MORNING RUNS

My new interest in habits has blossomed into a whole new level of discipline than I have ever experienced before. And I am not quite sure what is going on. 

One area that has surprised me involves exercise and it was born out of a major inconvenience of dog ownership.

Ginger, our mutt from Haiti, seems to have developed a dislike of walking on grass! To get her to go out to the backyard in the mornings, before Melissa and Sarah and I all left the house for 8 hours or more, had turned into a battle. I would push her out the door and she would sit on the deck begging to come back in. So ... many days I was coming home from school to find that Ginger had relieved herself during the day in our upstairs bathroom  - missing the toilet by a small but significant distance. 

So 20 days ago, I decided I would take her for a run in the morning before I left for school, because she always waters someone's yard when she is taken out in the neighborhood. Besides, she needs exercise. 

We ran a mile together that morning and then I came back and Sugar guilted me into taking her out for her own run. 

It worked to prevent indoor accidents, so it became a part of my morning routine, and I have only missed one (rainy) morning so far in 20 and the dogs and I have averaged between 1.5 and 2 miles each time.

There are a couple of very weird things I have noticed in the process: For the last two decades, I have run on a somewhat regular basis, but I have NEVER run on a daily basis before. All of a sudden, I am a daily runner. Furthermore, back when I did run a few miles a week, I always hung up my running shoes when the weather turned cold. As soon as temperatures dipped into the 50s, I was done. Over the last 20 days, the temps have dropped steadily from 60s to 50s to 40s. At 37 degrees, this morning was the first time into the 30s. As I have eased into the temperature drop, it hasn't really bothered me. (Curious what will happen when we hit 20s and below - time will tell.) 

But the weirdest thing of all is that I am not forcing myself to do the dog running. Even at 5:45 am weekdays and I actually kind of look forward to it. 

Very weird.