One of the many

Going to the gym day after day is much more of a mental than physical task. While some may say every day at the gym is not necessary, and they'd be correct, one of the keys is to develop the habit. And the only way to develop the habit is to go every day until your body takes over and demands to Go.

Until that magical time, which is a bit longer than the three days a friend once told me, I've learn to rely on is motivational literature. Strides: Running Through History With an Unlikely Athlete is one such book. Written by "plodding" marathon runner Benjamin Cheever, the book takes you through his history with running, western culture's history with marathons up until the present day and the marathon's history with Kenya. Cheever also does a great job of describing why those of us who will never excel at a sport, especially the long distance ones, still carry on, enjoying it for the sheer joy of doing it.

I'll never run a marathon, I'll probably never even run a mile again, but I do love the long distance bike ride and Cheever's book both helped pass away a few of those convalescing hours and gets me to the gym day after day in hopes of many more hours on the road.

PS. For a better description of the book here's a link to the New York Times Book Review.