I've been running in Bidwell Park for almost five months. If anything can succeed in instilling in me the habit of running, it's the pleasure of being in the park.

Years ago when I first tried to turn running into a habit, I had another great venue. I lived in Lompoc on the Central Coast and the nearby La Purisima Mission had a couple of three-mile loop trails through grassland and chaparral. If I could get in a couple of loops on those trails, I had all the exercise I needed for one outing. But over time, it got monotonous.

What I like about Bidwell Park is that there are so many trails that no run need be like any other, including this one, just north of Big Chico Creek.

I also have to admit that I wasn't a big fan of the Central Coast  terrain. Lompoc gets only about 13 inches of rain a year, so what you end up with is a fairly treeless expanse. I find it far more enjoyable to run through lower Bidwell Park's woods.

One of my favorite paths is also the shadiest. It  parallels Vallombrosa Avenue.

Another good thing about being in Chico is that the runners here are so encouraging. I get a lot of "looking good" comments on the trail.  I run at a plodding pace.  Just about everyone  passes me, which feels a little intimidating. So it's good that people aren't coming up behind me and saying "Get out of the way, slow poke."

Lompoc was always a perfect temperature for running, especially in the summer when a high of 80 was considered hot.  In Chico, I get around the problem of the  heat by going out early. But now I'm wondering how I'll  cope with the coming rainy season, especially if this turns out to be an El Nino year.  Chico gets about twice as much rain as Lompoc. I hope the  prospect of getting wet doesn't  make me feel too discouraged.

Cold weather isn't a problem. Believe it or not, Chico's lows in the winter aren't much lower than than they are in Lompoc, despite it being only five miles from the ocean. Morning frost is as common there as it is here. I've never  experienced extreme cold temperatures while running, but I think there must be a point - maybe zero or below - where you don't go out. But the 30s are comfortable, especially after I've reached the half-hour point in the run. The body heat I'm generating at that point provides all the warmth I need.

I'm afraid the park and other external circumstances can take me only so far in inducing me to keep running. The rest of it depends on what's going on inside my head. I'm finding I'm too competitive - with myself.  I insist that once I start running, I must keep going for the duration. No walking breaks are allowed. I've got to get over that. Also, I probably need  to go out every other day, rather than six days out of seven. With my current schedule,  I'm bound to wear myself out.  For a while I rationalized the need to run just about every day because it was helping me lose weight. But now  I'm down to 175 pounds, which is what I weighed in high school. I think the diet is over, and that I can afford to go easier on myself out on the trail.

It would be great if running could become a lifelong habit. But I'm still trying to figure out how to make it a habit I enjoy. The first time around, back when I lived in Lompoc, it became a duty, and although I kept at it for six years, I had no qualms about abruptly giving it up. I hit the wall.

One of the challenges of running now is that when I'm talking about making it a lifelong pursuit, I'm now referring to my 60s, 70s and 80s.  I feel healthy and fit, but even in my 50s I've been thrown a few curves that have made me realize my constitution is more fragile than I think. I may not be robust enough to keep running for the rest of my life.