Thursday, January 27, 2011

Ding!

Christy and I have become a Pavlovian experiment. You know about Pavlov, yes? Pavlov's dogs... Ring a bell before giving a treat and eventually the dog learns that hearing the bell means getting the treat and soon, hearing the bell creates a drool response even when the treat isn't present.

Christy and I have been running together for the past few weeks. We're working on just being better runners as we gear up for the first of the training races that prep us for the half marathon in May. We do a 5K in Feb, 10K in Mar, and 15K in Apr. We've been using the Couch to 5K workouts but not following the weekly guide- just using the workouts and building through them each day. I have a Couch to 5K app on my phone that gives an audible cue for each change- hear the cue, run, hear the cue, walk, hear the cue, run. It's great because you don't have to worry about the time or use a stop watch or anything else.

Ding! Run!

Ding! Walk!

Ding! Run!

Ding! Walk!

I wear a running belt and keep the sound on and at full volume so we can both hear the "ding!" and change our pace. We've gotten so used to responding to the phone making a noise that we actually changed pace, for just a second, when an e-mail notification came in. It got me wondering... what else can I train myself to do or not do with that sort of methodology?

Ding! Make a bed!

Ding! Do the dishes!

Ding! Pay a bill!

Ding! Eat broccoli!

 If you could train yourself, what change would you make? What will you do with the ding?

  Photobucket

5 comments:

Garret said...

And here I thought dings were when 2AM Podcast mentioned brand names. ;-)

So you're multitasking with dings?

C. Beth said...

I like it...hmm....

Ding! Say something nice so someone in my family.

kbiermom said...

"ding ding ding -- run" Sometimes I say it to myself joking as I head out for a run! I think I need my alarm clock and the dryer buzzer to sound exactly like the C25K prompts -- I've become conditioned to resist, rather than act, when I hear their current beeps or buzzes!

MCM Mama said...

Love it! I may have to try it with my clients...

Karen M. Peterson said...

Funny!

I'd love to train myself to just get out of bed on time. And maybe eat breakfast.