I don’t always listen to music on my runs as I like the silence, and for safety reasons on some routes I prefer to run “naked”, but occasionally I charge up my faithful IPod (still going after that little scare last year) and hit the forest.
My music choice for running is mostly epic, big orchestral pieces generally found in films and games. I just love the motivating power of dramatic music that seems to fire up my already vivid imagination and keeps me going when things get hard. I just think I’m a female warrior and that I’m strong and tough and the music has to match that and give me energy 💪😂 I am the star in my own movie and I always save the world 😂
But last week on a run I decided to mix things up a bit and choose shuffle on my iPod which meant I didn’t know what was going to pop up. Although I have lots of other types of music stored, most of the tunes that came up were from my epic playlists so I was running along and just about to get rid of the baddies….but then with the first few beats I sensed a change of pace and mood. I recognised it immediately. It was none other than Rasputin by Boney M! Ooooh …. I forgot I had that stored. I put it on there yonks ago and forgot all about it but here it was blaring out in my ears and immediately taking me back to so many memories: dancing to its distinctive beat in discos, watching Boney M on TOTP and thinking they were so cool, the boyfriend at the time and all those associated feelings 🥰. I even started to think about my history classes and the books that described the real-life Rasputin and how I was inspired to read more about him in the school library because he sounded so bad! My old history teacher would be proud 😇
And then a very recent memory, last year in fact, on holiday in Italy, when a friend and I thought it was a good idea to dance to it after too much wine and far too much pizza rolling around our tummies. It seemed such a great idea at the time 🙄but afterwards I had a very rough night 🤢 So, Rasputin has a lot to answer for!
But I tell you what. The unexpected boost it gave my run was a surprise. By the time I played it a few times and travelled back to so many memories and had some wee jiggles the run was nearly finished. Such fun! I think I’ll play shuffle more in the future and see what pops up.
Have you ever been surprised by a tune that helped your running? Perhaps from a genre that you don’t normally listen to?
Tell all in the replies and let us know how your running is going (or not 🙁)
If you’re not running at the minute then you can always look for new tunes for your playlist in preparation for your triumphant return.
Whether you run in silence or with podcasts or music, enjoy yourselves and have a fabulous week.
From The Team Beachcomber66 , linda9389 and @Irishprincess
xxx
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A little spooky fact I picked up while scrolling through all things Boney M. Bobby Farrell, the male singer, died on 30 December 2010, exactly the same day as Rasputin died in 1916.
Boney M! A guilty pleasure of mine and their songs always make me smile to this day! I can see why Rasputin gave you a boost IP. 😍
I had a shuffle failure on the Cheddar 10k last year! Now much as I love singing, I find (most) musicals and songs from the shows totally cringeworthy - so why did my Spotify think I’d enjoy Alfie Bow tunes one after the other? A single song, no problem …. but enough already! 😳 I had to go naked as I was enjoying the run too much to faff with changing playlists. Off went the headphones!
Not a great deal of running news from me other than we’re away in Dorset at the moment for my ‘big one’ tomorrow. I did bring my stuff and I’ve been doing yoga, but no real chance to start W3 of C25K yet. I’ll resume on Wednesday when we’re home. The good news is, C25K has rekindled my mojo and I’m actually looking forward to running again. My cough has all but gone, and I’m still planning on RED Feb - except the farmer has put 🐑🐑🐑🐑 in the field behind our house which is good for quickies. Back to the common. - but I’ll do it. 😀
Had I been wearing skis (not that I own any!) she would have dragged me all the way to the cafe. The snow can disappear as soon as it likes from my perspective;I need to run!
🎶Happy Birthday to you 🎶 🎁🥳🎈Have a fabulous birthday Munks and a great fun time away. Do you change age category in races? 😂 That’s what I think about on birthdays now 🙄
I’m with you on Alfie Munks. He’s got a great voice but not one after another…. 🙉 so I’m not surprised you got rid of the headphones.
That’s great news that your cough has finally gone. It did hang around a long time and recovery can be slow but here you are back running and heading to the common again 🏃♀️
Bobby never sang on the records, but he did sing in live concerts.
I haven't run to music since I originally did C25K back in summer 2020. Then it was usually the radio (either Marty Wheelan on RTÉ Lyric FM or my own jukebox stream). Mostly it's spoken word type podcasts nowadays.
I always do parkruns without headphones. It's only in solo runs that I listen to something off the phone.
The BPM of music doesn't tend to affect my cadence unless it's very similar to the cadence that I'm doing at the time.
