Run to work—Notes on kilometer 124

About five weeks ago, I wrote in Run to work, revisited that I would start running to work again. It has turned out that investigating into gear has been a good idea—combined with a little bit of discipline. This is my winter gear:

I prepare all my kit the evening before such that when I wake up in the morning, everything is ready. Pretty much all I need to do is to jump into my running outfit, pick up my backpack, put my running shoes on, and leave. And importantly, I prepare the stuff in the evening in a way such that I would have to do extra steps in the morning should I change my mind and decide against run-commuting. This is a deliberate design, reframing the situation such that the “lazy way” actually means to go with my original plan and run to work.

But how do I manage to prepare my kit the evening before? By making it easier still: I have five sets of fresh clothes to change. Instead of collecting these clothes individually every time I pack in the evening, I can just take one of the prepared sets.

So far, these small psychological tricks work: five weeks, 15 run-commutes, 124 km, £43.50 saved. And counting, let us see how I fare in the next five weeks.