[noir_lord]

> In particular, exercise is boring. Very very boring.

I regularly spend 2-4hrs on a road bike and I've never found it boring and I have a low boredom threshold generally (outside of programming).

It's just a case of finding your niche.

[sndean]

> 2-4hrs on a road bike and I've never found it boring

Same here, which is a bit surprising whenever I think about it. Especially since I never listen to music/podcasts/anything, it's always the same place [0], and it's an out-and-back route only. But I hate driving, which seems like a relatively similar activity... no idea.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_%26_Old_Dominion_Ra...

[abakker]

If you need even more stimulation, Mountain Biking! With Audibooks!

My preferred workout is climb with audiobook, descend with silence, rinse and repeat.

[okreallywtf]

Its funny I have just started biking semi-seriously in the last year and I haven't even gotten to the point where I am even listening to music while I am getting my skills up. Do you listen to books riding singletrack? I find the challenge of singletrack at a reasonable speed (for myself, dog slow for most serious riders) is more than enough to keep me entertained.

[abakker]

Not downhill, definitely. Single track is more than enough. But, uphill, I’m not real quick. A benefit of audiobooks, in my opinion, is that you have less awareness of the passage of time. A nasty habit I have is knowing (memorizing) how Long songs are and measuring my time by how many songs I’ve heard. That makes long climbs on the mountain bike worse, rather than better.

[okreallywtf]

Ah, climbs do make sense, that is a situation where music or books would help me too. There aren't too many climbs near where I am so most of what I'm doing is more or less flat with small uphills and downhills.

[hinkley]

I did when I was younger and my theory is that one of the reasons some people have trouble with endurance exercise is the same reason they can't do yoga or meditation. It's just too much time alone with your own thoughts and it's scary for some people.

I'm not convinced that it's the actual running that's predominantly responsible for the neurogenisis (although we know that exercise causes an uptick in HGH so it's plausible). It may just be that much time with nothing else to do but think. Essentially it's walking meditation.

[dkersten]

This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVzKCk066g and this book https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316113514/ref=as_li_tl?ie... suggest that it’s movement.

They talk about how complex movement in creatures typically correlates with the size of the brain.

Anecdotally, I’ve been doing the Cambridge Brain Sciences[1] tests every so often over the past few months to see how various things affect my score (mainly because I wanted to see which nootropics were most effective) and the best scores always occurred on days where I got exercise and the worst scores were in days where I didn’t and also got little sleep.

My absolute best scores (99.5 percentile, although the next days scores were much, much lower and my average has been about 50-60ish) were on a day when I got approx 1.5 hours of brisk walking (throughout the day, not all at once), 8+ hours sleep the night before and I had been taking nootropics. I imagine diet also plays a part, but I’ve not yet experimented. I’m also not sure f sleep or exercise affects me most positive, but together they certainly make a huge difference.

Nothing conclusive, for sure, but it does make me think that exercise/movement may play a big part.

[1] https://cambridgebrainsciences.com

[smartbit]

The youtube video mentions BDNF. The hilarious 'Exercise boosts brain power' video https://player.vimeo.com/video/16335377 of http://brainrules.net/brain-rules-video says "BDNF are created when you exercise".

Highly recommended book BTW, IMHO a must for anyone who learns as it explains scientific brain research in layman's terms. It explains how we humans are ruled by our brains. When you understand your brains better, you can make better use of them. In conjunction with Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy Baumeister, a golden couple.

[dkersten]

Thanks, I’ll check that out.

[noir_lord]

I've always preferred my own company, not been able to get away from everything for a few hours would drive me nuts.

I stopped riding with the cycling club because it became too much of a social obligation, I like doing 60-70 miles on my own, stopping for a coffee somewhere and just watching world go by.

I don't even record my routes anymore, just distance and speed.

[taeric]

This is my pet hypothesis. Obligating myself to just a 30 minute bike ride home has been hugely successful with giving me "thinking" time. The hard climb sorta destroys this. But overall it works quite well.

[arkades]

I don’t know about that.

I loathe endurance exercises - I regularly combine a book -and- music to get me through the treadmill.

However, I love meditating and archery (which I do traditional style, which is honestly a form of meditation itself.)

[bradlys]

I couldn't do it. I've ridden my road bike for about 2 hours at a time at various points in life (outside of just commuting daily) and I just get bored out of my mind. I get bored biking to and from work. I take routes with a lot more traffic now because it keeps me more mentally engaged with not getting killed and I find myself less focused on the physical discomfort.

[0xJRS]

This is the biggest problem for me when biking/jogging and i've found that I can mix my meditation time with it but that only goes so far. I've thought of putting a treadmill in front of my TV so I can jog and watch a few episodes of a show to fix the boredom problem.

[mantas]

Then go offroad. No need for real mountain-mountain biking, just being off the pavement will keep you more busy. Although if you want to ride on the road more, maybe try same techniques as for beginners' meditation?

[taeric]

You are strengthening my point, right?

And don't get me wrong, I bike quite often. I find for myself, I basically have to obligate myself to some distance. If I have a bus pass, I'm not doing that 400 ft climb home. If I don't have somewhere to go, I'll just read a book instead. And I claim that I do enjoy biking.