cdybeijing wrote:But, running the same distance at the same resistance month after month is not going to do very much for your health and fitness, especially if that pace and distance is one that is allowing you to read simultaneously, or play video games, or whatever.
I don't follow. Running six miles in an hour at high resistance is good exercise, regardless of whatever else it is you're doing. Reading 30 pages in an hour is good intellectual stimulation, regardless of whatever else it is your doing. Could I run harder if I weren't reading? Maybe. Or, I could just get bored and run less frequently. Likewise, could I read more, or more thoroughly, if I weren't running? Maybe. Or, maybe I would lose track of time and spend too much time on each article, and end up reading less.
cdybeijing wrote:
The cost free argument is a case of outsmarting yourself. If one runs at a pace that allows them to read, they are most certainly sacrificing on the quality of their reading, at the very least. While the running is no doubt better from a health standpoint than sitting and reading, it is nevertheless a waste of time (again from a health standpoint) compared to dropping the reading and focusing on running intensively to a state of moderate discomfort.
Few would seriously argue that curling the remote control while watching television is a cost-free activity benefiting your health, but it is not an absurd analogy.
Okay, but as a complex being with multiple interests, I take multiple standpoints simultaneously; I am interested in health and in reading. Perhaps an hour doing both is less intense than an hour doing just one, but if I am spending some time reading and some time exercising, and an hour doing both is equivalent to at least 31 minutes of each activity, then I'm better off spending two hours reading and running, rather than one hour reading and one hour running. Cost-free. I whip up two extra minutes out of nowhere.
As it is, I would estimate that an hour of doing both is worth 50 minutes of running and 40 minutes of reading. But that understates the gain by a bit, because when I'm able to read and exercise at the same time I actually spend less time doing pointless things like posting on forums, since I can squeeze 90 minutes into an hour if I go to the gym.
MUCH more fun.