Does exercise ever make you examine your life's choices?

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  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,026 Member
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    As a long, long distance cyclist ... yes, there are moments where I'm wondering what in the world I'm doing.

    Those moments usually occur about 2 am on some dark and lonely road when my brain is telling me that sensible people are at home sleeping in warm comfortable beds at that hour.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    yep, when the husband is still in bed on a weekend and i'm getting up to have breakfast ahead of my long run...

    but once i'm done, i'm always happy with my choice!
  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,472 Member
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    FOR SURE!, minus 30, swirling winds, cannot see anything, feel anything, and I am snowshoeing in the middle of nowhere! Those are THE BEST HIGHS! I am the only one outside, and everyone is on the couch!, gotta love it!
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    yup - typically around mile 20 of a marathon or similar on an ironman or half-iron...typically i'm like I'm NEVER doing this again...then sure as heck, i sign up for another one
  • guacamole17
    guacamole17 Posts: 109 Member
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    Usually when I feel like that, thinking about when I couldn't do the workout physically puts me in the right mental place to get it done.

    If that doesn't work, thinking about WHY I'm doing it helps (usually a race looming in the distance).
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    Yep... I planned on no more races till March 2018 and then I open an email a week ago and it says 'Join the 36.2 Mile Challenge'. It includes a 10 miler Nov 18, so I have to do it (I already run the 2 half marathon to meet the 3 race requirement).

    For the life of me, challenging my self is not ever going to end as long as I can still walk/run. I don't even have to do these things to myself, I just do. I become stronger in the end for doing it, and I end up having fun too, I guess that is why I keep doing it.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    ccruz985 wrote: »
    Yep.

    "No one will care or even know if I don’t make it to the top." Not true. The most important person will know; you.

    I like you.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
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    I've had those days. When the thoughts happen mid-activity I usually give myself permission to go as easy as I want to go. It usually only lasts for a minute before I can get back on pace.

    Oddly enough, it's those days that I tend to have my best performances. Just shows that getting out the door is most of the battle.
  • allaboutthecake
    allaboutthecake Posts: 1,531 Member
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    I hope you ran Strava. If only for bragging rights.
    But...seriously...I wouldn't do it if it damaged my bike lol. Precious baby that it is, if it got damaged I'd not be able to ride...and THAT, my friend, is what would give me my bottom line.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
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    DX2JX2 wrote: »
    I've had those days. When the thoughts happen mid-activity I usually give myself permission to go as easy as I want to go. It usually only lasts for a minute before I can get back on pace.

    Oddly enough, it's those days that I tend to have my best performances. Just shows that getting out the door is most of the battle.

    Yep.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
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    No. Life makes me question my life choices.

    But to your question... the handful of times in my life where I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I was meant to be in that exact place at that exact time... I was on my bike.

    The worst it's ever been for me were the 2 times I've bonked and during a couple of disastrous races... but they make me think more about how I ended up in that situation rather than question if I should be doing something entirely different.
  • BruinsGal_91
    BruinsGal_91 Posts: 1,400 Member
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    Every time I'm standing at the start line for a race I'm thinking to myself, why the hell am I doing this? And every time I cross the finish line, I mutter to myself I'm never going to do that again. I then go home, put my results into my nerdy race spreadsheet and go online and see what races are coming up that I might like to run.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
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    i wouldn't say i examine them. but i do find them sort of a boggle sometimes.

    the biking thing has been going on since idk when, so that one isn't a thing. but the 'srsly? you spend that much time in the gym?' is more new.

    i don't question it though. i'm just really amazed now and then that that's me.
  • JetJaguar
    JetJaguar Posts: 801 Member
    edited November 2017
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    It does, every time I crash through a face-level banana spider web when I go mountain biking at night.
  • laurenebargar
    laurenebargar Posts: 3,081 Member
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    Yeah I feel this way, and sometimes I even tell myself yeah im not going to work out tonight, or take the dog for a 4 mile walk, Ill only go around the block, but I feel almost guilty if I dont? Im not sure if thats the right word because I take rest days and I dont over exercise or anything like that. I feel like im short changing myself almost so I always wind up doing it and then I feel better and I've never regretted going out and getting it done. But to be honest when Im not working, doing school work or working out I am a complete couch potato and i'm fine with that.

  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    Kind of the opposite. As I hit a wall and coax my body in to doing more than it has in decades, I ask myself why I didn't start far, far sooner.

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