An Exercise Update

So, remember this post?

Yeah, I still hate exercise and would much rather sink into the magical recliner.

However, I have not. Yay me! As long as my numbers remain good, I'll keep on truckin'.

Now that it gets dark at an obscenely early hour, I go to the fitness center here at our apartment complex. It's a short walk through the garage and across the parking lot, so I cannot use the excuse that it's too far away. I even walk down the stairs from our floor to get to the garage -- it's a warm up, don't you know.

Anyway, because I get home at a decent hour, I usually have my pick of the treadmills. I get on, fire up MapMyWalk, press Quick Start, jack it up to 2.5 miles per hour, and I walk. And walk and walk and walk. For at least a half hour, maybe more if I'm feeling inspired. I also upped my minimum from three times a week to four times a week.

But you know what? While I must grudgingly admit that walking around the trail loop is pleasant, walking on a treadmill is boringly boring, and full of boredom-inducing bore. What to do? Watch one of the TVs? Yeah, but the channel is usually SportsCenter or Pardon the Interruption or (God help me) Faux News. Yeah, I could change the channel (and I have on occasion), but I mostly just want to get the walking over with.

For awhile I took my Kindle and read while I walked. That worked pretty well! I finished both The Plantagenets and The War of the Roses by walking and reading. Then I thought, "Well, let's try something else." So I fired up Candy Crush.

It's a miracle! The time flies by! I'll get involved in a level, crushing candies willy nilly, and when I exhaust my turns or complete a level, I sneak a peek at the distance counter. Whoa! It's always more than I think it's going to be. I often miss my benchmark for upping the incline (from 0 to 1, don't get excited). And pretty soon I've walked a mile, so then I have to walk for half an hour, and then I decide to walk for a mile and a quarter. I figure that if the trail loop is a mile and a half, I can definitely do a mile and a quarter on the damn treadmill.

Fear not, I'll work my way up to a mile and a half.

Afterward, I reward myself with a latte from the coffee machine in the clubhouse. It's made fresh! With Starbucks coffee! Yes, I know; hot coffee after a workout is a little strange. But it's a nice little reward, all the same.

And then, I come home (taking the elevator to our floor; I'm not a glutton for punishment) where I sink into the recliner for the rest of the evening.

Speaking of which, it's calling my name right now.