ExerBlog |  |
I didn't get up for my 6:00 workout today, but slept in until 7:30. It was a conscious decision, if that's at all possible while still in bed. I'd only slept four hours and didn't want to be a zombie for New Year's revelries.
My time was improved, but this isn't a pattern I want to continue. 6:00 tomorrow, zombie or not!
I rowed a little faster today without even bearing down on myself. Usually to get better performance I need to create a certain anxiety or tension within myself, telling myself that I must be better and making up an external reason, like eventual competition. I'm becoming more convinced that this simple low-pressure consistency is the best long-term approach for me.
Another day of Just Barely Do It, after three days of skiing and one day of rest away. Just the same, my time was actually better than a few days ago.
At the office, they're starting a weight loss competition. This year, I might participate without getting laughed out of town -- I actually have at waist level a bit of what my North Carolina calls a "biscuit".
I nearly didn't hear the alarm this morning, but managed to clamber downstairs and shuffle back and forth for awhile on the machine, at a bare minimum of effort. Asking myself whether this could possibly be doing me any good, I answer that this is a long-term effort. Part of it at least is a recalibration of my circadian rhythm just to be up and (somewhat) active at 6 am. My sleep habits have been erratic for years, with only one sure point discovered: if I'm in bed before 11pm, I'm up at 3am with spiralling eyeballs. This can actually result in a trippy kind of experience, because when I return to bed at 5am for the last couple of hours sleep, my dreams are invariably intense, almost like lucid dreaming (which I've never really experienced).
Meanwhile back on Earth, the humdrum of the rowing machine is anything but trippy. But it's a longer-term experiment.
I'm really trying to take it easy on myself, just to be on the rowing machine seat at 6:00. I know I don't have an iron will. So I know if I push myself and hurt physically, the weak part of me will remember that the next day and not be motivated. So I'm trying hard to make it not hurt.
But the toughest adversary against this consistency is whatever voice is in my head at 5:55 when the alarm goes off, saying "that was a great dream, you deserve to just savor that a little longer", or "five minutes extra is OK". That too easily turns into twenty minutes, and finally "aww, not worth working out for just 10 minutes, and the day is starting".
Firing up the old exerblog for a new year. This time around the posting will be more casual (i.e. I won't spend my usual extra half an hour trying to use creative language), since I'll be writing early in the morning when my brain is still sludge.
My goal is to use my rowing machine every morning that I'm home throughout the month of January, at 6:00 am, for 5000 meters. I'm not going to set any speed or improvement goals -- only the consistency of doing it every morning, which is probably my weakest point. I expect that all days won't be as lazy as today, when I basically slid back and forth for half an hour. But these days OK.