So it was probably inevitable that, after pooh-poohing the 'exercise your way to fitness in just fifteen minutes a day,' I would come to realize that fifteen minutes a day is actually way more exercise than I'm getting on my own. Sure, I go for a run once or twice a week, and for a while there I was picking up a racket to hit balls (until I realized I was actually on a handball court and gradually got squeezed off by the regulars). But I don't do anything with regularity, so bike-to-work day was unexpectedly brutal, and I went to the hilly Monday Run Club run this week and found myself huffing and puffing (it's not even that hilly).
When it comes to things like falling behind at run club, I make like I'm just enjoying the view or the conversation or whatever and it doesn't bother me, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little disturbing. Reading about Heather's 360 mile bike ride to Santa Barbara last weekend blew me away - it was as if she said she'd bicycled to the moon! How far I've come since the days when I trained for Ironmans! Wha happened?
I don't mean to suggest that I regret suspending my triathlon enthusiasm for (at least) this year - I was kind of burned out and not enjoying it so much, and I can't believe how much time I suddenly have! An unplanned Saturday or Sunday is still such a pleasure. As you know, I'm gardening and reading and taking Japanese lessons and learning how to sail and visiting friends and going out in the evenings and planning camping trips - I love it! But the cost to my fitness is very, very real.
So I swallowed my pride and my skepticism and, when the office was looking for 'teams' to do their Fit Quick challenge (everybody does 15 minutes a day, gathering points for their team, to eventually win some prize after a month or two), put my name in. Served me right that all the teams were full.
I don't need them! I can do 15 minutes a day on my own!
Except that I can't. I went to RealAge and printed out their twenty minute workout - it's a strength training program using either free weights or those elastic bands. I figured I'd do it every day that I wasn't doing something else. I went to the gym that day and it took me forty minutes. (Because you're in the free weight room where it's 90% dudes, you feel kinda foolish with your silly little magazine workout and your 10 pound dumbells, but, whatever.)
I have yet to do it a second time. I even printed out the rubber band version and packed it and a brand new set of rubber bands when I went to L.A....but never got around to it. Seriously? Heather's riding hundreds of miles the very same weekend I can't be bothered to pull a rubber band out of my suitcase for twenty minutes? Weak.
So you can imagine my delight when I came across this ad in the magazine on the flight back home from Los Angeles.
(You can perhaps also imagine my pique when Ace told me he tore something out of the magazine for me on his flight home from his own Memorial Day weekend trip - and it was the same ad.)
Unfortunately, I do not have $14,615 to spend on a medieval torture device, so I will have to slog it out for the nine extra minutes each day. And yet it seems so beyond me!
I'm trying to use Gretchen's exercise motivators, like "exercise on Monday to set the tone for the week" and I'm trying come up with some kind of accountability system. But my sporty friends around here don't need me to motivate - they have their own races and clubs and training programs to keep them motivated. And we're not really on the same page anyway - I'm purposely trying to avoid that degree of obsession. Exercisefriends.com has been a good resource in the past - I've found several great running and riding partners. But they were all one-offs, and took a lot of coordination since we didn't know one another.
I think what I need is a virtual buddy to keep me on track. Would anybody out there like to be my virtual exercise partner? We could do the Real Age exercise thing, or even the Quick Fit thing. Or we could make up something else entirely. I'm dyin' out here!
While I'm at it, I need somebody to get me up early in the morning.
Have you read the ROM website? It's actually quite humorous, e.g. to address your concern about price:
NOW WHY DOES THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THE ROM HAVE TO BE SO HIGH?
The marketing cost is the biggest expense in the ROM. There IS NO MARKET FOR A 4 MINUTE EXERCISE MACHINE because anybody in their right mind just knows that a 4 minute workout could not possibly exist. They are absolutely wrong of course, but as long as they do not realize that they are wrong, they will not be interested in a 4 minute exercise machine. If we were to spend the same advertising money to advertise treadmills we would sell about 150 times as many treadmills as we sell ROM machines. ...
Posted by: 7thStreet | June 04, 2008 at 05:05 PM
This is priceless stuff (I promise I'll stop now):
5. Can you do more than 4 minutes per day on the ROM-QuickGym and get even more and faster results?
This is an often asked question by people who have never used the ROM. People who have used the ROM just once for 4 minutes do not ask that question. Most people are glad when the 4 minutes are over.
Posted by: 7thStreet | June 04, 2008 at 05:09 PM
Hey - are you still looking for someone? My running buddy just injured herself and so Im on my own for 4-6 weeks. Im doing a sprint tri in about a month and a half, so Ill mostly be doing running, swimming, and biking.
Posted by: Zarah | June 04, 2008 at 06:41 PM
I'm up for being a virtual buddy. I've been trying to motivate myself to get in a 15-20 minute workout each day as well (On Demand Exercise TV actually has some pretty good workout routines!) and it's amazing how I can still manage to blow off just that tiny little amount!
Posted by: Wickedly Scarlett | June 04, 2008 at 08:19 PM
I've had lots of time to think (while riding hundreds of miles) about this whole exercise thing. Unfortunately, I think there is just a personality type (me, and perhaps you too) that leans toward black and white. Either I'm training for an Ironman or I'm not doing much of anything at all. This is true for many aspects of my life. I'm going to cook the most complicated gourmet meal on earth, or we'll order take-out. If the house needs tidying up, I take 4 hours to thoroughly clean out a cluttered closet. There might be something to this whole 6 minutes-a-day thing. Perhaps it is the gray in my otherwise black and white world...
Posted by: Heather | June 05, 2008 at 08:37 AM
I would like to be your virtual sporty buddy. I've excercised six of the seven days since my trial settled! But would love accountability/discipline.
Posted by: Vaguely Urban | June 05, 2008 at 10:26 AM
Zarah, Angela, Vaguely - this is great! Let's see if we can't come up with some kind of structure. I have ideas percolating already...
Posted by: TasterSpoon | June 05, 2008 at 03:20 PM
Perhap a quick text message to motivatees at sporadic intervals to check on progress will light enough of a spark to generate at least 6 minutes of responsive exercise, if not a full 15? (15 minutes is surprisingly long when you really just want to veg on the couch.) I also can sometimes trick myself into stretching or doing random ab strengthening exercises while walking the dog. It's not the exercise that bothers me. It's thinking that it's exercise.
Posted by: boot | June 05, 2008 at 05:49 PM