When I went to the gym last week, I turned on the tv attached to the stationary bike. This doesn’t sound like front page news, I know, but it’s extraordinary to me for two reasons.
First, I have never turned on the little tv EVER. I joined my gym about 30 years ago. A franchise of a California company was opening and they sent representatives to BIW to scrounge up some memberships. I’ve spent most of my life trying to get myself to exercise; if there were a vitamin I could pop that could replace exercise in my world, I’d be all over that. When the reps offered up an extraordinary rate for BIW folks, I signed up. (And not only was it extraordinary but the price never went up in all the years I was a paying member.) And I went to the gym like clockwork because for most of those years I got money back from my health insurance company and from BIW – for about 15 years the amount of payback was actually a couple more than I paid the gym. It was like getting paid to exercise. These days I do mostly stationary bike and occasionally laps in the pool.
The second reason it was extraordinary was that when I turned on the tv, I searched for the Olympics. You all know I am not a sports fan of any kind. I only follow gymnastics a smidge because YA follows and I hear things from her. Other than that, I know nothing. When I play Trivial Pursuit, I always make sure there is a sports person on my team because I am useless in that category.
But that day, there was an intersection of my issues. I didn’t have a book; I’d had a bunch of errands, including meeting YA for lunch and I completely forgot to grab a book even though the gym was on my to-do list. And no stray books skulking around in the car either, which is also unusual. I thought about stopping at Southdale library (between BIW and the gym) but I just didn’t want to. I figured I’d just fart around on my phone for 30 minutes while I cycled.
When I jumped onto the bike, it occurred to me that I could turn on the little TV and watch THE OLYMPICS! I’m not sure why I am not a jot interested in sports/athletics but I can watch Olympic coverage for hours and days on end. I was in Madison for several days and my friend and I had the games on pretty much full time if we were at home. That’s how it always is; I don’t expect to watch any Olympics and then I watch, follow specific athletes, text a couple of friends who I know are watching. When the games are over, my interest will disappear, pretty much overnight.
So there I was – the person who hates to exercise — watching sports on the gym television. When Leon Marchand was trailing in second place for most of his 200M Butterfly and then poured it on the last 5 seconds to take the gold, I raised up my arms and cheered (quietly)! I feel like a different person lives in my skin during the Olympics.
Do you have/have you had a go-to exercise?
