Walking is the Foundation for Running.
Healthy Routines are built by putting our Time and Attention towards those routines. Every Day. That is how Healthy Habits work in our lives. But there’s a problem. Beginner runners can’t run every day. Even many advanced runners don’t run 7days a week. The truth is; when we first start a running routine, we find that we can’t do much. We tend to struggle for a few minutes of exercise. We struggle through those workouts a few times a week, whatever we can fit into our schedule. In total, it doesn’t add up to much. Our lack of involvement in it makes us forget our goals. The importance of our fitness dreams fade away.
Walking is something that we can do every day. Walking is accessible to us if we are too unfit to run, and it can start our fitness foundation. Walking is accessible to us when our muscles and tendons are healing from our last run. Walking is accessible to us when our heart rate needs an opportunity to recover from running, and then we can run a little more. It’s a daily opportunity for us to practice getting our bodies outside to move. It becomes an opportunity to practice mindfulness in keeping our feet and knees straight in line with our direction of movement. To practice calmly breathing through the nose. To notice our heart rate changing.
A trip to the store can be adjusted so that we walk instead of drive, or park our car across the parking lot. A dreary winter day can become a chance to see the beauty of nature, and keep us inspired to keep going out. A bout of cabin fever can be eliminated or at least eased, to put us in a fresh healthy mindset. We can invite a friend (shocker; more people are likely to join you for a walk than a run.)
Walking can allow us to get enough time exercising so that we can solidify an exercise lifestyle. It can give us the necessary incremental step, between sitting on our buts and running. It can be our easy workout that we can seamlessly fit into our day, no special gear required. It can be just the warm up our muscles need, so that we can stretch and refresh. We must learn to walk, to learn how to run.
