Hot luck

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Left, 3 PM this afternoon; right, 11 PM this evening

Today I decided I'd just run to the gym - 1 km is the straightest line - and do my non-patented, non-reserached speed workout before running back in a state of near exhaustion. I'm not kidding about that state. I spend half an hour doing upper body weight exercises as fast as I can with the shortest breaks possible in between (normally 30 seconds) and by the time I leave the gym to run home I feel and look like someone who's been picked up by a massive dog and mauled. 

It's a strange thing, motivating yourself to do this kind of thing for no real reason. I wasn't looking forward to the fast kilometer to the gym in 35C but I sold it to myself as "better than running 12 km in this heat." That is plainly a compelling argument but I could have looked at another alternative: staying at home and resting. But I am on an exercise streak that now numbers 133 days straight without a day off and I am finding it hard to stop. Habit is powerful and can be used for good or ill. Not sure which category this particular habit falls into, in all seriousness. I will certainly have to start looking at rest days soon. 

The other idea I briefly toyed with before heading out into the heat this afternoon was to wait until night to run in the cooler air. As you can see, the temperature did drop but 26C is still not actually what I consider cool. And it's raining so that would have been a downer.

I got lucky, in other words, by going to the gym this afternoon in the heat. That's what I will tell myself, anyway, and what I tell myself seems to be the main thing on this mission I have made up. 


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