I don't like running
Yet it seems to be the cardio of choice at my biweekly gym visit. The bikes drive me crazy because I can never figure out the setting, it's either too hard or too easy and I end up wasting precious minutes (Yes, minutes! No need to spend any more time at the gym than absolutely necessary!) trying to figure out the machine instead of huffing and puffing. The elliptical... eh. I used to love it, but now those arm things are getting to me, I just end up jerking myself back and forth. The only other cardio I occasionally "enjoy" (It's exercise, duh.) is the enormous stairmachine. I climb and I climb and I sweat, oh, it's so hard, but in a steady way, you don't really notice you're out of breath until you've already climbed a mountain.
But anyway, the treadmill. I have made progress from walking with occasional running to running with occasional walking. It's a big deal for me. About twenty minutes almost of running only. Go me! I can do it! Cheer! Sorry, that was the budding American in me. (Shush, the Europeans are watching!) What has been a tremendous help in this achievement is my iPod. Running with music is so much easier. You can always trick yourself when you get tired: "Ok, a little more, just until the end of this song!" Stevie Wonder works well for this. A lot of his songs just never end. He just doesn't know how to stop and there's usually some kind of choir and they all just go on and on about the flying dolphins and the sealoving parrots. 6 incline and there I am shouting along in my head "A black man!" "A yellow man!" "A white man!". Weird, huh. Never said I wasn't.
It's hard to find good workout music... you don't want to get too caught up in subject matter. I can't be resolving any "issues" while I'm paying attention to my intervals (2.5 minutes easy-paced running, 0.5 minutes superfast superincline), it helps if it's a little... simple. Teenybopper music lends itself to that. Catchy beat, check. Upbeat attitude, check. Simple melody, check. Make that "Pon de replay" by Rihanna. It just makes me want to jump. Not like it's ever going to join my list of memorable music. It just makes me move. Mission accomplished.
My current favorite for running though is "Leave me alone (I'm lonely)" by Pink. Please disregard the infantile lyrics (and profanity), I beg you. Just put it on and try to resist the urge to run run run. I love when it comes on unexpectedly and I have to increase the speed because I never seem to be fast enough to keep up with the beat. Even though there's a wall in front of me or a glass window looking onto a dreary back yard, I am jumping in long imaginary leaps, high on plain old adrenaline. Ah, Pink. I can always count on your unbridled immaturity channelled into fast-paced POP-y beats.
Then when I'm done, feeling relaxed and proud of my accomplishment (and so relieved it's over and I can go home now), I load the John-Mayer-playlist and hum along nodding in agreement... my body, you are a wonderland, yes!
Posted at 08:45 PM on August 21, 2007
Does that mean you have to actually purchase a Pink song, though? hehe. I will admit that only one listening of that Umbrella song by Rhianna and I had it in my head for a couple days. I see what you mean about teen pop working for excerise.
Which, by the way, I would like to commend you for accomplishing. I have been doing yoga 3 days a week for two weeks now, and I'd love to pat myself on the back for it, but, hm, I'm not actually losing any weight or getting any trimmer. Just getting slightly more balanced. And lightheaded, at some moments.
I need to figure out how and when to do some cardio work, but...ugh! So yes, GO YOU, DINKA!!
I hate running too. I think it is in the 5th level of hell of boring work-outs. I run because it is totally free and no kids around (running away). We have some major butt-kicking hills in Amsterdam that are practically vertical and are an awesome work-out. So you would think with the "free" and "good work-out" aspect I would stick to it. But it is just soooo boring, I can't take it.
I guess I need my own ipod. I would borrow Josh's or Dree's, but Josh has all reggaeton, and Dree's is filled with all bizarre euro-pop, or j-pop, or TAtu or emo stuff. Blech. No music is better.
Dani, you need your own. Get one of those tiny clip-on ones, then you don't need an armband to hold it in place. The only downside here is, you will have to update your playlist regularly, which is an imposition on the little free time that we have, but i can't run to the same stuff over and over. Defeats the purpose...
Lindsey, I'm impressed you're doing yoga. Go YOU.
What a timely discussion! Um, I recently (cough) came to the conclusion that I would never be healthy with the sort of sedentary lifestyle I've been living. I had been doing some Pilates mat exercises until Dani completely crushed me one day ( ;^) ) by insisting that I should really add in some cardio as well. lol I was horrified. BUT, I'm on my 16th day of willing myself to get up at 6 and doing a thirty minute aerobic workout, plus some hand weights and some additional Pilates exercises, and I feel really great! I'm on an endorphin high apparently.
Anyway, the right music is essential. I seem to just get a burst of energy whenever just the right song comes on. I could be exhausted, yet I still manage to pull it all together 'till the end of the song. Amazing what a good tune will do.
Dani, I had to laugh at your tAtU comment. Some of their techno beats are completely hypnotic (sorta rave-y) and I can see myself just going on autopilot with some of their songs.
Ohmygosh, I crushed you? I am so sorry. :(
I have to tell Dree what you said about tAtU so she can agree much more why you are cooler than I.
I think they sound like cartoon characters.
So fill in the clueless mom of prechoolers and elementary aged kids: what is tAtU?
They are a Russian pop duo with unbelievably high voices.
You can sing them singing along with Flipsyde. It is a prolife rap song. One of them had an abortion and is now prolife.
LOL It's all good, Dani, believe me! Pilates *is* great, but the cardio has really made a difference. It's worked out very well as I've lost nearly 10lbs and am feeling better than I have in a LONG time!!! Woot!!! So, thank you!
Tell Dree that reading inordinate amounts of entertainment magazines/websites/etc. and watching way too much television has made me a pseudo-expert on all things pop culture, but that really, I'm totally just a poser (and an utter dork to boot!). lol
I have a workout song for you Dinka (falls into the abovementioned "Teenybopper music...Upbeat attitude...Simple melody"
Came on this morning on my radio alarm: Outkast's "Hey Ya!" iTunes has a "clean" version, which I'm sure is the one on the radio (I have no inclination to hear the explicit version to find out). Anytime this song comes on I start to bounce and wiggle all around, even if only in my head. It is quite goofy.
Are you happy to be in my first-morning thoughts, Dinka? Or weirded out? LOL
Lindsey, i am just HONORED. And thanks so much for the suggestion... I will totally buy this.