The thing about intervals is ...

If you've ever found yourself on a treadmill, stationary bike, stairmaster or some other type of sweat-generating device, you've probably fallen victim to something that Janeane Garofalo coined "the stair master minute". A stair master minute is any minute spent on the stair master and, according to Janeane, the stair master minute is the longest minute in the world. I figured out how to fight that.

I actually had come to terms with the stair master minute long ago. I actually kinda sorta like cardio. However, I recently started running intervals on the treadmill. My interval as of now is 2 minutes of "jogging" and 30 seconds of "running". The idea being that your running speed is faster than your jogging speed. So in 30 minutes, you run 12 2.5 minute intervals.

So here's the thing about intervals: you spend most of your time hoping that time goes slow. After your "run" time, your "jog" time is meant to allow you to catch your breath. So, when you look at the clock during jog time and you see you only have a minute left before your next run, your natural reaction is "crap, only a minute left." You're hoping the next minute actually goes by slower. And with my interval, four fifths of my time is spent jogging, hence 24 out of my 30 minutes on the treadmill is spent hoping the clock will slow down. 12 intervals later and I'm done. It's pretty wild.

So, if you're interested in switching up your cardio psychology, give intervals a try.