Multitasking - Are we doing too much?
In high school, I ran cross country for a few years; in college, I ran as part of the ROTC program; and for 7 years, I ran because my job required it...but I never actually enjoyed it. In August of last year, I decided that now that nothing "required" me to run, I might just start liking it, so I began training for a half marathon. I was plugging through the training plan (taken from Runner's World) and mostly enjoying myself. I even did a couple 8 mile runs and had fun! Then, in November, I found out I was pregnant, and although I didn't stop running, I did stop any semblance of serious training.
So throughout the first 6 months of my pregnancy, I was able to continue jogging/waddling and REALLY started to enjoy running. I think it was the absence of pressure to meet any time/distance goals. I was outside, getting fresh air, unconcerned about my route, and just going with the flow. Now that's the way to run.
As of a few weeks ago, my doctor gave me the go-ahead to begin working out again. And as of September 23rd, I was able to start taking Reagan to the daycare facility at the Tarawa Terrace fitness center...so no more excuses. Plus, my friends are kind enough to do a run/walk with Reagan and I every so often. (One pushes the stroller and the rest run to a turnaround point, someone else takes over the pushing, and so on. Everyone gets a workout, everyone gets a walk break. It's a good system.) I digress...
We are rapidly approaching November 7th - the date of the Beach to Battleship half marathon that I signed up with (after a little pressure from my friend Alexis:), and I'm taking the whole training approach a bit more realistically. The goal is to finish. I've done three runs this week, two of which were on the treadmill...which brings me back to the title of this post: Treadmills are boring. (I don't hate them, but most people do.) So we entertain ourselves to get through each workout:
First, there were big yellow sport Walkmans. Then, we had Disc-mans, followed by the iPod (Nano, shuffle, etc.) All these wonderful inventions provide music as a distraction to the gerbil wheel that is a treadmill. I'm down with that. The new treadmills at the gym that are equipped with built-in TVs that offer cable allow us to multitask, right? Catch up on the news, learn a new recipe, or just enjoy a sitcom. But this week, I've stepped up the multitasking. I don't just listen to music or watch TV anymore - I utilize the one function on my Kindle that I could never find a use for: the bigger font function. It actually increases the font so I can read, while running, without giving myself a headache. This puts me pretty high on the multitasking list, or so I thought before today. As I stepped off my treadmill to retrieve the cleaning supplies, I noticed a woman over to my right on the next gerbil wheel over. She was actually working on her laptop! I'm not even sure how that's possible, but she was making it happen. So much for leading the multitasking pack:(
And while this whole concept of doing something while running on the treadmill isn't in line with the "go with the flow" idea, it gets the job done and surprisingly enough, I'm starting to enjoy running even more.
So throughout the first 6 months of my pregnancy, I was able to continue jogging/waddling and REALLY started to enjoy running. I think it was the absence of pressure to meet any time/distance goals. I was outside, getting fresh air, unconcerned about my route, and just going with the flow. Now that's the way to run.
As of a few weeks ago, my doctor gave me the go-ahead to begin working out again. And as of September 23rd, I was able to start taking Reagan to the daycare facility at the Tarawa Terrace fitness center...so no more excuses. Plus, my friends are kind enough to do a run/walk with Reagan and I every so often. (One pushes the stroller and the rest run to a turnaround point, someone else takes over the pushing, and so on. Everyone gets a workout, everyone gets a walk break. It's a good system.) I digress...
We are rapidly approaching November 7th - the date of the Beach to Battleship half marathon that I signed up with (after a little pressure from my friend Alexis:), and I'm taking the whole training approach a bit more realistically. The goal is to finish. I've done three runs this week, two of which were on the treadmill...which brings me back to the title of this post: Treadmills are boring. (I don't hate them, but most people do.) So we entertain ourselves to get through each workout:
First, there were big yellow sport Walkmans. Then, we had Disc-mans, followed by the iPod (Nano, shuffle, etc.) All these wonderful inventions provide music as a distraction to the gerbil wheel that is a treadmill. I'm down with that. The new treadmills at the gym that are equipped with built-in TVs that offer cable allow us to multitask, right? Catch up on the news, learn a new recipe, or just enjoy a sitcom. But this week, I've stepped up the multitasking. I don't just listen to music or watch TV anymore - I utilize the one function on my Kindle that I could never find a use for: the bigger font function. It actually increases the font so I can read, while running, without giving myself a headache. This puts me pretty high on the multitasking list, or so I thought before today. As I stepped off my treadmill to retrieve the cleaning supplies, I noticed a woman over to my right on the next gerbil wheel over. She was actually working on her laptop! I'm not even sure how that's possible, but she was making it happen. So much for leading the multitasking pack:(And while this whole concept of doing something while running on the treadmill isn't in line with the "go with the flow" idea, it gets the job done and surprisingly enough, I'm starting to enjoy running even more.
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