I really really don’t enjoy exercising. It’s mind-numbing to move around for no purpose other than to build or maintain muscles. Give me a nice open grass field and a plastic disc to chase, and I’m in heaven. Or a volleyball and a net and a rectangle of sand. Or a kayak and a paddle, a trail and a backpack, or any of a dozen other sports and pastimes. Having a purpose, a goal, a point to moving around, makes it so much fun. But plain old exercise is just not my thing.
That said, I don’t have much opportunity here for ultimate, volleyball, kayaking, hiking, and so on. I don’t want to spend a year doing nothing but losing muscle mass, so I’ve been working hard at… exercising.
For the first few months, it was all in the gym. Even at seven in the morning it was a scorching hundred degrees outside, with the summer sun beating down, and it didn’t make a lot of sense to be outdoors exercising. In the gym I used the treadmill and the elliptical and the stationary bike, and occasionally “pumped iron” with some weights. It’s hard to fully describe how un-exciting it is to be alone in a somewhat stuffy room doing these things. But I did it because it was important.
These days, it’s cooler in the mornings– sometimes as low as seventy! Compared with summer it feels wonderful, and it means I can be outside to get my exercise. I’ve been running several times a week, usually clocking around three miles. The scenery is stunning.
But hey, I’m exercising!