(Warning: Firefox will not let me use apostrophes right now. Please excuse the formal construction!)

Wyllenn, I am an ABD and my partner teaches at the college here. I hate grading, obviously. It is a very particular form of torture. One of the colleagues of my partner shows up at the gym and grades papers on the recumbent bike. My feeling is that he is probably not grading *or* working out properly. I do not think this is a skill you should cultivate! Definitely not an effective form of multitasking!

Thanks for all the replies! I'm just worried about working out too hard, I was reading an article by some fitness expert or another that was talking about your target heart rate and for most people that heart rate allows for simple conversation while working out. She said if you do cardio too intensely it's kind of counterproductive because your body starts burning the muscles...

?

i have the hardest time talking and working out

i actually prefer working out alone... i like to plug in my MP3 player and just go. Its one of the rare times i can just have time to me and my thoughts

De-stresses my something wicked

heh, I meant my response to sound more flip than it was -- I never DID seriously consider grading while working out, but I don't know it came out that way in my post!

baffled -- a "particular form of torture" -- what a fitting way to describe it! I hate to say it, but in my experience, it doesn't get any easier!

I think you're right about the guy who grades on the recumbent bike... but then, he probably doesn't care about not grading, or working out, well!

I read while doing the treadmill, elliptical or stair stepper. With my home stair stepper, I often play a hand held solitaire game. I workout hard. But I think too much about HOW hard and want to quit too soon. By trying to tie up my mind off the thoughts of how much my muscles are aching, I can spend longer at the exercise. My mind isn't completely off of what I'm doing. I'm still thinking of the ache in the back of my head, but not so focused on it as to talk myself into quitting too soon.