Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP James L. Holly, M.D. Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP


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04.02.2020

The mental discipline of daily exercise

To date, I have exercised 253 days and for the past 126 days I have complete 5 miles a day speed walking.

This process is more mental than it is physical.  The track I exercise on is 1/2 mile per round.  To complete 5 miles requires 10 times around the track.

Typically I start my exercise between 4:45 AM and 5:30 AM.

To complete 1 mile (2 circuits), takes between 13 and 17 minutes.  Anyone can do that.  

As I approach the end of the second lap, mentally I am realizing that as I start the third lap, I am approaching the beginning of the 4th lap which is close to beginning the 5th lap at the end of which, I am half way.

As I begin the 5th lap I am close to the beginning the 6th which completes mile 3.  This is 3 times further than the one mile of the first two laps.

At the end of the sixth lap, I start lap 7 with only 3 laps to go.  As I finish lap 7, I start lap 8.  Mentally, that means I have two laps to go and we have already seen how easy two laps are.

Mentally the battle is over.  Typically, I speed up for the last 3 or 4 laps which in our exercise plan are laps 7, 8, 9, and 10.

This may seem awkward to you. If it does, design a plan for yourself.  This works for me.  I cannot walk 10 laps every day, but I can walk 1 then 2, 3 and 5.  At that point, I am half way there.  Then I do 6-7 with only three laps to go.

See how easy it is.