Thursday, August 7, 2008

Treadmill Desk, Day 8

Just shy of 190 minutes. (Just like yesterday, to be honest.)

The machine didn't stop until 187:55; I had broken my walking into 30 minutes on/30 minutes off. This seemed to work right up until a couple of minutes ago. I was hoping to take it to 200, but didn't quite make it. I'm going to try to fit in another 30 minutes after it's cooled down--but I sort of suspect I'll be lucky to get in 20.

The body is definitely loosening up a bit. This is really the thing that I'm going for. I tried to get a book going with a personal trainer on working out at your desk way back in the '90s, but sadly it didn't fly, and my personal trainer flew off to St Etienne, France. (Hi, Melissa!)

I did some more serious thinking and programming today, and got into a pretty good groove. I'm accustomed to walking around when I need to think about something, but translating that to the treadmill took a few minutes.

If I were to theorize about why I've always walked while trying to solve a problem, I would say that the minor motion of walking, with just enough attention on the environment to keep me from getting totally introverted, is why walking around works. The problem with trying to do the same on the treadmill is that the diversion is entirely different.

But it worked out. And I can go at a higher speed for some tasks. Now if I can just get in a little bit more today....

UPDATE: I managed to get in another 20-30 minutes, so that's good.

Today was the first day I used the laptop. Working with just a keyboard will be generally more sensible, since there's less risk of major damage, but because I have to pause every 30 minutes or so, the laptop is less disruptive when I switch from treadmill to regular chair.

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