Delays at a doctor’s office are about as big a surprise as hearing “Date of birth” sometime after “Hi,” so I was pleased the dermatologist’s assistant called my name and escorted me to a consultation room within a minute of my appointed time. She asked the expected questions, including the same one as two receptionists - my DOB! - and then told me the doctor would see me shortly.

After thanking her, I did what I always do in these sorts of situations: close my eyes, relax, and breath deeply.

I quieted my mind by focusing on the ebb and flow of my breath for about 10 minutes and then allowed it to wander. I contemplated the things I like to contemplate: my next few workouts and meals, to-do lists, possible writing topics.

I was having such a pleasant time alone with my thoughts that I was disappointed when the dermatologist entered the room and ended my reverie.

Weird, huh? Being disappointed your doctor is only 20 minutes behind schedule.

What’s just as weird, according to “Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind,” is that I truly enjoy spending time alone with my thoughts.

The article, the result of 11 studies performed by the University of Virginia Department of Psychology published in the July 2014 issue of Science, cites a prior study that found 83 percent of those surveyed spent no time in the 24 hours beforehand relaxing and thinking despite the fact “directed conscious thought is ... what makes us human.” The article then explains the lengths to which some people go to avoid “thinking periods” or what I think of as “alone time,” a time when you focus upon and entertain yourself with only your thoughts.

In the most dramatic of the 11 studies, subjects received an electric shock. Afterwards, they were asked if it was unpleasant enough that they would actually pay money not to have it happen again.

Those who said yes were then asked to entertain themselves with only their thoughts for 15 minutes in a room that offered no external stimulation. Before doing so, however, the subjects were told “[i]f they wanted . . . they could receive an electric shock again during the thinking period by pressing a button. [The researchers] went to some length to explain that the primary goal was to entertain themselves with their thoughts and that the decision to receive a shock was entirely up to them.”

Remember, these subjects originally found the electric shock so unpleasant that they claimed they would pay not to get shocked again. Yet instead of spending the 15 minutes of “alone time” solely with their thoughts, 24 percent of the women willingly gave themselves at least one jolt. And 67 percent of the men - that’s no typo, my friend - pressed the button, too.

While you may find all this as fascinating as I do, you may also wonder why you are reading about it here. In a roundabout way, it’s because half the cyclists I passed on a recent ride did not respond when I said, “Good morning.”

It wasn’t because they were being rude.

They didn’t hear me. They were wearing tiny ear buds I couldn’t see as I approached them, listening to music or a podcast or whatever.

Safety concerns aside, the question is why. Why were they, in a manner of speaking, both tuned in and tuned out?

One possible answer may explain why so many people find it so hard to exercise regularly over the long term.

I’ve spoken to distance-running diehards who have said one of the allures of pounding the pavement for an hour or more a few times a week is that they’re alone with their thoughts. The solitude allows them to do their best thinking and solve many problems while on a run.

But in the 11 aforementioned studies done by the UVA psychology department, slightly more than half of the subjects rated their time of “just thinking” during a “thinking period” of as little as six minutes as being unenjoyable.

So for some people it may not be the physical exertion but the “alone time” where the mind eventually wanders that keeps them from enjoying a run or a ride or a walk.

Yet for many, this wandering of the mind, this “alone time,” is the appeal. It’s what I was enjoying so much while waiting in isolation for my dermatologist.

So what’s this column ultimately supposed to do for you? Make you aware of one way the thought process affects exercise - and remind you what to do if you don’t like the “alone time” inherent in the solitary forms of it.

Instead of spending money on a stationary bike for the rec room and a set of weights for the basement, use that money for group classes at a local gym where you need to follow instructions, interact with others, and have little time to entertain the thoughts inside your head.

You’ll be happier while exercising and more likely to do so long term.