curing treadmill boredom... a problem i'm working on as a new business. one i didn't happen to discuss with you in Vegas. if i get it launched (unlikely, it's a very busy year!), i'll chat it up with you. it's in its infancy, for now, and florida doesn't help me... too easy to go outside and enjoy. :-) my solution may not please your inner geek though, rss feed, it ain't... people that gectored out (including us both), are too small a market for this venture. and hey, stop reading my thoughts (a byproduct of your new machine, no doubt, 'rss reading' my foot, linking machine and body and mind... yep, i can guess what you're really up to Scott).
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RSS
I've got two problems:
Unrelated problems? Not so fast. Do you see where this is going? OK, the pictures give it away.
Burning Fat
Earlier this week I had my annual physical examination. I can't really call it "annual" since it's been three years. The good news is that there was no bad news. Cholesterol 163. The good and bad are at great levels. Honestly, I don't know how I manage to maintain that. Everything else good too. Phew, I'm getting old so I expect things to start going downhill.
My Doctor did give me a bit of a scolding, however. I haven't really exercised since Jason was born back in August. And I'm gaining a few lbs.
He said, and I'll paraphrase.
Of course he's right, and I shouldn't need my doctor to tell me that. But it did give me that little bit of motivation I needed. Funny how that works.
I like to get my exercise on the road. And I like to run for a good distance, else I don't feel like I did much. That takes time. Add in warm up, cool down, showers, etc...thus the problem.
Also, it's stark winter here, single digits outside, with narrow snow-flanked roadways. Not ideal running conditions.
That means treadmill. boring.
Burning Feeds
(Sorry, I know those two words together are a touchy subject for folks these days.)
As I mentioned, I also cannot keep up with the RSS feeds. There's good stuff in there that I need to read, but it often gets up over 200 posts in the queue.
So here's what I did today. I set up my Macbook on the treadmill with google reader. I hooked up a small bluetooth mouse with a scroll wheel. I fired up google reader and increased the font several times.
I positioned the mouse over the content window, and magically, I've got an RSS feed scrolling remote control in my hand.
I ran for 40 minutes and caught up on 200+ posts. If I keep this up, I'll be burning through feeds and calories like crazy.
I had to run a little bit slower than I normally would, 10-11 min mile pace, in order to be able to read. But that's fast enough for a good workout.
Of course, I must geek out on everything I do. And as if that alone isn't geeky enough, I finished it up by creating a Google Docs spreadsheet right there to record the numbers off the treadmill.
TBD