Ready For The Second-Half
How to change something you love into something you hate.
by Hugh Hines on 01/04/12
The purpose of exercise is to improve you body in some way and requires record keeping and constant focus on improvement. There is never an "easy day" if you are engaged in true exercise. Recreation however is different. I sometimes get the two confused myself. A personal example:
I love to ride a bicycle. I did as a kid and I do now. Just the idea of an effecient human-powered machine fascinates me. I gave up serious riding (and many other things) when I had kids but in the past month or so have taken it back-up. I had my 23 year-old road bike professionally overhauled and made road ready. After a few break-in rides, I decided to wear my heart-rate monitor during a ride. The whole nature of the ride changed. I was constantly looking at my heart rate and found myself focused on keeping it in the mythical "training zone." Speeding up. Slowing down. Keeping in the zone became the "reason" I was riding. When I completed my ride, I decided that I must know my speed, pedal cadence, time, and distance, and began looking into getting a device to measure all that. In my mind, I was turning something I simply enjoy doing with no agenda other than enjoyement, into something that would be work. Knowing all that information would then have me make comparisons and striving for improvement. The exact opposite of why I want to ride. That's what recreation is. It is more for the mind than the body. Sure, there's a small "exercise" component, but it is so minor as to not be of any value.
