Back on the treadmill, again
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 06:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniI am a night person; the whole getting-up-at-dawn thing is completely lost on me. Mind you, I adore a watching a good sunrise just before retiring, but getting up at sunrise seems the height of lunacy.
When I was a freelance, I was, of course, able to largely indulge my personal clock. My best writing time is from about 7 p.m. to about midnight, and I would usually get to bed, eh, one-thirty-ish.
When I first arrived at the day-job, I wasn't sleeping well anyway, and by the time we were contracted for Duainfey, my natural clock was shot all to heck, not to say my nerves. For the last several years, I've been trying to fit the writing rationally around the day-job.
Since I have to be up at an Absurd Time anyway, I tried writing in the morning -- which doesn't work. The brain comes on-line at noon, no matter what time I'm forced to get vertical and put clothes on.
I tried Ignoring the constraints created by full-time employment, and wrote far into the night anydamnway, which actually worked OK for the writing, but didn't do particularly well by the day-job.
I tried coming home, catching a nap and then writing far into the night, which worked slightly better for the purposes of the day-job, but not as well as you might think in terms of the writing.
While all this was going on, I was getting acclimated to actually being awake during the day, so now I come home from work, drink coffee, and write, mostly productively, until my natural creative wake-up time or a little beyond, then have lunch with Steve and try to get to bed before 11 o'clock.
None of this is unique to me, by the way; any writer who holds a full-time job in addition to having a writing career, i.e. most of us, has had to come to terms with finding time to actually write the novel(s) under contract.
Anyway, now that I think I've achieved a mostly workable compromise in terms of working and, err, working, I'm stretching to add exercise back into the mix.
We have, in the basement, a treadmill. Now, I hate the treadmill, which imposes an artificial stride and also? Is boring. However, the treadmill is right here in the basement and! though I can't write at 5:30 in the morning, I can walk at 5:30 in the morning. Which I've been doing the past couple days.
My problem is, as I say, boredom. No television-enabled cable, so I can't watch cartoons. This morning I tried reading while I walked, but that's obviously a skill that's going to take some time to acquire.
So! Taking suggestions: What do you do to keep from dying on boredom on the treadmill?
When I was a freelance, I was, of course, able to largely indulge my personal clock. My best writing time is from about 7 p.m. to about midnight, and I would usually get to bed, eh, one-thirty-ish.
When I first arrived at the day-job, I wasn't sleeping well anyway, and by the time we were contracted for Duainfey, my natural clock was shot all to heck, not to say my nerves. For the last several years, I've been trying to fit the writing rationally around the day-job.
Since I have to be up at an Absurd Time anyway, I tried writing in the morning -- which doesn't work. The brain comes on-line at noon, no matter what time I'm forced to get vertical and put clothes on.
I tried Ignoring the constraints created by full-time employment, and wrote far into the night anydamnway, which actually worked OK for the writing, but didn't do particularly well by the day-job.
I tried coming home, catching a nap and then writing far into the night, which worked slightly better for the purposes of the day-job, but not as well as you might think in terms of the writing.
While all this was going on, I was getting acclimated to actually being awake during the day, so now I come home from work, drink coffee, and write, mostly productively, until my natural creative wake-up time or a little beyond, then have lunch with Steve and try to get to bed before 11 o'clock.
None of this is unique to me, by the way; any writer who holds a full-time job in addition to having a writing career, i.e. most of us, has had to come to terms with finding time to actually write the novel(s) under contract.
Anyway, now that I think I've achieved a mostly workable compromise in terms of working and, err, working, I'm stretching to add exercise back into the mix.
We have, in the basement, a treadmill. Now, I hate the treadmill, which imposes an artificial stride and also? Is boring. However, the treadmill is right here in the basement and! though I can't write at 5:30 in the morning, I can walk at 5:30 in the morning. Which I've been doing the past couple days.
My problem is, as I say, boredom. No television-enabled cable, so I can't watch cartoons. This morning I tried reading while I walked, but that's obviously a skill that's going to take some time to acquire.
