The Zone... I found it! (Femina)

I went to the gym this morning. Usually I start with ten minutes on the bike and do fifteen minutes on the cross-trainer (which is an instrument of torture that looks like this).  Actually I quite like it - it's kind of like being on a treadmill but there's no impact, and if you hold the big tall handles, which move back and forth with your stride, you can exercise your arms as well.  I find it gives a better cardio workout than the bike.  So... I like the cross-trainer but fifteen minutes is my limit.

Today I arrived at the gym and discovered a friend was there working out on the cross-trainer. I decided to start with that instead of the bike so I could say hello to her and have a quick chat while I still had the breath to do so.  We chatted, she finished on her cross-trainer, I kept going.  And kept going.  And kept going for THIRTY MINUTES.  I hadn't intended to... I got to fifteen and thought, "I'll see if I can get to seventeen" and then thought, "Well, I might as well go to twenty".  Then my plan was to go to 25 and not use the bike, so I'd be getting the same amount of cardio... and once I was there it was easy to make it to 30 minutes.  I was in The Zone.

All in all, I'm feeling super-smug right now - partly because I can feel it was a good, solid workout, and partly because I pushed myself past what I thought was my limit... and I came through.

Having said that, I won't be doing 30 minutes every time... it hurts! :)