« Home | 4/15 - Peanut Butter Eggs » | 4/14 - Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy » | 4/13 - Cajun Beans and Rice » | 4/12 - Bruschetta and Roasted Potatoes » | The Sandwich Plus Container » | 4/11 - Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Tempeh Wrap » | 4/10 - Flax-Berry Pancakes » | Sunday 4/9 - Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Bro... » | 4/8 - Spicy Peanut Noodles, Udon-Style » | Friday 4/7 - Apple Oat Pancakes »

Couch to 5K Week 3 Playlist

I'm really particular about my playlists/mixes. You can't just throw a bunch of awesome songs together and call it a mix. No, things have to mesh. The songs have to flow into one another, not similar enough so as to sound repetitive but not so different as to disrupt the mood. It's complicated business. Workout mixes are the most difficult to put together, I think, because their purpose is to motivate rather than simply provide a pleasing aural experience. But these things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Every Sunday night I put together the playlist that I'll run to during the week, with the stop time of each song set to coincide with a run/walk segment. Adjusting the stop time like this is inherently disruptive, I'll admit, but until I can run for longer stretches of time there's naught to be done for it.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this week's mix.

Portions for Foxes - Rilo Kiley (4:45 warm-up walk)
Skeptics and True Believers - The Academy Is... (1:30)
My Paper Heart - The All-American Rejects (1:30)
Girl All The Bad Guys Want - Bowling For Soup (3:00)
The Peacock Song - Bif Naked (3:00)
Dance, Dance - Fall Out Boy (1:30)
Memory - Sugarcult (1:30)
Stronger - Britney Spears (3:00)
Freak Out - Avril Lavigne (3:00)
Gifts and Curses - Yellowcard (5:07 cool-down walk)

Don't mind the Britney/Avril couplet. Nothing motivates like shameful pop, especially when you're nearing the end and don't feel like you can run one more step. No workout mix is really complete without some Britney, anyway. Anyone who says otherwise is a damn liar.

It is so funny that you should post this. Yesterday I was getting ready to go for my run and thinking about how much i wasn't in the mood to run. It was a hard run too because i kept pushing to different songs on my ipod never fully getting into the swing. Afterwords i realized that I need new music.

Britney irritates me and I can't run to most of her music. Ricky Martin on the other hand... We all have our secret music loves.

Shameful pop usually does it for me too! I might have to borrow your list....and I'm really into that Dance Dance song right now.

I love making workout mixes for my elliptical and lifting sessions. Free Bird is a good starter because the first 5 minutes are nice for warm up and then you can get really rockin’ when that awesome guitar solo kicks in. I don’t have any Britney (can’t stand her music, sorry) but I do have some Abba and Jackson 5 on my playlists. I guess I’m just into the more old school shameful pop. Oh, and every workout mix needs some Queen, Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls are my favorites.

I made those blueberry pancakes yesterday and am just finishing some leftovers right now. I didn’t have any ground flax so I made a little paste with ground hot cereal mix (which had some flax in it), and I used half regular whole wheat flour and half white flour. They are super delicious, I’ll be making these again.

that damn christina aguilera "fighter" song was the only thing I didn't mind listening to when I worked at an ice cream shoppe a couple years ago. And every now and then someone would play some emo band I sorta liked. But the christina song really got my aggression out scooping ice cream ; )

jessiegirl - Music is really important to the success of a workout for me. I understand the Britney hate. :) But like you said, we all have our secret music shame. Ricky Martin is a good one. Livin' la vida bon bon.

melissa - Feel free to borrow the list - I ran to it this morning and it was a good time. I heart Fall Out Boy, I'm not even going to lie. :)

shananigans - I'm glad you liked the pancakes! They're my favorite. Old school pop does it for me occassionally, but it tends to be more along the lines of We Built This City, My Sharona, and I Like Big Butts. Because you can never have enough Sir Mix Alot. The beauty of old school shameful pop is that after about 10 or 15 years it becomes old school cool. :) As far as Lynyrd Synyrd goes, it's Sweet Home Alabama all the way.

jess - I've never heard that song! I'll have to check it out. I'm hopelessly behind when it comes to pop music because I never listen to the radio.

We Built This City and My Sharona! What a flashback you just gave me...haha. Throw in a little 80's hair metal (Dr. Feelgood and Here I go Again are two of my FAVS!) and we've got ourselves another workout playlist!
Too funny.

seriously, rewind 2-3 years and listen to it. The video is really dark, it was all the rage.

ms. mercedes - Funny you should mention that... Dr. Feelgood AND Here I Go Again are both in my "Workout Songs" playlist. They'll show up at some point in the future I'm sure. I've also got, let's see... We Didn't Start The Fire, The Warrior, Sledgehammer, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Tainted Love, and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Among others. I have a bit of an old school pop collecting problem. :)

So glad I'm not the only one in need of the shameless pop to keep me going. That, and vegan jelly beans. I sneek them with me on my long runs for a little sugar rush when I'm getting tired. It's also just a nice distraction from the monotony of running.

Ha! I've never thought about bringing jelly beans/a snack with me when I run. Even back in the day when I could run for more than 5 minutes at a time. Shameful pop is awesome. Sometimes I even listen to it when I'm not running, just because I need a little mood-raiser. :)

I love your workout list! Since I got an XM radio in my car my musical horizons have expanded considerably (find me another 42 year old who knows all the words to "Grillz" ;-)). That and the fact that I have two teenagers. But we share a lot of musical interests and love going to concerts together - I've never grown up in that aspect! Way to go on your fitness quest!

Post a Comment