It struck him that he might have been thinking too long about it--considering that he was not accustomed to thinking long about any thing.

Besides, his head was getting giddy, with going mechanically round and round the tree.

He irritably turned his back on the tree and struck into another path: resolved to think of something else, and then to return to his difficulty, and see it with a new eye.
Leaving his thoughts free to wander where they liked, his thoughts naturally busied themselves with the next subject that was uppermost in his mind, the subject of the Foot-Race.

In a week's time his arrangements ought to be made.

Now, as to the training, first.
He decided on employing two trainers this time.