It’s ridiculous to think that I might have gained some form of momentum from the little run I did last night, but as we all know, ninety percent of motivation is in the mind. The other 10% is… um… somewhere else. Anyway, in an effort not to lose the momentum I gained by forcing myself (through evil trickery) to go running last night (to the extent that running once in a week can be considered momentum), and to therefore preserve the motivation that, as I just pointed out, is entirely a fabrication of my mind, I went running again this evening.

Do not be fooled by these easy and unassuming words, “I went running again this evening”.

I paced around my apartment desperately trying to quell the knowledge that going running would be a good idea in the same way (and using broadly the same techniques) as I do in the morning, when I know it’s time to get up, but getting out of bed is just about the most unpleasant thing my waking mind can consider, and my subconscious mind throws every argumentative gambit it can dredge up at my conscious mind trying to convince it that a couple hours more sleep are far more important than not arriving late for a really important meeting.

Finally – and to my infinite surprise – I found myself putting on my exercise clothes. Layer upon layer of them. The next thing you know, there I was going around the Jardin du Luxembourg again. Same distance as yesterday, three laps for a total of 6 kilometres. A little bit faster than last time (31m 30s, 11.45kph).

I’d like to say that, in the context of my attempt to build up some training regime, I feel a sense of momentum building up, but that might be premature. I went running for a bunch of reasons today, none of them good: guilt, boredom and the fact that I had been building myself up to it since I finally made it out of bed – I knew I’d feel like I’d let myself down if I didn’t go. I’ll know the motivation and momentum are getting more tangible (even if they remain illusory fictions of the mind) when the reasons I go running are positive rather than negative.

Besides, if I hadn’t gone running, I’d have had nothing to write about, and I wouldn’t have this interesting new blister to deal with.