When I finally gasp to a stop, the monitor shows that my heart rate has averaged 174 beats per minute for the last 40 minutes. I’m a family and emergency room doctor, so I know that is well above normal. There’s a small pond of sweat beneath the exercise bike. My head pounds from dehydration.
I had been feeling a bit run down before heading to the gym, so I had planned on an easy workout. But then I turned on my bike’s computer, which is connected to data from all the other bikes at the gym. I started a new route on the app I use, and as I pedalled, it showed that I was only in third place for my whole gym. I could have slowed down, but I didn’t want to be any lower on the leaderboard.
