Last Friday, in the middle of the afternoon heat, I was running up a steep hill, head tilted down, breathing heavily - resembling a hyena about to collapse from exhaustion. Once I reached the top, my brain ordered my legs to take a break, so without much voluntary action on my part, I sat on the sidewalk and tried to gasp in as much air as I could with heavy breaths. A stranger walking up the hill saw me in that state and asked if I was doing okay. I gave a quick thumbs-up and a forced smile that said, "leave me alone," and so he left me alone there. I was supposed to do a moderately hard 3.5 mile run that day - part of my low-mileage, slow-pace training plan that's supposed to at least make me a below-average runner. Someone slightly to the left of the running bell curve’s peak. But I blame my two demons for turning it into an extremely difficult run in 80-degree heat. I call the first demon Pridemaster - it makes me boastful about my recent running consistency and c...
I paid $20 to renew this blog's domain in July. But the truth is, I had been suffering from writer's block ever since the start of this year and hadn’t posted a single thing. At one point, I was ready to give up on the blog altogether, but a voice in my head kept reminding me of all the time and money I’d already invested in this blog. So, this week, I sat down to write this imperfect, patchy article—about none other than that voice itself. Let me start with a classic scenario where you might have also encountered this voice. Suppose you’re at an Italian restaurant and ordered some pasta and tiramisu. After finishing the pasta, you realize you’re full, and there’s no way your stomach can handle that delicious tiramisu sitting right in front of you. But then, that beautiful brain of yours reminds you that you’ll be paying for the tiramisu whether you eat it or not. In a desperate attempt to avoid wasting money, you reluctantly eat two quick bites. And just like that, my frien...