Habits (the kind you do not the kind you wear)

I came *thisclose* to putting on my left running shoe first this morning which would have been freakin disastrous. Right always goes on first. ALWAYS. It's the the way it's supposed to be and to do otherwise would be to upset the laws of nature. Don't try to convince me that I'm a weirdo and you don't have set ways of getting dressed in the morning. I know the truth.

My point is that we are all a creature of habit in one way or another and I need to get back in the habit of getting up early to run. When I first started my job 2 years ago I went through 3 months of training that they call boot camp, basically because I wasn't home more than 1.5 days a week for the entire 3 months and was in and out of week long intensive classes. A few months before I applied for my job I signed up for my very first half marathon. As luck (ha!) would have it my training schedule for the race started on my very first day at my new job (in Maine, no less). That means for three months I got up every morning at 5:30 am, went down to the fitness room of whatever hotel I was in, and logged some miles on the treadmill. When I was home on the weekends I would do my long runs on Saturday mornings, even though sometimes my plane didn't land until midnight on Friday night. I wasn't sure I could manage it all with training for my new job and training for my half marathon but I not only was I able to, I found that running every morning really helped clear my head and prep me for what I was going to be learning or doing that day. Even after my race and work training were done I would still get up early to hit the fitness room and log some treadmill time until I stopped running last winter. Habits are a tough thing to get into but the good news is they are even tougher to break.

(Working on my fitness about a year and a half ago)

Fast forward to this morning: I had a good rest day yesterday and knew that I needed to get back into things today even though I'm in Buffalo so I got up early, put my shoes on (right first!) and headed down to the fitness room for the first time in almost a year. There is rarely another person in there when I am (and I have never seen another woman) but of course 10 minutes into my C25K program a (really hot) guy came in and got on the elliptical. I'd like to tell you this makes me self conscious but I could care less because usually they do their best to run faster than me and after a few minutes try not to make it obvious that they are trying not to die. It's pretty entertaining even when I myself am trying not to die because I rarely use the treadmill for mileage and instead use it for speedwork. Sure enough as soon as I was done and was out waiting for the elevator (usually I take the stairs but my room is literally right across from it) I saw him come out beet red and trying to catch his breath. That 15 minutes of hard labor really must half kicked his butt ;) Moral of the story: dont pay attention to what anyone else is doing. I have seen people who look fast and fit move at a snail's pace and I've had people look like they ate a bag of Doritos five minutes before the race murder me.

BTW, just a little tip: don't weight yourself on the hotel scales in the fitness room. Everyone and their mom gets on those things and nothing good will come of it. Nothing. Just say no to overused scales.