GOOD AND BAD HABITS IN RUNNING

Old habits die hard. - Proverb Men's natures are alike; it is their habits that carry them far apart. - Confucious

Habit is "a tendency to act in a certain way or to do a certain things; usual way of acting" as it described in Thorndike-Barnhart Student Dictionary (Harper Collins Publishers, 1992, p.496). Our habits are part of our life, influencing our lives to an extreme level in the good and bad direction. We fall into the habit of doing things not because they are good for us, but because we or somebody else got us into the habit of doing it. We walk the same street, to the same supermarket, to the same movie theater etc. Perhaps it may not be the best way to go to not so great supermarket or movie theater, but we like it, because it is familiar to us. The new supermarket and new movie theater are a bit further than the old ones and therefore a bit more inconvenient. So we are not changing our old routes…

If cleaning our teeth is a good habit, we try reinforcing it through education at an early age and continuing it throughout our life. We are grateful to our parents for this kind of habit. Visiting our parents and family on holidays is a good habit because it develops very important quality of us as a human being, it makes us happier.

On the other hand, if we are smoking and drinking non-stop, just because we got these habits as well, there is no appreciation for these kinds of habits from basically anyone, including ourselves. It goes against our health and everybody else, surrounding us: our families, friends, colleagues, neighbors and just people.

These examples are common, we recognize and reinforce them, if they are good, or try to change them if they are bad. But in running our good and bad habits are not so obvious and not so controversial to come up with some decision to get rid of bad habits and develop good ones. What seems like a bad habit for one person may not seem like one to another person. What criteria do we have to identify some habits as good and others as bad?

Lets take a look at a couple of examples of good and bad habits in running from a very specific point-of-view of how it affects our running. There are many more habits in running than just two, but we are using these examples to clarify our point-of-view. We can start from a habit very common among runners, running with earphones. On the surface, there is nothing bad about this. You are listening to music, enjoying your time, which goes by quickly, and after all you are getting fit! Wow! So many benefits!

Is it so? Is it so beneficial and plausible as we think? Yes you are having fun, but what else? If you are running in a city like New York, with such dangerous traffic, your earplugs could cost you some unexpected accidents and long "vacation" from running. This is a possible outcome from your habit of listening to music while running. Not so obvious negative consequences are not having any perception of your running, because your brain (the main organ of perception) was busy doing something else. So all your "interactions" with the ground just never will be perceived and body will go through repetitive wrong movement until injury.

Another bad habit is drinking "as much water as you can". It was time at the end of 80-s and the beginning of 21 century, when dehydration "paradigm" was accepted without any doubts. By the first years of 21 century science researchers came up with a different conclusion on this matter. Professor Timothy Noakes from Cape Town University South Africa and his colleague found that we don't need drink so much during our runs. On the contrary, drinking too much water is washing out electrolytes and micro elements from our body and causes many troubles for runners. Smallest problem from this is that people run to the restroom during marathon many times and still drink like they just got out of the desert.

It is much more pleasant to talk about good habits, and one of the most important of them is your attention to your run. From the beginning to the end, your body and mind are inside your running. When your conscious mind perceives everything that is related with your run - surface, course, pace, body reaction, noise from your feet interacting with the ground, muscles tension, pain or just a signal of possible pain by doing this or that movement. Generally it is about your focus on your run and you inside your running.

It is about your habit to perfect your run each time you run. For this matter you have to keep your attention on specific things and keep out of your attention many other things which could interfere your running. It is a good habit to ask yourself what you learned about yourself in today's run. It is a good habit to try perfect your run no matter of your running length and speed, but if your condition is not favorable to run step back and give your body time to recover. Come back fresh and ready to perfect your run further.

Dr.Romanov