So! Taking suggestions: What do you do to keep from dying on boredom on the treadmill?
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 12:26 pm (UTC)*flap of the cape* *hiss scuttle scuttle*
What to do while on a treadmill so you don't die of boredom
Date: 2010-01-05 12:27 pm (UTC)Good luck!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 12:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 04:09 pm (UTC)I watch Hulu on my notebook when I am cooking. No TV or cable connection in kitchen.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 12:53 pm (UTC)Boredom relief
Date: 2010-01-05 01:02 pm (UTC)I like the computer idea.. go for it!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 01:18 pm (UTC)I don't use the treadmill myself because I hate it. And because it's actually actively detrimental for my knee problems but mostly because I hate it.
I read while on the exercise cycle and let my mind wander while I'm on the rowing machine (sometimes whilst listening to nature tapes of water or ocean sounds), and then go blank doing tai chi. (it is surprising difficult to let the mind go blank but concentrating on movement does slow said movement down and helps to put one 'in the moment').
Good luck with your exercise. And your writing.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 01:32 pm (UTC)I set up the NordicTrack in front of the TV if the weather gets too ornery. Given the general quality of TV fare, this represents a last resort.
A lot of new exercise machines have provision for your iPod.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 01:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 01:54 pm (UTC)My own version of this problem involves a recumbent trike on a training stand. This is quite a bit easier to deal with, as a laptop nestles nicely on my lap then...
e-book reader
Date: 2010-01-05 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 03:29 pm (UTC)What my friend does
Date: 2010-01-05 03:37 pm (UTC)Lauretta@ConstellationBooks
PS Ellipticals work the arms too so a computer or book doesn't work for her. Another friend DOES use a book on her treadmill but she says they have to be hardback.
treadmill boredom
Date: 2010-01-05 03:43 pm (UTC)Best wishes for the New Year, and hopes for a better world!!! I hate going against my diurnal rythms too.... sigh.
Nanette
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 05:08 pm (UTC)It can also be a great time to just think. At one time in the past I would meditate while walking on the treadmill.
Doc
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 05:28 pm (UTC)2.6 miles -- i try to do it every workday, but i probably average 4 days.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 05:37 pm (UTC)I have a whole selection of uptempo music on the nano just for exercising to.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 06:35 pm (UTC)Try the BBC on line
Date: 2010-01-05 06:50 pm (UTC)Mary
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 08:08 pm (UTC)Language learning podcasts can be useful as well, but those take the most brains of all.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 08:22 pm (UTC)Best wishes to you and Kinzel for the New Year!
Lynda
no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 08:35 pm (UTC)I also tend to daydream.
Commentary Tracks and TV Show DVDs
Date: 2010-01-05 09:55 pm (UTC)Currently my favorites are TV Show DVDs (6 -22 episodes per season) and commentary tracks. I actually listened to all 10 commentary tracks on Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings.
I paid $120 for it new.
=FIN
SciFi on DVDs
Date: 2010-01-05 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 10:20 pm (UTC)Music
Date: 2010-01-05 10:30 pm (UTC)If you're going to tread the mill, you might find audio books as another good entertainment.
Whatever you do, keep it up and be encouraged.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 11:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 03:46 pm (UTC)Treadmill distractions
Date: 2010-01-07 01:26 pm (UTC)I only began to enjoy (sic) the whole business of running on a treadmill when I accidentally found myself watching a summary of the Oxford v Cambridge boat race on the Thames, complete with Chariots of Fire soundtrack and soundbites of shouted encouragement as the crews sprinted to the finish line. Worked wonders. I don't have any recordings of folk shouting "come on this is your moment, go for it etc etc, but I now have a large number of inspiring and exciting movie soundtracks on my ipod that help hugely to make the time and my legs move more swiftly.
cheers
Morag, London
no subject
Date: 2010-01-08 02:46 am (UTC)