I've just gotta enjoy it...

I've mentioned before that I have to have an end goal in order to be able to exercise. Meaning, I get as bored as hell if I exercise just for the sake of it and eventually will just stop it. However, if I have an end purpose, a goal if you will, I quite enjoy it.

Riding to or from work, or to the store has been fun. But twice recently, I've gone on rides just for fun. Just for the hell of it and I enjoyed it and didn't even notice! Hehe. Have I tricked myself into the next level of fitness? Perhaps I have!

After doing my 40.7km ride recently, I decided I was up for the Strava Turn Up The Heat challenge. They're giving little badge (online ones, not physical) rewards for those who reach certain levels with the minimum amount of riding for a month to get a badge being 250kms. I eagerly signed up and then watched in confusion as I went from being a bubble of joy to a mass of tension. What happened?

I let it go and decided to wait for a few days and see what happens. For the next two days I looked at my bike and instead of feeling excited, I've felt a bit repulsed. I sat with it for a bit yesterday and worked out that I didn't really want to do the challenge. Signing up for the challenge sucked all the fun out of it for me and turned cycling into just another type of pressure.

With curiosity I decided to remove myself from the challenge and give myself a few days off the bike. Voila! I'm glad I gave myself some time out because once again, I'm excited about riding. And I had also exhausted myself again and not noticed. I've been sleeping in the afternoons and all night as well and am only just starting to feel perky again.

The point of the post is this, not everyone enjoys exercise just for the sake of exercising. I have many friends who are like that, who will force themselves to move no matter what their frame of mind and they feel better for it when they're finished. Excellent! But there's many of us who have to enjoy it as well. I don't want to finish my exercise vomiting with exertion. As a former bulimic, I've done enough puking. I don't want to wake up in the middle of the night because I'm so sore that I'm crying in my sleep. I've done that too!

I'm more than happy to just get my heart rate up, get a sweat on, and get home feeling like "yay me! I've moved today. I'm awesome" and still have energy to do other things and not be dying for pain relief. I'm also happier going at my own pace than I am trying to meet a challenge. I am not really sure why yet, but I'm making excellent progress without it so why not?

Do you exercise no matter what? Or are you like me and need a more gentle program?