Music for Motivation

Yesterday started off with 7 glorious miles for me, all before 6 am! Although I run every morning, it's rare for me to get in more than 6 miles. It was so nice to get a long-ish run in to start the week off. I loved every minute of it, after I got out of bed, of course =)

I love getting a running high so early in the day. It just puts me in such a great mood!

I haven't been running with music much, lately, but I ran the entire 7 miles blasting some sweet tunes yesterday. I definitely felt a surge of inspiration during my favorite songs and it got me thinking about music as motivation. It's amazing what a beat or what certain lyrics can do for my workouts.

This year for a holiday gift, my gym gave us all new ipod nano's. At first I wasn't all that enthralled because I already have a very old generation ipod nano, but who doesn't get excited about new electronics?!

I finally busted into my new toy the other day. Oh my goodness, what a difference! There were so many great changes that had been made! I guess I didn't even think about it much, but my ipod is probably about 8 years old. So, duh! Of course it is now a much better product.

I thought I would share some of my current favorite music selections with you. For working out, I am very much a top-40 music lover. I tend to get a lot of flack for this. Especially at my Crossfit box, but I just love the catchy beats!

Thrift Shop - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Scream and Shout - will.i.am
Dancing in the Dark- Dev
Blow - Ke$ha
On the Floor - Jennifer Lopez
Call Your Girlfriend - Robyn
Dancing on my Own - Robyn
S&M - Rihanna
Sexy and I Know It - LMFAO
J'Adore Hardcore - Scooter
We Run the Night - Havana Brown
I Know You Want Me - Pitbull
Bon, Bon - Pitbull
Americano - Lady Gaga
Welcome to the Jungle - Guns and Roses
Devil's Dance Floor - Flogging Molly
On the Dancefloor - David Guetta

I hope that gives you some good music ideas to help with some motivation! Or you can make fun of me. Either works =)

Crossfit last night was another great example of how music can change your mood. I went in kind of feeling in a funk. Nothing in particular was wrong, I just wanted to be off in my own lala world.

Different day. Same Crossfit craziness!

Our workout was in groups of four, as follows:

20 calorie row
20 v-ups
20 box jumps
20 wall ball

We got started and one of the choaches started playing the "Call Me Maybe" station on Pandora. Well, let me tell you. That perked me right up! I started dancing and singing along and immediately my mood was changed! Hooray for music!

Any tunes you think I should be listening to? What are your current favorites?