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)