exercise | BootCampSF

Are you good at making mix tapes? If so let’s chat because I’m so tragically not. I never fully understood or put into practice all of the so-called fundamentals necessary for arranging (with High Fidelity level fanaticism) music into painstaking order with proper beats per minute perfectly balanced with obscure tracks and tongue in cheek references. Also, I’m dating myself by even referencing the word “tapes.” You can’t even call them mix CDs anymore. Honestly, when was the last time you bought an actual honest-to-goodness CD that wasn’t impulse shopped from the counter at Starbucks while you clutched a latte and stared at a Top Pot Doughnut with longing?

So, yes, when it comes to mix tapes, CDs or playlists I am utterly hopeless but wow do I love it when someone else makes a mix for me. To that end I love Spotify. Are you familiar with this service? There is a free version but for $10 a month you can get unlimited access to millions of songs without annoying ads. If you already have an extensive collection of music housed in iTunes you can still sync it with Spotify for everyday streamlined use. Best of all they have an excellent mobile app that allows you to access the service (and all of that music) with wireless or you can specify specific playlists to be downloaded for use in an offline mode. Plus you can easily create playlists that you can share with friends or keep private. It’s totally up to you.

You might be wondering why I’m bringing this up. Frankly it all ties back to running and my continued inability to improve at it. I call shenanigans on my inner monologue and I suspect I can run much further and longer than my very critical thoughts seem to insist. So in an effort to block out those very loud, “let’s stop moving now” impulses I started listening to my iPod again when working out outside on the weekends.

In the meantime, something desperately needs to be done with the music currently housed on my device. Yesterday, and I’m not making this up, the Bangles came on, followed by a Whitney Houston song (too soon!), and then Sunday Morning by No Doubt. Not to even mention that I hit skip about a dozen times when something even more annoying started to play. Then I’d get distracted and usually end up stopping.

So I’m hoping to use Spotify to find some good workout mixes that I can save for later use and that don’t make me roll my eyes whenever the next track starts. So far I’ve identified these as being good possibilities to try out.

Work It Out! by Sony UK

2012 Running Music by Runner’s World

The Utlimate Running Playlist

Zone Out Music for a Morning Run

What are your favorite songs to work out to? Maybe together we can create a collaborate playlist for BootCampSF on Spotify? If you already have spotify you can access the playlist at this link or check it out below. I’ve added a few tracks to get us started and can’t wait to see what you like exercising to as well!

A Note on iPod Use From BootCampSF: For most BCSF sessions, we prefer that you not use your headphones during class so that your instructors can keep you safe and ensure you hear all the directions. But if your class is doing a run day, just check in with your instructor to let them know that you’d like to jam out during your workout!

I moved to San Francisco from Boston in May. At that point I was coming off a seemingly endless winter of snow, sleet, and stuck indoors-ness. It would appear that most of those long cold months I lounged on my favorite chair watching television and football games while drinking wine and eating very very bad things. So I arrived on the West Coast in the absolute worst shape of my life. Go me!

My new apartment came equipped with two lovely gyms full of fancy exercise things so I figured I’d hop on the elliptical every day for an hour and all of that booze, cheese, and pastry I’d packed onto my thighs would disappear in a few weeks and the eight pair of jeans (I diligently packed even though I couldn’t fit into them) would then welcome me back with open arms.

Not so much. Working out made me feel better but obviously participating in the same thing every single day simply wasn’t doing the trick. The jeans still languished in the closet untouched and I still really enjoyed Wheat Thins. Then, one evening my boyfriend came home from work and excitedly told me all about the boot camp classes in our neighborhood that he’d read about online.

But the more he told me the more anxious I became. He seriously wanted me to sign up for a six-week session with him. Instead of agreeing, I laughed in his face. Boot camp? Me? Be serious! I’d never even played a sport before. The extent of my workout “regime” involved walking, the elliptical, and yoga. I certainly couldn’t run a mile. I hated being dirty and I really wasn’t a big fan of the outdoors in general, plus, I couldn’t stop picturing scenes from Full Metal Jacket in my head. What if someone yelled at me like that in front of other people?! I’d dissolve into tears. No way was I subjecting myself to anything that could possibly be that unfamiliar and unsettling.

So I told my boyfriend in no uncertain terms that I would rather be eaten alive by a raptor than exorcise outside in front of other people.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and the more freaked out I got over the possibility of actually having to step out of my safe (and let’s face it very ineffectual) gym-based comfort zone, the more I realized that the irrational fear I was feeling meant that I absolutely had to sign-up. It sounds silly to me now, but honestly that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

Unfortunately, it’s not like I hit the submit button, Bootcamp SF charged my credit card and then I went to my zen place. Some part of me was nervous about the first boot camp session every single day until I attended my first class in July, but I’ll tell you all about that day next week.

Tag Archives: exercise

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