I was at a Spin class this morning at the Avalon Park YMCA (I know, I know-what has gotten into me with all this fitness?) and the instructor had us on some crazy sprinting routine for what felt like an eternity. The Monday morning instructor is much ‘chattier’ than the instructor on Wednesdays or Fridays and her approach for getting us to work hard is much more aggressive and straight forward. She brings with her an array of songs from the 80s and early 90s and wears cross trainers and a tight pony tail on top of her head.
So this morning, during the sprints, she kept yelling at us to find our motivation. What is it that motivates each of us to get up at 4:30am and drag ourselves to this class? What is it that motivates us to find the energy to add resistance to the bike and make the class that much tougher? She shouted to each of us to dig down and find what it is that motivates us and to apply it to each of the sprints. She warned that there would be a series of five sprints, each lasting about a minute or two or somewhere in between. “Reflect on what drives you,” she shouted from the front of the room. “Reflect… now GO, SPRINT, faster!”
My first motivation was how tight my rear end was looking and how nice my pants were fitting. Second sprint and I was thinking about my endurance and how I was preparing myself to be my best– be it the business, my political campaign, running in another marathon, as a wife, a friend, whatever. I reflected on my husband, my family and my friends. I even reflected on the type of impression I would make to the people whom I have never met or whom I may never meet. At the beginning of the class, the instructor said, “This is your 45 minutes. You can burn 450 calories or you can burn 1,000. It’s up to you.” I thought about this as the sweat was pouring from my face and I considered how what she said made sense in every aspect of my life.
For the most part, each of us lives a life of similar function. We get up, go to work, interact with others, eat and go to bed. Some of us make more noise along the way but each of us has some level of impact in the lives of others. We each have the ability to choose how we want to go through the day and through life in general.
During our run in Baldwin Park on Saturday, Mandy and I were both saying how much better we felt when we went out and ran. Getting started isn't always the easiest thing to do, but once we were out there, our days were better. We've each got one chance to go out there and do something - it's up to us what to do and how to go about doing it.
