It’s not for the exercise

Right now I should be out on the trainer.  I don’t mean figuratively, I mean that literally as I am typing this I should be on the bike.  A very long work day made me miss Coach Tim’s class last night and I need to get back on track this morning since I have dinner plans tonight.  And yet, here I sit drinking coffee and writing a blog instead.

There’s a very good reason for this.  The one thing I’ve concluded over the last few years is that I hate to exercise!!!

Now, I can already hear the wheels turning in your head.  You’re asking how in the heck can a guy who averages 5,000 miles a year on the bike not like to exercise?  The answer is quite simple.  Riding my bike is not exercise.  After all, the name of this blog is Lee’s Life Adventure and not Lee Exercises on a Bike.

Maybe it would help if I provided my definition of exercise.  For me, exercise is any activity designed to inflict pain without the benefit of socializing or even post-event coffee.  Where’s the fun in that?  I don’t want to exercise.  I want to do things, go places, and laugh with friends.  That’s why I ride.  It’s not for the exercise.

Let me put just how much I loathe exercise in perspective.  Last week, I was going with the A-team on the Soup Spoons & Carbon Forks ride.  These guys and gals are strong.  We were only riding 45 miles but it would be fast.  I knew I would have trouble hanging on.  I knew that I would probably be dropped.  I knew it could be 3 hours of pain and that I will be exhausted when we arrived at lunch.  And I could hardly wait.

Let’s compare that to riding the trainer.  Let’s say it’s Thursday and Coach Tim’s plan calls for a 45 minute L2 recovery ride with a few L3 efforts thrown in to mix things up.  I see that on the training plan and my first thought is that he’s insane.  How am I ever going to  last for 45-minutes.  I mean, really!  That’s almost an hour.  There’s no way I can last that long without losing it mentally.

That’s when the anti-exercise Lee shows up on my shoulder dressed as the devil from the Tour de France.  “You don’t have to ride the trainer today” he says.  “You don’t have any big rides coming up soon so why not sit down, relax, and have another cup of coffee.”  I only need to hear this little voice once and I am reaching for the coffee pot.

This is not just a cycling thing.  If you’ve read this blog in the past you know I can’t stand core workouts.  There is no way to do a core routine without calling it exercise.  It’s the same with running and swimming.  Put me in a pool with a group of people engaged in a rowdy game of keep away and I’ll swim all day.  But after 10-minutes of swimming laps in that same pool I’m ready to shoot myself (or the person who suggested swimming laps).

Now, before all you exercise nuts out there get started, let me tell you that I totally understand the benefits of exercising.  It makes me stronger.  It can help me ride faster and blah, blah, blah.  I know all of that but I still don’t have to like it.  And since I am adult, at least in terms of age, I get to make my own decision, which this morning is coffee 1 – trainer 0. 

There is good news on the horizon.  The days are getting longer and soon my “exercise” routine will take me out of the garage and onto the open road.  That’s when I can leave the anti-exercise Lee sitting in a comfortable chair as I go do 90-minutes of power intervals, speed drills, or hill repeats.

Until then, I think I’ll just pour another cup of coffee and hit the publish button. 

Ciao!