After a gruelling 3:27 hour run, I was just barely able to touch the hand of my personal best in running. Last week I beat my previous personal best of 17 miles (27 km) and reached 18 miles (28.9 km) and the reason I mention this is not only because I am proud of my achievement but I wanted to share the secret ingredient that helped enhance my recipe for success, which allowed me to reach a new personal best from the old one I set five months ago.
You may be surprised to hear it probably wasn’t due to my diet, prevailing weather conditions, training regime, running schedule, new trainers or mobile tracking device. I personally believe the number one tool that helped me achieve this new personal feat was…
Music.
Which may come as no surprise to any regular followers (although the title may have been a give away?) however I spent a lot of time crafting a three hour playlist which starts off very slow and mellow and builds up with a range of collective songs spanning various eras and genres, that inject that mystical spring into my lethargic steps.
I cannot assume that anyone reading this post has read what has gone before, so there is a rule that I set for myself when tailoring music for these posts and that is to create an EP type of feel and limit my recommendations to 4 – 6 songs that generally run (bad pun intended) a total of up to 30 minutes at most.
My original running playlist is just over three hours so I have to give a few honourable mentions to musical artists and producers that didn’t make the cut for this post; Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Stevie Wonder, House Of Pain, Jay-Z, Kings Of Leon, Earth Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan, Prince, Carrie Underwood, David Guetta, Justin Beiber, Kanye West and Britney Spears and the list does go on and on and on and on…
And on.
So I present you with a selection of songs below, some of which may surprise you, but it is undeniable these songs gave me something that helped push me to a new personal best and never forget there is real power in that playlist.
Until next time.
- Calvin Harris ft Rihanna – This Is What You Came For
- Beyoncé – Run the World (Girls)
- DJ Khaled – All I Do Is Win (Remix)
- Michael Jackson – Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
- Naughty Boy ft. Beyoncé & Arrow Benjamin – Runnin’ (Lose It All)
Music helps me exercise too! Especially running. I actually can’t run without music, crazy as that may sound
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No that’s not crazy, my MP3 lost battery power once during a run and I just didn’t know what to do! It was so weird
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Music plays such a big role when I run. I need to craft a good enough playlist for my long run on Saturday. Thanks for the tips. And congratulations on your new PB distance.
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Thank you Deb! I agree good music really compliments a run, good luck with your run on Saturday too!
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I can’t run without my music! Our playlists are pretty similar too 😉 good taste
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Thank you so much!
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Congratulations!! You should be proud!! Sooo.. ummm… are you training for a race? London maybe? I know the drawing is coming up for next April’s marathon… ;-D
I need to add Beyonce… that’s a great song.
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Thank you so much it was tough! My goal was always to see if I could make it close to 20 miles and attempt a Marathon.
There where so many great songs I didn’t feature, so I just selected the few that really helped me make it to the end.
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I loved reading this. A good playlist is everything. Thank you for the follow. Peace and love to you.
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Thank you so much, I will look forward to following you too! 😊
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