October 8, 2009

CARRYING GOOD HABITS

Today's Workout

X75, W, M
BIKE: 45 minutes, 15.21 miles, stationary.
RUN: 56 minutes, 5 miles, on the road.

Today's Comment
Regarding carrying your good habits. When I was a kid, age 8 to about 13 I had a chore each morning. I was up early to fetch the morning paper. Doesn't sound like a big deal, does it? Well we lived out in the countryside, in the Redwoods of La Honda, California. We lived outside of, "town." Our newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle was delivered to us at the end of an unpaved private road with a gate at it's entry point, located 1/4 mile from the house. So each morning before breakfast I had to get up and out, regardless of weather and road conditions to pickup that newspaper so my parents would have it in the morning. It so happened that I was motivated to go get it to look at the sports page, then the Sporting Green, printed out on green newsprint, I would study baseball box scores and read about whatever sports were in season. Giants, A's, 49ers, Raiders, Warriors, etc. Sometimes I would ride a bike down to pick up the paper and back, if I had a functioning bike at the time. Mostly I would run down and back, getting in some, 'training' early in the morning. Sometimes I would run hard and fast, timing my effort, I imagined myself an Olympic runner, or ran through puddles and mud. I remember well the cold days of winter, warming my hands under the hot water tap, to get the numbness out of my hands. The fall season was best tromping through all the fallen leaves, that created a carpet of orange and yellow to run on.

I sometimes wonder how I am able to get up early and run as consistently as I do. Part of the reason would have to be my surrounding environment and habits I was able to pick up as a kid. My Dad was a champion miler in High School and I know that has always effected my desire to run as a way to show my Dad that I could run too. Though I was never a miler, in the small school I went to I was always first or second in the class races of 50, 60 or 75 yard dashes. I played a lot of soccer and ran cross-country in High School one season. ( That's a whole different story!) In the US Navy Seabees I ran on my own and first began a real life of jogging 5 or so miles on most days.

I do believe those early days as a kid, running out to pick up the paper in the morning as a routine helped me to create this healthy habit for fitness and running that has stayed with me for most of the 50+ years I have been around. Carrying your good habits with you is in itself a good habit to keep.