Each day I post some basic information about my daily workout, including the song that most inspired me, on Facebook. SOTD is an acronym for song (S) of (O) the (T) day (D). How this relates to my workout is really important, it is the reason I workout, it's the runner's high, the endorphins firing off, the dopamine produced by the brain surging/pumping positivity throughout my body.
Those things are what makes a workout a good workout. Each day my road running, my workouts on the treadmill and/or my weight training provide much satisfaction for me, and if I'm honest, the music is not incidental to this.
I ran a 13 miler on Wednesday and turned off the music for about a mile, this was a test. First, the sounds of my shoes on the road is rhythmic; breathing in and out is audible and, maybe was in 4 time. One breath in and one out, completing a full cycle included 4 shoe strikes on the shoulder. Just like that! This cycle repeated itself in the same pattern, after a significant warm up, of course. Next came the sounds of the cars going by at like 40 mph; because I live in the country, the erratic presence of cars made this annoying actually. Other runners assert that running without the msuic is an organic experience. So I gave it a shot and besides my breathing and foot strikes which are quite rhythmic, thus resembling music in my hear, I'll stick with music--it gives me something to write about.
So, this is a new thing I'm going to start doing each month: MOTM. This is another acronym: Musician(M) Of(O) The(T) Month(M). This new thing probably requires little more than that as an introduction, but, I want readers (if they exist) to understand that there is more going on in my heart about the workout. To be sure, I'm not trying to come off like I work for Rolling Stone (that being said, I'm open to them thinking I have a natural talent, and, maybe there's an opening or something?; I will need a pink treadmill in my office and a cute boy to massage my feet).
Since the new year I've been listening to lots of Beck (see fig 4.3). His music has revitalized the workout for me, more to the point, it has been key to the indoor workout, the gym workout. Which, btw, is radically different than running miles on the road, it takes more concentration than I thought I had.
I am listening to 2 records, Odelay and Mellow Gold. Odelay, omg. Beck's songs are highly percussive with the space in between that makes me deeply attached to what (and aware of what) has influenced him musically. First listen gives way to classic punk rock styling- but his beat--it's like real grungy, classic punk stuff...but I trail off from here because the guy is really hard to categorize (RS, don't hold it against me, I'm a newbie).
Hotwax is such a great song. Commercial break: I am headphone person. I can't run with a boom box (that would be so cool, so old school, but, so fully inorganic in my own category of inorganicness and kind of bulky.) I have the headphones. Alright gear heads, I have pink earbuds by JVC. Pink.
Back to Hotwax, I can tell the song in the first few notes. The twang of a very southern-maybe slide-maybe an open body jazz guitar with extra special attention being paid to the texture of the lower strings. Strings played confidently with lots of stress put on them, can sense his ear through this technique. I immediately move my posture differently, like sitting back into a cruising pace with cadence very aware of the sound in the earbud. The bridges come without warning and back to that deep percussive movement that is my Beck.
There are changes in a workout, similar to those that happen in Becks songs. Ebbs and flows. His music empties out in the bridges. This empowers the percussiveness at the change. It power boosts it. The synthesized elements are what makes this category of music strictly his own; it reminds the listener that Beck is weird. Let us not forget. His ingenuity is stunning, like Dr. Seuss meets a cubist at a bar in NYC where they crank late 70's punk, do some recycling, toke with Beeker, while GG Allen salts the fries. Yeah, I don't know if they'll hire me anymore.
Workouts work similarly. When it empties, it's called the bonk. You can hyper do it if you're not eating enuff or you're not into what you're doing. Bonking and being apathetic are both bad and must be avoided. Music is not a device just to motor one through or artificially increase physical response to the intensity of the workout. Not!
Though a device, our physical response is first to the music thus springing out of our bodies through feet and hands, whether moving the ground beneath the feet or pulling 20 pounds up with the left obliques or 25 pound curls under the stress of the repetitions. It can be quite magical actually.
The runner's high; we know that we must be super synced with ourselves to have it. Euphoria. Imagine that feeling accompanied by some really killer music. Sometimes I feel like I'm dancing in my running shoes (the 769's, for the road, or the Free's for the gym) and tights. Maybe I should blog about FILA. A brand that makes me look good if I get to dancing a little while I'm running.
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