the tao of cycling: music world

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

music world

every year one of our power camp coaches holds a music competition. she invites everyone to submit a song, then she places them all on a playlist that she plays during class one day. after listening to all the songs, everyone in class is asked to vote for their favorite song; the top song wins a prize for the person who submitted it.
winning songs over the years have not always been the songs you'd expect.
one year the winner was barry white (my everything), and another year it was grace potter and the nocturnals singing paris (ooh la la) . . . one year it was jewel singing her morning song.
we as a group are completely unpredictable, and I've heard it's possible to bribe class members for their votes. and remember, we start class weekday mornings at 5:10 am. it's understood that we're all a little wacked.

this is submission week. I have 5 more days to come up with a song and submit it. and I'm stumped.
I don't listen to enough music, apparently.

so this morning I decided to cheat. I sent an email to a friend who is a spin instructor in another state, asking her for her latest and greatest songs. and she gave me a few ideas. as did the internet, where I searched for popular spin and workout music. hmmm.

I do love music. I love the rhythms and harmonies, and I love both upbeat songs and those that are slow and heartfelt. this morning in class the coach played ike and tina turner's "proud mary," the long version, a song I never loved and haven't heard in years and years . . . and it was great. then came the phantom of the opera's theme song, and then some pop. erasure was in there somewhere, and jack johnson, too. it's all good, it's all wonderful, it's all terrific at distracting you from your discomfort.

and after it all, I've made my selection. it's bright, fun, energetic, and has the best title in the world.
you can click on this link to hear my 5 am spin class song. forget the love part, just sing the chorus.

again and again and again . . .
and then you'll know what it's like in our workout room every morning in the dark.

there's truly a song for everything, isn't there?

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.