster pace, by 45 seconds per mile. That was promising. Today though, that cough is creeping back again and the feelings I've felt for a month. I believe it was from not getting a good night's sleep last night. I must be tired; plain old tired. Tonight I am going to eat and crash.
Yesterday had its highlight: I went in for the review of work-up data for my annual physical and got poked and prodded one last time. The doctor could not find one thing wrong with me. My cholesterol was actually lower than I remember it ever being. So that fired me up and I had a few drinkies last night to celebrate and maybe that is what did me in today.

I picked up a copy of Scientific American the other day. Lord knows how it got in the house (oh, we have a subscription now); but there is an article I read from which I will share some passages. A "skeptic" (perhaps like me) wrote it and it is called SHAM Scam. I thought it might apply to a few runners out there who have difficulty motivating themselves and rely on self-help mags or books.

"The most likely customer for a book on any given topic was someone who
had bought a similar book within the preceding eighteen months." The irony of
the "eighteen-month rule" for this genre, Salerno says, is this: "If what we
sold worked, one would expect lives to improve. One would not expect people to
need further help from us-at least not in the same problem area, and certainly
not time and time again."
Surrounding SHAM [the Self Help and Actualization Movement] is a
bulletproof shield: if your life does not get better, it is your fault.... The
solution? More of the same self-help--or at least the same message repackaged
into new products.
SHAM takes advantage by cleverly marketing the dualism of victimization
and empowerment.

In summary the author boils it down to this:

Patient, heal thyself--the true meaning of self-help.

by Michael Shermer in Scientific American, May 2006; also www.skeptic.com