Fitness for life is a two credit gym class I am taking this semester that requires me to hit the cardio for a minimum of 20 minutes on Wednesday and Friday every week. This week I decided I wasn't feeling the treadmill so I jumped on the stationary bike.
Wednesday I had a dead iPod so I just pedaled away while trying really hard to not stare at the timer on the bike. Let's just say that it was the longest and toughest 30 minutes of my life. I was always varying the resistance and slowing down and speeding up.
If I had my iPod it would have helped some but I've noticed even with running on the treadmill music just doesn't cut it when it comes to getting me to forget about the timer.
Today I still had a dead iPod but I happened to see my Kindle as I was getting things packed up at work before heading to the gym. I decided since I'm not taking as much time to read now that school has started why not use my gym time as reading time?
I had a scare when I got set up on the bike after turning my Kindle on - it said my battery is low plug me in! No, it didn't really say that exactly but close enough.
I rolled with the punches though and just decided to use it until it died on me.
My Kindle returned all of the love I give it by surviving 31 minutes and only reminding me one more time that it wanted to be connected to some juice.
If you follow me on Daily Mile at all you already know that I was 20 minutes into my workout before I checked the time. Even better is it felt like I had just gotten on the bike a minute ago. Even better still is I "went" farther than I did on Wednesday and kept the resistance the same at 10 for the entire workout.
On my drive home I realized working out ain't no thinkin' thing!
When my head is involved in my workout I don't preform as well as I know I could. Wednesday is a prime example - varying the resistance and speed because my legs were "tired/sore" or whatever and the time was going by super slow. Same thing happens with running. I stop running long before my body truly says it can't take me any farther at the pace I'm going.
Today proves the point that half - or more of - the battle is mental. Because my mind was occupied with what I was reading I didn't have the ability to worry about the time and my legs being "tired/sore". Sorry brain guess what? My legs felt the exact same way as they did Wednesday and I didn't need to slow down or make it easier!
I am not sure that I could run while reading my Kindle so for now I am going to stick to the stationary bike but maybe sometime I'll give reading a shot while I'm running. Stationary bike, you and I plus third wheel Kindle have a date next Wednesday at 11:45am - see you then!
Questions for you...
How do you overcome the mental battle in your workouts?
Do you read while running/biking on gym equipment? (Please don't try reading while running/biking out in the "real" world!)
Currently listening to...
Ala-Freakin-Bama - Trace Adkins - album: Cowboy's Back in Town (see some pictures I took of Mr. Adkins at Country Fest in June here
If you guessed Trace Adkins as the artist who sings the song I used for my post title you were correct!
I just have to add another song to my "currently listening to" for the day! Brown Chicken Brown Cow - Have you seen the music video for this?? If not watch it now!!
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