Running Playlist - February 2014

I made a new running playlist this week and I am loving it!  I tried it out for a few days, deleted some songs I had added, but realized while I was on the treadmill I actually didn't care for.  I posted my Chicago Marathon playlist and other playlists here and here before, but here's the most recent.

Brave - Sara Bareilles

Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

The New Workout Plan - Kanye West

People Like Us - Kelly Clarkson

Wake Me Up - Avicii

The Phoenix - Fall Out Boy

Shake It - Metro Station

Legendary Lovers - Katy Perry

Timber - Pitbull, Ke$ha

Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke

Pompeii - Bastille

Dark Horse - Katy Perry

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Taylor Swift

Wasting All These Tears - Cassadee Pope

Red - Taylor Swift

Chillin' It - Cole Swindell

Compass - Lady Antebellum

Face Down - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Heels Over Head - Boys Like Girls

Five Minutes To Midnight - Boys Like Girls

Club Can't Handle Me - Flo Rida

Bottoms Up - Keke Palmer

If I Had You - Adam Lambert

Dark Side - Kelly Clarkson

 

 

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me tweet about the fact that I was basically rotating through 3 songs: Teenage Dream, Dark Horse, and We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.  Some days certain songs just get you pumped.  And those were working for me today.

 

Which leads me into Day 3 of my 30-Day Base Building Challenge.  I completed 7 miles in 60 minutes, for an average of 8:34 pace.  I did the same little game as Monday with my songs and the speed.  Started at 6.7 and every 2 songs I increased .2, then decreased .1, and so on.  But it felt oh so much harder, both mentally and physically.

 

Each of my hour runs over the past 3 days now have been on the treadmill, and I think that's about my mental limit for that death machine.  After 30 minutes, I was not quite sure how I was going to make it another 30.  I was extremely close to stopping.  Once I got to 25 minutes, I decided I would stop at 30 for about 3.5 miles.

 

But then I did the right thing and put on Teenage Dream.  That did the trick.  You know the saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough put on Katy Perry and get going" or something like that.  (I'm way too excited now that I have concert tickets for August...so far away.)  Anyways, I suffered/persevered/ran through the last 30 minutes really rocking out.  I'm glad nobody was next to me because my music was really loud.  But obviously they would've enjoyed it too.

 

That was all really dramatic.  Long story short, I'm really proud of myself for doing the full 60 minutes!  If I didn't have this challenge for myself, I definitely would not have done it.  I think I will try running outside tomorrow and see how it goes.  It's the age old question - suffer on the treadmill or suffer in the cold?  Decisions, decisions.  Sorry, more dramatic-ness.  Running isn't suffering, it's fun!!  That's what you gotta tell yourself!  So get on out there (after adding the above songs to your playlist), and RUN!  :)

 

Do you have a specific song or 2 you put on when your workout gets tough?

 

What do you tell yourself to get pumped up? (The last couple sentences above were my words of motivation to both you and me)

 

 

 

 







My Chicago Marathon Playlist

Here is my Chicago Marathon Playlist in the exact order that I listened to the songs.  I know this exact order because I did not have it on shuffle...which was fine at the beginning but when I ran into 8 straight Shania Twain songs during my hardest miles, I probably should've just switched to shuffle.  But I did not.  I think a lot of the time I wasn't even focused on the music anymore so I didn't notice as much.

Teenage Dream

The New Workout Plan

People Like Us

It's Time

Here's To Never Growing Up

I'mma Shine

Jai Ho

Yo Te Esperare

Roar

Wake Me Up

The Phoenix

Dynamite

Gangnam Style

Escape

The Bad Touch

Wired to the T

Club Can't Handle Me

American Girl

Cecilia

The Fox

At this point I was about 10 miles in, running through Old Town.
  

Sandstorm

Stacy's Mom

Hey Julie

The Middle

Sweetness

Bleed American

The Great Escape

Love Drunk

Eye of the Tiger

Hold On

Then came my Shania miles.  And Celine Dion.  Canada produces great singers.
 

Man! I Feel Like A Woman!

Any Man of Mine

That Don't Impress Me Much

Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under

Honey, I'm Home

Up!

Love Gets Me Every Time

Don't Be Stupid

It's All Coming Back to Me Now

I'm Alive

Ready to Run

Ready to Run

Yes, Ready to Run came on twice in a row...must have accidentally added it twice, and didn't bother to switch it.
 

The Rockafeller Skank

Footloose

Tubthumping

Shake It

Sk8ter Boi

YMCA

The YMCA was a great idea even though I was not gonna waste energy doing the arm motions while running.  I do regret the fact that the Macarena didn't make it on my playlist.
 

So What

Raise Your Glass

Hollaback Girl

4 My People

When I Grow Up

If I Had You

And then I finished.  I still had a few more songs on the playlist that I never got to:

Bottoms Up

That's My Kinda Night

Cruise

Aw Naw

See You Again

Five Minutes to Midnight

Hakuna Matada

It means no worries.
 

I Made It

Up All Night

I Want You

Chelsea Dagger

Who Let the Dogs Out

Human

All the Small Things

Sexy and I Know It

Rollout

Yeah

Ghostbusters

Born to Fly

Down

I'm a little upset I didn't get to listen to a few of these because some were specifically suggested to me and are great songs that would've been awesome. 

I tried to put Teenage Dream on again when I got to the last 300m but I couldn't quite get the buttons pressed anD decided just to finish with what was on.  And then I crossed the line, stopped my watch, put on Teenage Dream, and wished someone would dance with me.

But you live and you learn and now I know where I should improve my playlist for my next race.

Christmas Music in the Summer?

