Fitness - Workout Distractions - Good or Bad? - NYTimes.com

Anyone who knows me well will know I am a big advocate of reading while doing exercise machines. The recumbent excercise bike, in particular, is the perfect reading machine. I know my target cadence, and glance from time-to-time to check, so I don't think reading diminishes my workout intensity hardly at all. It is true that if I didn't read, I could probably push myself past hard toward the limit a bit more--if I were so inclined--but by the same token, if I didn't read, I don't think I could stand to stay on the damn thing an hour!