The Changed Routine

While I am all for making my routine better if it benefits me in some way, I also resist changing it because I quite honestly don't like think very hard early in the morning. When I get up to run, that's my time to let my mind wander and prepare for the day, also spending time in prayer.

But this morning I had to make several changes, one of which I dreaded.

I realized how slow I've been running when a man passed me one morning last week– he wasn't going that fast because I stayed right behind him and then he turned while I went straight. It had been some time since I had used my watch to run but I realized that it would make me honest and push me if I knew my times.

I won't be one of those people wearing anything that collects data on myself for the simple reason that in the past it took me to an obsessive level which is the reason I stopped wearing a watch: I was too hung up on my times. 

But I do know that by wearing the watch I'm bringing balance to my life by working a little harder.

However, it's quite a different situation for my dog Chaco. At fourteen, he has recently started to struggle near the end of a run-walk he and I have done for twelve years. There was a time when I took him on my run (the only reason we stopped doing that was because he wanted to stop and sniff everything). He was very depressed when he came to live with us in 2003 and each morning I took him to the park and slowly we began to run a few steps at time. Over the years, it became our thing and we had a route we did each day.

In the last few months though, he has shown signs of difficulty breathing and while we had toned the route down to just a walk (with Hattie), I realized in the last week or so that I needed to cut it short. This morning instead of going first as he has for twelve years, he went last. We had gotten to the point where I was dragging him along and he was clearly uncomfortable.

I dreaded having to hold him back for Hattie to go out first (on his old route where she and I could still run part of it), then Gidget on her run, and then take him to just to the park to walk with Hattie. But we survived: he wasn't happy he had to wait but when it was his turn he was happy to get out. The last thing I want to take away is something that I know makes him happy.

Change is never easy, even if it's good change. But by making change, we are challenging ourselves to go forward. Taking Chaco on a shorter walk isn't what I want to do but I also know it's important to keep him happy and make sure our walks are something we still both enjoy.