...or it's going to be the death of me. I haven't figured it out yet.

In case you didn't know, I'm the owner of an iPod shuffle. It's almost two months old now. Yes, it's a second generation shuffle, so it's one of those cute clip-on ones. DH was sure I would lose it at least once by now but I've not. See that clippy thing? Keeps it on my body. Very handy.

DH was quite a bit miffed that I bought it for myself before Christmas, but that's neither here nor there. The iPod is going to kill me. And I'm enabling it to do so.

I'm one of those folks that jumps on a treadmill or an elliptical machine when they walk into the gym and spend the first 20 minutes or so working up a sweat before hitting any weight machines. No, I don't believe in just going in, running the moving machines and then leaving. If I do that, then I make sure that the level of the workout program is a couple of levels above what I normally do, and I work it hard. So, anyway, after being bored for the first few workouts with nothing to listen to but the sounds of the machines, the gossip of the other women who are just phoning it in and the very low volume of the music being piped in, I went and got myself an iPod shuffle.

I've been looking at mp3 players for awhile, and I hadn't really decided on what I was going to settle on, but a shuffle seemed like a good starting point no matter what I ended up getting eventually that's bigger for the work/car thing. I loaded up my shuffle with some good rock and pop music, and away to the gym I went.

I stepped up on the treadmill, and set my program and started walking. I usually do a hill program, but this time it was random. Level 6. 3.6 miles per hour. A nice brisk walk. And then The Feeling's "Love It When You Call" came over the ear buds, and I cranked the speed to 4.0 mph, figuring that I'd run for the duration of this 4 minute song. Before I could bring it back down, Fountains of Wayne started up about "Stacey's Mom". There's another 4 minutes running. I stopped in the middle of Def Leppard's "Hysteria" which was the song after that.

I was dripping with sweat, I was tired, and I felt the soreness after I stepped off the treadmill. When I started up with my sit ups for the day, the little ear buds decided I hadn't had enough and brought me into Avril Lavinge's "Skater Boi". Ye gods, I kept up with the beat on the mean little thing while I tortured my abs. That's when I realized that it hadn't played any of the Chicago music I have on it. No '25 or 6 to 4' or '90 Degrees and Freezing". And nothing with a moderately slow beat to it. All high paced, high energy stuff.

It's trying to kill me. Now, you could flip that coin and start thinking that it was actually just trying to be helpful and motivate me to sweat, but then you weren't living in my body for the two days *after* that workout. So I decided to add some even slower stuff to the iPod. And it ignored them when I had it on shuffle.

Not totally, mind you - the songs would play while I was in the car listening through the radio connector that I bought. They just wouldn't play in the gym. I've even reset the skip count and reloaded the darn thing - and it *still* skips the Chicago songs when I'm in the gym (and we're talking Chicago that rocks, not the sappy love song stuff from the 80s). That makes me wonder if it's in cahoots with DH - the iPod plays music to get me moving so that I'm always moving in the gym....

...*looks over at the shuffle with a raised eyebrow and seriously considers this*...

...that would be just plain mean. While I do appreciate the motivation since I don't have friends at this gym, or a workout buddy, my iPod is the surrogate for both. But it doesn't have to be this cruel. Giving me a few stretch out tunes would be nice. After all, I'm going to T.A.G. (Thighs, Abs, Glutes) class weekly now, and that kicked my rear this week from here to China and back (took my first class 3 Mondays ago, and could barely move for a week). I shouldn't complain. I don't want the little clippy thing to hear me and let me down when I need it the most - when I finally make it to the point where I attempt to run 5 miles on the treadmill non-stop.

Oh yes, that's a goal I've set. I don't have an endpoint, because I'll reach it when I reach it. And this is the first that DH is hearing about it, assuming he's still reading at this point. I just want the little iPod to give me some sympathy until I'm ready for it...

...it's that or I load up with ballads and love songs before it tries to get me to have a heart attack.

*note to DH: Don't push it... I'll get there, a quarter mile increase at a time*