Carry on!
Post-script: Reviewing my personal playlist, I struggled with omitting certain songs and came up with a way to get around the hesitation to include them: if you're as musucally ecclectic as I profess to be, it's often very confusing as to WHY certain songs (that, in popular company, I'd probably admit to "hating") pop into my head while on long rides. I've found it best not to limit yourself here. Add it to the playlist. It's a very special place that randonneuring takes your mind - hours in the saddle, mindless pedalling, endorphins, nutritional peaks and valleys, and mental wandering...and of the thousands of songs I've listened to and called "favorite", it's weird what actually ends up repeating in my brain sometimes. Upon logging post-ride notes it's often the reaction of, "why was it THAT song???"
It may be your subconscious' way of telling you that you really DON'T "hate that song". Perhaps there's a certain rhythm, a chord change, a specific lyric that is relevant... and you have to "suffer" through the first half of it to get there. 'Come into my Life' by Robert Plant comes to mind... where my first instinct is to skip the track, but six minutes later I remember why I love it. Let it happen, don't hesitate to include it - even if in certain circles you'd be ridiculed for it. There is no shame in music. Coming from a childhood upbringing that included ABBA to Zappa and quite literally dang-near everything in between, there is little reason for me to enjoy listening to overplayed Top40 tripe like Katy Perry or Breathe Carolina ... but I do anyways. I have no wonders about HOW my tastes got so varied to begin with - I'm very glad they are: thanks, Mom & Dad. When it doubt, just go with it.
If you employ the above method of reverting to an earbud during hour 21 of a 600km epic, and "that song you hate" comes on, you will grumble, you will laugh, and then you will sing along.... but, most importantly, you won't be giving a moments thought to the saddle sores and aching legs you were trying to forget in the first place.
Post-script: Reviewing my personal playlist, I struggled with omitting certain songs and came up with a way to get around the hesitation to include them: if you're as musucally ecclectic as I profess to be, it's often very confusing as to WHY certain songs (that, in popular company, I'd probably admit to "hating") pop into my head while on long rides. I've found it best not to limit yourself here. Add it to the playlist. It's a very special place that randonneuring takes your mind - hours in the saddle, mindless pedalling, endorphins, nutritional peaks and valleys, and mental wandering...and of the thousands of songs I've listened to and called "favorite", it's weird what actually ends up repeating in my brain sometimes. Upon logging post-ride notes it's often the reaction of, "why was it THAT song???"
It may be your subconscious' way of telling you that you really DON'T "hate that song". Perhaps there's a certain rhythm, a chord change, a specific lyric that is relevant... and you have to "suffer" through the first half of it to get there. 'Come into my Life' by Robert Plant comes to mind... where my first instinct is to skip the track, but six minutes later I remember why I love it. Let it happen, don't hesitate to include it - even if in certain circles you'd be ridiculed for it. There is no shame in music. Coming from a childhood upbringing that included ABBA to Zappa and quite literally dang-near everything in between, there is little reason for me to enjoy listening to overplayed Top40 tripe like Katy Perry or Breathe Carolina ... but I do anyways. I have no wonders about HOW my tastes got so varied to begin with - I'm very glad they are: thanks, Mom & Dad. When it doubt, just go with it.
If you employ the above method of reverting to an earbud during hour 21 of a 600km epic, and "that song you hate" comes on, you will grumble, you will laugh, and then you will sing along.... but, most importantly, you won't be giving a moments thought to the saddle sores and aching legs you were trying to forget in the first place.
2 comments:
Happy 2012, Keith!
Do you know about these? (I got one as a gift recently.)
http://sound-shell.com/
Oh man, I grew up riding those roads! Please keep writing about riding NEKS, especially Douglas/Jefferson counties....I so miss that area!
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