Old Habits Die Hard

When I went for a run this past Saturday, I knew it was exactly what I needed. I just aimed for about three miles around the neighbourhood, but when I came home thirty minutes later I knew the little jog had made my day. I felt my hamstrings, but it was a good pain. I was tired, but invigorated. It was time for my coffee, but I just wanted water. I should do it more often!

Exactly, why don’t I do it more often? I used to run three times a week in California, and now I average one run every three weeks at best. If old habits die hard, why did my running habit die as soon as I moved to Oregon?

Well, I guess habits are like plants. Just like a plant needs soil, water, and sun to grow, habits won’t develop in a vacuum. In other words, habits need a context. The context might differ from person to person, but what helped me to establish my running routine back in California was the big three: motivation, time, and place.

When I first put on my sneakers, my goal was to strengthen my core, which was supposed to fix a myriad of my problems, from backache to bad posture (motivation). It did that. It also made me feel happier, more energetic, and more confident. I quickly took on to running, but it was not hard when my weekly schedule allowed me for it (time) and when I lived in a state with the running weather all year round (place).

All this changed when I moved to Central Oregon. We got a dog, and dog walking cannibalized my running (lack of time). Besides, the Oregon weather was better for hiking than running (not exactly the right place). I didn’t even have the right shoes to run in the snow. Thirdly, my motivation was not as clear-cut as it used to be. I was getting overlapping benefits from other outdoor activities, so running seemed almost redundant. I got fresh air from extensive walking and cardio from hiking in the mountains (blurry motivation).

I was ready to bury my running habit. I almost wrote it off as a phase and a thing of the past. But this last Saturday run made me think that there might be something to running that was worth holding onto, which neither dog walking, nor hiking could replace. After all, it was my little personal time and my personal challenge, which always brought me in good mood. How about that for motivation!

So now that I am getting used to running in gloves and layers, and my kids are older and help out with walking Kyra, why not to run more often? By the next winter I should even have the right wardrobe.