It was a rainy Saturday, for the most part. Not the best weather for Mardi Gras parades but they did manage to get the one in downtown Pensacola in before the severe weather hit. Weather Underground says we got 2.12" and it isn't out of here yet. Wayne had to move the grill inside the screen enclosure in order to cook supper tonight, it was raining and blowing that hard. I tried to convince him to let me cook the chicken inside but he was determined, and actually, it let up enough that it wasn't that bad. And, of course, the chicken tasted better cooked on the grill too.
All that rain meant I headed for the gym to walk on the treadmill. It was me and the jocks...big, muscle-bound guys throwing big, heavy weights around. Well, there was one jockette...a girl who's legs were nothing but a blur of motion as she spent her time on the elliptical machine before she joined the guys out where the weights are. I had visions of all the men sucking their guts in at that point ala the GoDaddy.com commercial with Jillian Michaels.
I was happy to have the room where the treadmills are to myself most of the time. Given a choice, I'd rather be walking outside where I can hear the birds, see the sky and breathe fresh air but the treadmill is a great option on days like today. And I try to get the most out of it, too. I concentrate on standing up taller, pressing my belly button to my spine and walking as fast as I can. My mind can't focus on all those things when there are cars, dogs and uneven pavement to watch out for. It makes for a good workout.
Today I tried something different...I listened to music on my phone. I rarely do that when I walk the neighborhood, partly because as I said I like hearing the birds but I also don't think it's terribly safe to have your ears plugged up when you're on the streets. Those aren't issues in the gym. In fact, having my ears plugged up is an advantage since the televisions in the cardio room are almost always tuned to ESPN or some other channel showing sporting events. I've been just ignoring them but it was nice to have something pleasant to drown them out.
There are two pitfalls to listening to music while on the treadmill. First, I had to overcome my natural tendency to fall in step with the rhythm of the music. The music loaded on my phone is smooth jazz and while there are some up-tempo songs, I could just go sliding off the back of the belt if I kept pace with some of the slower ones. And the other issue was I had to resist the urge to hum along, especially with some of my more favorite tunes. Fortunately, most of the tunes are instrumentals or I might have found myself singing out loud...much to my embarrassment, I might add.
Overall, I'd say it was a successful experiment. In the past I've watched the bars of lights blink on and off or the miles/duration gradually grow, just to have something to focus on but I sort of got lost in the music and before I knew it, another ten minutes was gone. I don't know how people read on a treadmill...if you're going slow enough to see words on a page then you might want to consider upping your speed; otherwise, what's the point? But music...I'm thinking that's a nice addition to my treadmill time.
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