PG,

I apparently have no vote in AMN's little poll, but my vote is yes! Welcome to the group.

Perhaps I can offer you something for motivation as well. The spinning instructor for my class last night is one that does a great job of motivating us to work harder and keep going longer. One of his favorite things to talk about is the difference between quitting and failing. The basic premise he works on hammering into us is that there is nothing to fear in failure. It is only when we fail that we learn what we are truly "capable" of doing. If we quit or don't ever try, then we only learn what we are "willing" to do, not what we are "capable" of doing.

So throughout his classes, when it gets really tough and we are struggling to keep up, he implores us not to quit...not to allow our minds to give up. He often does portions of the class where the whole objective is to fail...where we don't move on or finish the class until everybody has "failed" and been forced to stop because they can't keep going any longer. He is trying to teach us not to fear the unknown...not to fear what we might not be capable of doing. The one secret buried in it all, is that each time you work hard enough to fail...or don't quit when you want to quit, you get stronger...and you become capable of doing more next time.

So don't fear what you think you can't do or even what you truly can't do. Go out there every day and explore what you can do...and in the process of finding out where the boundaries are, you will make yourself stronger. One thing I have found out through his classes is that I truly am capable of more than I thought I was. I am truly blessed in that so far my MS has not caused me significant disabilities, but I believe the lessons about the difference between failure and quitting translate equally well to people of all ability levels. One of his favorite sayings during the really tough intervals in the class as he is imploring us to raise the resistance and work harder is to tell us that "in this class, if you are doing the right thing...it will probably hurt and you will probably want to quit. If you aren't hurting and don't want to quit, then you aren't trying hard enough."

Hope that helps and welcome to the group!

BTW, just 42 minutes of spinning last night, but still got 753 calories with a max HR of 91% of max and average of 78% of max. Also finished my 15th class for the month and got my yellow "Tour de MAC" jersey! Saturday is 80 minutes of the 80s...how am I going to survive spinning for 80 minutes???