moti-whation?

I've had a lot on my mind lately; some good, some bad. During times when I feel I have an excessive amount of thought to sort through, exercise becomes an even more IMPORTANT part of my day than normal. I can zone out, think, relieve tension and frustration or any combination of those, while simultaneously keeping my own sense of self and motivation on track.

Lately, although my workouts have been continuous, they have only been sporadically successful, due to my stupid turf toe situation, which I have now found out is actually sesamoiditis (don't get me started) and my hamstring wanting to roll up and hide away. Not enough to stop the show, but enough to be annoying, so I have taken to engaging myself in the occasional spin class, in order to complete workouts, because it seems to be the least painful thing at the time, since I don't have access to a pool.

Moving right along.....motivation is the key to training or working out (yes there is a difference). What motivates you to go to the gym is one thing and what keeps you motivated when you are there is another. For two people on the same team, in the same sport, both motivating factors can vary wildly. Due to this, I am in no position to make fun of or judge someone based on what they choose to listen to, what their pre-workout routine is, or what they do to keep themselves up as they go. Simply put, if you need to slap yourself in the face to get going, by all means whallop yourself to whatever music gets you to where you need to be.

I say that and mean it because that music is inside your own ear canals and not out there for me. When you foist it upon me, I retain the right to chide and mock at will, however. This all gets a bit messy when thinking of an open class, where it is rude and frowned upon to bring one's own listening device. Bringing an iPod to class fractures the cohesive atmosphere intended. But this is where it seemingly all goes wrong. We now have an entire room of people at the mercy of one person's musical tastes. Tricky.

In my experience, instructors are aware of the variety of possible listening tastes in a given class and generally do a pretty good job of at least providing a good beat to ride to. Whether all the songs are anybody's favorite is moot, because at least no one is totally offended by the song selection. Then again, some instructors pay absolutely no mind to said variety and then you get what we had last night.

I love the music of Sarah McLachlin. I write to it, I have seen her in concert and I have most of, if not all of her albums. Trying to do a hill climb to Sarah Mclachlin or, say, Tori Amos is something akin to abject torture. About a third of the way through the song, I no longer want to ride. I want to curl up in a ball in the bathtub and rock myself, not tackle a grueling imaginary ascent. But seriously.....who doesn't realize that brooding chick music is not appropriate for a high intensity spin class? It's almost laughable, and come to think of it, I did actually laugh a little when I heard the songs come on, although I became incensed about halfway through the climb.

Perhaps that was her goal. Maybe it was a clever mind-trick designed to fill us all up with such irritation that we attacked the metaphorical mountain with full force, thereby boosting our fitness and mental toughness. Really though, I think she just has bad taste in workout music and should consult some actual athletes for suggestions, lest one of us becomes enraged and spins right over her mp3 player - because I will, o yes, I most certainly will.