by looking at them at a party but how the hell does this help in endurance. The answer can be easily realized during your first couple of attempts. The first time, whether on a treadmill or on a track or on the road, you will be motivated, saying to your inner mind, “see I can do this”, “this isn’t so hard”, “boy isn’t it great to be outside and I look cool”. As you progress, this luster is short-lived and you quickly learn – RUNNING IS BORING – on the order of watching golf or paint dry, which I put in the same category, paint drying gets a slight advantage because it is adding value to society, unless you are tagging an underpass on the 405.Anyway, lets face it, the mind, left alone, conjures up many things and during exercise, will continually try to talk you out of it – not sure if the mind is jealous of the body, but it rivals the fights my kids used to have riding shotgun in our SUV. In its effort to make you do something “mind-centric” like read a book or something, the mind generally tries to
starts by reminding you of the repetition of running – the human hamster wheel. If you are at the gym and using a treadmill, this is why they have TV’s in front of the cardio stuff – to trick the mind, not to keep you up-to-date with Anderson Cooper’s sexuality or that Liverpool is playing Chelsea in England Premier soccer tournament, uh, I mean football. BTW, how come the soccer announcers sound like they speaking gibberish, what language did they speak before English, and don’t give me that Queen’s English crap.But I digress, these TV’s have done such a great job of tricking the mind, many places actually limit the amount of time you can use the machines. The mind is being fed and is not overly jealous that the body is having fun, but this too doesn’t last. Eventually, the “mind” figures out that Anderson Cooper knows too much
about teabagging to be straight and that there is nothing premier about watching soccer for 90 minutes with no goals and as a result, the “mind” wanders and eventually rebels. All of a sudden, you wont be able to read the closed caption on the TV’s and the timer on the treadmill will seem like its using a different measure of time – is that 25 minutes?, doooh its 25 seconds!!!!!!The experienced gym rats generally start by changing the setting on the treadmill so the time isn’t constantly reminding them they have only gone half a mile in 6 minutes 23 seconds and it cycles the twenty different statistics with the time elapsed coming up every 25 seconds or so.
This throws the mind off for alittle while, it tries to understand Pace, those little dots on the digital track and most importantly calories burned. Soon it figures it out and the last resort, and this is how you tell an experienced runner, they get an extra towel, not to wipe down the machine – which they never do, but rather to cover the high tech digital display of the treadmill. Could you image how aghast the product designers of the treadmill would be if they knew all their extensive research on ergonomics ultimately is compromised by a $3.50 towel that may, or may not, be clean. Sheesh.This inner voice is not limited to just Fitness24 treadmills, it follows you around, regardless of how you try to trick it. You would think running outside provides all of stimulus for the senses and the “mind” For the first couple of weeks (maybe less), you are motivated by the scenery, dodging traffic and out-running the squirrels/dogs. By the way, what’s with the squirrels? I have this perception that squirrels are nice, flurry, friendly, cuddly animals – in some cases smart like
Rocky. Never would I think they are aggressive or mean, but they are. I run on this trail nearby my home and at the same spot every time, there are a gang of “Killer Squirrels” that lie in wait for the next un-suspecting human. As you get closer, they coordinate their attack, one from the left, one from the right, one from behind – and they charge you, stopping just close enough to get my attention, but not closer enough to kick or even spit at. Now maybe this is just me, but I swear these Killer Squirrels have a hit on me, they do it when I’m on a BIKE!!!!!!!.Anyway, the “mind” eventually catches on to your “look at the shiny object” strategy and it becomes worse, much worse. The “mind” outright rebels but this time its super-sized, it preys on everyone’s hypochondric tendencies. It goes something like this, you
running for a given amount of time and your “mind” taps you on the shoulder, “hello, hello body is that you?” then goes for the jugular “Do you realize you are running?” and continues “uh hmm, you know running can hurt you knees”, “are your knees hurting?”, “no?, how about hips”, “no, how about the feet”. It’s relentless and then tries to talk you in stopping, “hey body, how about a break, you deserve it” “run up to that water fountain and walk – its better for you anyway”. Slowly it gains momentum and then evolves into the intensity of a Shamwow infomercial.The bottom line is that the hardest part about running is NOT the physical aspect but rather keeping your mind occupied and not thinking about running – its alittle counter intuitive. This is why the walkman and subsequently the IPOD have a viable business model, the market isn’t responding an increase preference for music but rather is looking for a way to divert your mind from whatever onerous task it is consumed with. The IPOD has definitely taken this to a new level, with itunes and its podcasts/applications, there is a prolifera of ways to combat “mind” tricks and distract you from the fact that you are running. One caution here, if you like, like I do, the podcasts, be careful to keep your reactions to yourself. Many of times I got funny looks from
people because I was laughing out loud during one of Adam Carolla’s podcasts while on a run. Or worse, arguing out loud with a podcast commentator that I disagree with. My wife has this annoying habit of listening to her favorite songs on her IPOD and then singing out loud. While normally she has a great voice, something about not getting the audio feedback causes her to sound like cats getting run over. Notwithstanding these challenges, the key here is to get the up hand on the mind games that your mind is playing.
