Ah, New Year's resolutions. Yep, I still make 'em. I still break 'em, although they're probably not quite as broken as they seem to me.
This time last year I was recommitting to the gym, but in all honesty over these years it's become more of an every 90 day pledge to work harder/more consistently than once a year penance for doing nothing the rest of the time. The 2011 doctors visits and worry and surgery and looooonnnnggg recovery from February to July sucked the life out of the majority of last year but I never stopped going, except for the part where I wasn't allowed, but it wasn't with real consistency until December when I'd gotten back to the four mornings a week rhythm.
I took last week off. The allure of sleeping in late with no rides to school required was too tempting.
But I was back at it again this morning. And even with the week off here, or the long months off with the surgery, I'm still treated as a regular, with the guys asking about the kids and waving across the gym. This is makes so much easier to return time and again.
And yesterday I spent some time putting together a new pump-up playlist for Nick (by request) and decided to get myself a new workout list at the same time. It worked -- I was on the track about twice as long without boredom and got to the "okay my legs might buckle here in a minute" spot before I moved to the weights for strength training.
One of the keys is finding the right instrumental music. I've learned listening to lyrics keeps me unfocused and less motivated. It also has to be relatively short and fast throughout. The problem comes with the typical rise and fall of good cinematic scores -- it doesn't work for this. It's got to be "go go go" from the outset to keep me from slowing down. The catch word for searching YouTube, I've discovered, is "epic" -- sigh. "Epic" is quickly overtaking "awesome" as the most abused word of the hour. It always reminds me of that C.S. Lewis quote, "Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very' otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite."
The list itself is a constant work in progress since I wear out songs and can't stand to hear them again for a good while.
So of the ones that worked well this morning is a new (for me) find: the now disbanded group E.S. Posthumus (whose name I'm dismissing entirely).
In the library but new to the workout list:
let the epicness commence ;)
This time last year I was recommitting to the gym, but in all honesty over these years it's become more of an every 90 day pledge to work harder/more consistently than once a year penance for doing nothing the rest of the time. The 2011 doctors visits and worry and surgery and looooonnnnggg recovery from February to July sucked the life out of the majority of last year but I never stopped going, except for the part where I wasn't allowed, but it wasn't with real consistency until December when I'd gotten back to the four mornings a week rhythm.
I took last week off. The allure of sleeping in late with no rides to school required was too tempting.
But I was back at it again this morning. And even with the week off here, or the long months off with the surgery, I'm still treated as a regular, with the guys asking about the kids and waving across the gym. This is makes so much easier to return time and again.
And yesterday I spent some time putting together a new pump-up playlist for Nick (by request) and decided to get myself a new workout list at the same time. It worked -- I was on the track about twice as long without boredom and got to the "okay my legs might buckle here in a minute" spot before I moved to the weights for strength training.
One of the keys is finding the right instrumental music. I've learned listening to lyrics keeps me unfocused and less motivated. It also has to be relatively short and fast throughout. The problem comes with the typical rise and fall of good cinematic scores -- it doesn't work for this. It's got to be "go go go" from the outset to keep me from slowing down. The catch word for searching YouTube, I've discovered, is "epic" -- sigh. "Epic" is quickly overtaking "awesome" as the most abused word of the hour. It always reminds me of that C.S. Lewis quote, "Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very' otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite."
The list itself is a constant work in progress since I wear out songs and can't stand to hear them again for a good while.
So of the ones that worked well this morning is a new (for me) find: the now disbanded group E.S. Posthumus (whose name I'm dismissing entirely).
The Immediate/Globus group that creates cinematic music for both film and video games can generate some short but heart-pounding stuff, too.
Release the Kraken...
I'm always looking for new workout music...all the newer Zumba music has infiltrated the better part of my workout playlist. Don't know if you read my blog today or not but I used the word infinite when there was no other adjective that fit.. :-) hope your 2012 is blessed and beautiful!
ReplyDeleteUmmm...... your choices scare me. ALL l I have chosen as "like" on my Pandora channel except your E.S. Posthumous, choice. I like Nara. :)
ReplyDeleteCrazy parallel lives we lead. Very interesting...
ReplyDelete