We all do if we so choose…

I’ve been an off an on runner for the past decade.  However, in spite of some prolonged breaks, this period from January 2008 to now has een the most consistent stretch since I adopted running to my workout regiment a decade ago.  There are a number of reasons to explain this consistency; first was an incredible beginners running course that I took through Jack Rabbit Sports in winter ’08 where I learned how to the nagging injuries that had previously derailed my jogging routines, and most importantly for anyone striving to be a runner in the northeast, how to effictively run outdoors in the winter.  After completing this class, it was a breeze to get up and do a quick loop around Prospect Park, and I gradually got to the point where I was pushing myself to try longer distances. 

Things were going well until I began teaching again in fall 2008 and before I knew it, instead of getting out to the park 3-4 times a week, I was lucky if I made it twice.  And then it became run twice one week, take a week off, run once, take two weeks off.  What was in August a regular routine became a sporadic series of misadventures, and as my mileage went down, my weight went back up. 

Then a series of events took place this summer that conspired me to take a serious look at what was in store if I continued being lax with my health.  During my annual check up in June, my doctor warned me for the second time in as many years that if my weight continued going up, I was putting myself at risk of contracting diabetes–which would be doubly tragic given the fact that it does not run in my family.  Then from late July – early September, I accipurposefully initiated a stark decline in my intake of processed foods.  Part of the inspiration for this was reading Mark Bittman’s Food Matters and Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food.  What struck me as I read both texts is that as I considered my family’s food biography since my parents immigrated from Haiti in the mid 70s the amount of “real food” that was consumed in our household rapidly declined as inexpesnive items like Hostess cakes, soda, potato chips and fast food started dominating our cupboards.  While I still wasn’t running as much as I was in spring ’08, by cutting down on processed food items I felt healthier than I had in ages. 

But lo and behold once the semester started and I began teaching, I soon found myself receding into bad habits, and by early October I was making runs in between classes to pick up an individual pack of Vienna Fingers, and dare I say it, a Kit Kat bar.  And with those store runs came another recession in running days. 

That’s when I started thinking about a post that Nick had put up on I Love Franklin Avenue over the summer about running in Crown Heights.  It dawned on me that one of the things contributing to a decline in mileage was that running Prospect Park can become staid after awhile.  So instead of running or walking to Prospect Park and doing a loop, I began running around the nabe.  Beginning with loops around Brower Park and then proceeding to a variety of routes along New York Ave, and most recently Utica Avenue–running felt like new again.

I’m not running the same distances yet that I was doing last spring, but I am running more often.  Now when I get up I no longer have to do the calculation about whether I’m gonna have enough time to get to Prospect Park and back in time for work.  Instead, I just step out my door and go wherever the spirit leads me. 

Running Crown Heights at 6:00am I am often reminded about how breathtaking Eastern Parkway is, or the inclines up New York Avenue around Empire Blvd, and that busy thoroughfares like Utica and Nostrand are sometimes serene in daylight. 

And as the ladies who I see walking around Brower in the mornings also bring to mind, you don’t have to run or play a fast paced sport to stay fit.  Walking is a great way to stay fit and is less taxing on one’s joints than running. 

These experiences reiterate some of the basic tenets of a healthy lifestyle, exercise and a proper diet have to be enacted in tandem for either one to be effective.  Annual checkups and following through on warnings, even if they allude to events far off in the distance, should be heeded.  Finally, setbacks and lapses in any regimen are inevitable, what’s important is developing a willingness to get back on the wagon, and to not let your routine become routine.

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