When the ants are marching, I run faster

About half the days I run, I listen to music. The other half I don't because I either forgot my headphones or I like to listen to myself breathe. But there's nothing like some good music to get one foot going in front of the other. I have an mp3 player, but instead of a fancy one with endless hours of music, I have one that holds about 90 songs. And when I get through those 90 songs a couple of times, I take a couple of hours to change them out, often with the same artist.

So what gets me going? Nothing says running like a good Dave Matthews Band tune (that's where the title of this entry came from). Currently on my player, I have one of many DMB's live recordings, along with an O.A.R. CD, an older Vertical Horizon CD, Stone Temple Pilots first CD and an older Bare Naked Ladies CD. I craft the songs together so that no artist has songs back to back. I have found over time that listening to music can really set the tone for a good run. If you have trouble with speed workouts, get a good mix of a fast song, then a slow song, then another fast song. Before you realize it, you'll up your pace all because of the music.

Over the past two years I've included just about everything on my player. There's ALWAYS something from the Dave Matthews Band on there, but besides that it's unpredictable. I've included artists from Garth Brooks to Alison Krauss to David Gray to Ben Folds to Counting Crows to Abba. (You can step up the pace pretty good to "Dancing Queen.")

Is there anything you'd like me to write about? Or do you have any running questions? If so, leave a response and future posts will include those things.