Since I had a guest post yesterday instead of giving you my usual run-down (pun intended...I crack myself up), here's the scoop on the runs I did this weekend and a few other noteworthy activities.

Yesterday morning I ran 13 miles at an average 7:56 pace.  My fastest mile was 7:42 and slowest was 8:05.  The rest were all fairly consistent at right under 8 minute pace.  Since I've been doing my last couple long runs on my own, I decided to meet up with the Coach Brendan Running group at 6am.  It was still dark out when I woke up.  That shouldn't happen on the weekends.  I actually ended up running by myself the whole time instead of with anyone from the group, so I was glad I brought my iPod.

I made a new running mix that has quite the variety of songs.  Life is a little weird when you go from a rap song straight into a church song.  I'm a fan of everything.  Here were some of the songs I recall particularly enjoying on the run:

• You Make My Dreams - Daryl Hall - Thanks to Grace for sending me this song recently.  If you don't have Spotify, you need it.  And then you need to send me some of your favorite songs.
• Kanye's New Workout Plan - Kanye West
• Drunk Last Night - Eli Young Band - I think this is my favorite song right now.
• Wired to the T - Dorrough - If this song doesn't just get you pumped while running (or whenever), I don't know what would.
• Hell on the Heart - Eric Church
• You Are Holy - Michael W. Smith
• Red - Taylor Swift

I'd like to thank my friend Carly for inspiring me to listen to rap while running.  It really does work nicely.  Carly is also training for the Chicago Marathon and always posts on Facebook with her motivating running song of the day...and it's almost always rap, so I decided to go for it.

And since we are already talking about music, I have to disclose that I listened to Christmas music last week.  Catherine made me a CD for my birthday, which included some Christmas songs because she knows I love them.  I will say though that I only listened to a few songs one day because I don't want to get Christmas music burnout before the Christmas season and I obviously had to listen to the CD she made me.  It'd be rude not to.  It is fun to be driving down the highway and know that all the other drivers have no idea I'm listening to Christmas music right now in August.  But now that I got that little bit in, I'll wait another few weeks before listening again.

Also related to music, here's a little tidbit I got from a Dove chocolate yesterday:

I always am, Dove, I always am.

After yesterday's long run, I went to Jim and Christina's new apartment.  They have a pool at their building, so Christina and I laid out there for a few hours.  I wore sunscreen this time, but I had my head turned to the side the whole time as we talked, so half of my neck got a little red.  Jim was doing manly handyman tasks around the apartment, but he was kind enough to take a break and bring us some Lime-A-Ritas (and UD coozies).

This morning I met up with my friend Christopher who I had not seen since I left my old job in May, so it was great to catch up!  We had been talking for like a year about running on this dirt trail that goes through Wicker Park and we finally did it.  It was basically old train tracks that are no longer in use and have overgrown with dirt and grass...a little sketchy though, so probably not somewhere I'd run alone.  But in the middle of the day with a friend was a great time to try it!

What are some of your favorite running songs or genres?

Have you ever listened to Christmas music not during the Christmas season?

Do you like to go explore new places to run?

My Current Running Playlist - July 2013

I updated my running playlist recently and wanted to share it with you.  Also, I would really really love any suggestions anyone has for good workout/running songs!  I can usually be all over the place with my music depending on what kind of mood I'm in, but in general these are the songs that are always work for me while I run.

Colleen's July 2013 Running Playlist

Yo Te Esperare - Cali Y El Dandee

Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

Cruise - Florida Georgia Line

Don't Stop the Music - Rihanna

It's Time - Imagine Dragons

Wagon Wheel - Darius Rucker

22 - Taylor Swift

Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen

What's My Age Again - Blink 182

 We'll Be Coming Back - Calvin Harris

I Love It - Icona Pop

The Other Side - Jason Derulo

Clarity - Zedd

Jai Ho - Pussycat Dolls

Mr. Brightside - The Killers

Up - Shania Twain

Uprising - Muse

Alive - Krewella

I Drive Your Truck - Lee Brice

Two Pink Lines - Eric Church

Runnin' Out of Moonlight - Randy Houser

Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke

Cups - Anna Kendrick

Crash My Party - Luke Bryan

Red - Taylor Swift

Safe and Sound - Capital Cities

 

Right now it seems like my playlist is a lot of the current pop-y/top 40-ish songs.  Sometimes I get into other phases like boy bands or rap (which is exceptionally good for running in a bad mood) or other random genres.

Yo Te Esperare has been on my running playlist for about a year and a half.  Last spring (of 2012), Mariel introduced this amazing Spanish song to me.  It was #1 on the charts in Spain and for as many times I listened to it during that busy season at work on repeat, I was unsuccessful in single-handedly making it big in the US.

Teenage Dream will always be on my running playlist and every playlist I ever make for anything.  If there is one thing you should know about me, it is that I love this song and it will never ever get old to me no matter how many times I listen to it.

I Drive Your Truck is kind of a weird song to have on a running playlist since it is slow, but I really like the song so it is on there.  Same with Crash My Party.

I really like when my socks match my shoes. Ignore the small hole in the toes... I did about a 7 mile run today. I didn't want to bring a watch so not sure on the time but I think I was going a slower-ish pace which I'm fine with since I didn't run last week. I did the 7.7 mile forest preserve loop and the first 4 or so miles were continuous but then the last half of the loop I had to stop for a bathroom and then took 2 short walking breaks. It was so hot, especially at this time of evening! I'm supposed to do a track workout tomorrow so hopefully that will get me feeling stronger again.

What is your favorite genre to run to?  Or some of your best workout songs?

Do you have a song that you will never get sick of?

Do you take walking breaks on your runs sometimes?