Its crisp cold 7:00 in the morning, the air-conditioning in the gym keeping my bones chilled to something less than 20 degrees Celsius. I climb up the step, face the blinking array of red, green and yellow LED's embossed in the black panel of the treadmill. They stare back at me, flashing numbers, signs and responses: no doubt, all challenges thrown on my face.
The red displays show me the time that I am going to torture myself, the yellow ones give me the calorie burn out count (read as energy drain count) and the green ones show the distance I am going to trot virtually on the moving belt over the platform. Another battle begins today, right now, right here - I think. It’s going to be a long relentless battle today, 30 minutes from warm-up to cool-down, and 350 calories to be burnt, 3.5 to 4 Kms of virtual distance to be covered. Those are the target for the day. I take a long breath; chew a little harder on the gum (chewing gum during a work-out keeps my mouth closed and ensure I respire aerobically!) and press the magic 'START' button. My arch rival, the tread mill, responds with an energetic prowl and mocks at my pathetic start up speed of 5Kmph. The machine is intelligent enough to plot a path of my misery! He shows my speed as rock bottom with a glowing red indicator. Aah..going to the gym in the morning is such a torture, but I must make it. I sin everyday; it’s either a well wetted chocolate pastry or that sugar dipped caramel doughnut that makes me indulge in this sin. How I wish I could keep a leash on my binging! I push myself further, move on to 7.2 Kmph and rev my trot to brisk walk.
Well, it is check out time now! The best way to reduce your misery is to check out how good or bad your fellow treadmillers are doing! So I check out the colleagues to my right and left. Not bad, a middle aged man was chugging on at 4.5 Kmph and on his 17th minute that is! Well, no doubt he was compelled by his wife/doctor to tone up that pot belly from virtually going to breaking point! Wait a minute, where am I going to be at 40 years of age...? Will I face the same predicament? The thought in itself, made me peg up the speed from the relatively sedate 7.2Kmph to a more spirited 9.2 Kmph. Now I often wonder why I like to move and remain on .2 on every speed level? May be it’s because it gives me the feel that I am 'IN' the next level, yet not killing myself there. Aah, to my left was the "belle of the gym", the cynosure of every male eye in the gym. She was all clad up even for the gym, pretty good dress sense I must say though. Uh oh, attention back to the war! Belles and wars don’t mingle well, and I must return back to the war!
I move on to level 3 of my battle, the hardest nut to crack, sprint at 10.5 Kmph for 10 minutes, non stop, and clear up my calorie burn barrier. I've never been to burn out more than 350 calories in one single workout! Today my war strategy is different; I have come prepared to break the barrier. A solid, ripened, very yellow banana is my weapon this time. Burning 350 calories on an empty stomach at 7:00 in the morning proved to be a physiologically impossible task for me. Hence the banana consumption tactic! And for sure it’s definitely working', I push my gears higher and touch the 320+ calorie burn count. I am right in the red alert zone! This is my faltering zone. It’s the place where all my batteries go down and whats left is only will power. But will power can take you only to the limits of endurance, stamina and of course, energy reserves. So, there I see myself swinging past the 340 mark in a few minutes time. This is the moment I've waited for. A time to pat myself on the back. I am nearing the 350 calorie mark.
And then it happened. The unexpected. There was a power failure, away goes the drone of the treadmill, my enemy drops down, dead and static! I pant and gasp for the transition from 10.5 Kmph to static was over a few seconds time. I see the static counter on my tread mill screen, 346, I call out in my mind 'Coward, cheat, the 350 mark was mine to conquer" My rightful laurel snatched away!! Well, I reconcile to the stroke of fate, its going to be another battle, 24 hours from now. The treadmill war is going to continue, a new target each day!
