Saturday, September 11, 2010

Living life to the fullest

Friday was my half-day at work. When I started that schedule to help out the company reduce their budget, I didn't think I would like it because ... hey, I was already at work, why not just stay there. But, I changed my tune. It's nice to get a headstart on the weekend and there's a lot I can get done with those four hours. Yesterday, it was to head to the gym to help work off those extra points from the night before. It had been awhile since I had been there because of our trip to visit the kids and I wondered if I would be starting over at square one and would have to build up my stamina again. Gary dropped me off (he was going to take the car to get the oil changed) and I told him to pick me up in an hour. When I got there, I thought maybe I should have told him that I would walk home. It would be quite a hike but ... maybe I'll try it today and check the mileage.

I had worked up my routine to spend 20 minutes on the bike. I had a dream the night before that I got there and didn't have my ipod and couldn't do it, so I made sure I had my music with me to make the time go faster. I headed upstairs at the Community Center and was shocked to see only two other people using the machines. If anybody didn't like exercising in front of people this was the time to go. That never bothered me, I figured that people that were there were in their own zone and weren't there to people watch.

I climbed on the bike started pedaling and switched on the IPod ... nothing. I pushed the button again ... how was I going to do 20 minutes without music when I was rusty ... was my dream a reality. Finally I pushed in the cord and whall-a "the beat goes on". I stayed in over the 70 rpm area and switched it up every five minutes in a sprint of over 100 rpm for a minute. I got to my 20 minutes and thought what the heck, go for 30. I was watching the mileage I had biked and calories burned but at 22 minutes the bike turned off and the readout went dark and I couldn't remember what I had accomplished. But I wanted to go 30 minutes, so I started again and went another 8 minutes. When I finished the 30 minutes, I got off the bike and immediately had a flashback to the horseback riding we did in July in Wisconsin. Could I even do the treadmill. Well, I was going to try to do at least 15 minutes. I had to start out slow and didn't even set an incline but then I was in a rhythm and increasing the speed and adding incline but it was really an effort. I kept pushing and even tried to jog a little. A little was right, maybe 15 seconds which seemed like at least a minute. I was about to give it up for the day, still thinking about my overeating the night before when a Fleetwood Mac song started playing. I'm not one to listen to lyrics all that much but knew Gary really liked the song, so I started listening to the words and they kept me going, the lyrics are

Don't stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don't stop, It'll soon be here,
It'll be, better than before,
Yesterdays gone, yesterdays gone.

Why not think about times to come,
And not about the things that you've done,
If your life was bad to you,
Just think what tomorrow will do.

All I want is to see you smile,
If it takes just a little while,
I know you don't believe that its true,
I never meant any harm to you.

Don't stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don't stop, It'll soon be here,
It'll be, better than before,
Yesterdays gone, yesterdays gone.


That song got me through and on to working off 100 calories which I had set my target at instead of the time. Life is good and I'm living it.

3 comments:

NAN said...

COOL! I had a rather productive day myself but not a lot of exercise. I am seriously contemplating joining Planet Fitness. I will go at off times too LOL.

Tammy said...

Sounds like a great workout. Way to push yourself. I would lose my mind if I was on the treadmill without any music. I am constantly looking at the display thinking "oh I'm dying here, am I done yet, how about now? now? nowwww?" I agree, that's a great song.

mensa said...

@Nan - We gotta keep moving. It helps when we make a poor choice with food here and there.

@Tammy - They say exercise will eventually become second nature, we'll see.