My hopes of repeating RED January this year had the setback of catching COVID at the start of the month. I'm now slowly ramping up the activity even though I have a lingering cough. Hopefully I'll be back to normal for a RED February.
oh eck! Glad you’re mostly over it but the lingering cough is a pain in the neck - quite literally ☺️ Dry freezing weather and dry heated homes don’t help, but getting out to run will help you get back your strength and fitness. I get dead cranky if I don’t run 😏😁
Your sick note is accepted nowster! I can hear my mother’s voice in my head “you will catch pneumonia if you go out in this”. Our youngest has given me a thick waterproof hoodie for Christmas…it is pretty heavy but fits well; maybe I will give that a whirl in the morning. It seemed really heavy when I tried it on…..but it suddenly makes more sense! Hope your cough dissipates!🙂
I didn't know that about Bobby. I’m surprised it wasn't the other way around because his dance routine on stage was quite energetic and he wouldn’t have had to do that on recordings 🕺
It sounds as if you haven't had the greatest start to the year. There’s still so much COVID around but at least you got your dose early and out of the way 🤞
Here’s to a full recovery, cough-free, and a successful RED February 🍀
Dad's been sent home from hospital at very short notice. They described him as "self dependent". What they really wanted to do was close that eight bed bay and fumigate it after a COVID infection.
The man I picked up from the hospital last night could barely walk from one side of the ward to the other, was extremely tired and wouldn't have been able to get upstairs to bed on his own. He's still mildly confused after the steroid mania.
If he hadn't us, they might have dumped him at the front door of a cold house which had been empty for six weeks, on one of the coldest nights of the year. He might have only been able to hobble to a chair, where he might have flopped and got hypothermia.
We're formulating a complaint against the hospital.
That’s shocking and totally unacceptable. I’m not surprised you’re raising a complaint. It makes you wonder about the basic common sense that seems to be missing in so many “professional” people nowadays.
I hope your dad is ok, it’s such a worry for us when they get older.
I wanted false eyelashes like the boneym lady (the one with the beaded hair) so snow could delicately land on them 👀👀👀as seen in their video to Mary’s Boy Child, which was recorded live outside in the extreme cold 🥶
I love to do some dancing on the wooded trail 💃🏼Footloose and Land of a Thousand Dances are oldies but goodies. Help us to keep warm too whilst having fun out there ❄️🏃♀️, which I hope we all are
Steely Dan were reeling in the years, which is a great tune for a shift in gears 🌪😀
I tried false eyelashes once way back and the glue stuck to my eyes and it took ages to get it off so I haven’t bothered since although the false ones look so much more natural now that they did. But I thought Boney M’s outfits were so glamorous 🥰
Good afternoon IP. I think the music I grew up with (to the extent that I ever really grew up) was of a slightly earlier vintage. I was around for the beginning of the Rolling Stones, Beatles era! I like many types of music, but not whilst I am running. I did find myself doing a bit of a Dad shuffle to Boney M this morning; thankfully nobody seemed to notice! It was cold…..
In fact it was 0 degrees this morning; clear blue skies complemented by an icy “cut you in two” wind which would have been in my face for much of my 10k route. However, fate took a hand! Mrs BC’s car needed its service, so I followed her to the garage and brought her home. There we found a sprightly Molly in “I want my walk NOW! “ mode …..so walk, cafe plus sausage, walk even further and then return home for a late lunch. It is now 2.55; my 10k is not going to happen today, and to be very honest I can live with that. Must be going soft! Saturday seems to be the first day when will clear freezing point.
There were compensations on our walk, including a buzzard scanning the fields for victims; I didn’t see it swoop though. Maybe I need to get a grip and venture forth in the morning….at least the mud has gone 👍
A dad shuffle can be so much fun! When I “dance” on my runs no one gives me any notice, they just usually smile and ignore me 😂
Our weather is glorious at the minute, very cold with a slight frost but blue skies and sun. I’m heading out shortly but wanted to check in with my VRBS to see what they were up to.
It sounds to me that Molly sort of sets the rules in your household 😂
Thank you IP. Molly has a whole load of people in her fan club; she tends to get what she wants I am afraid! Eleven and a half is quite old for an OES, so we spoil her; trouble is this started when she was a puppy 🙄. Have a wonderful run, with or without a dance 💃
I still have an iPod too Irishprincess , but I never use it for running as I like to have a phone just in case. But our CD collection has been downloaded to iTunes so we have lots to choose from. I have playlists with good tunes for parkruns and races, and I do find the bpm helps me keep pace. When doing easy or longer runs I just put my collection on shuffle, and love it when something pops up that I haven’t heard for a while. If I don’t like something it’s easy to skip a track on my headphones.
I just love it when a certain Dexy’s Midnight Runners song comes on. Pure inspiration .
Hi Irishprincess . We have a few old iPods kicking around our place but I keep my music on my phone. I have a 19hr Spotify playlist that I just put on shuffle which works for my long runs and does not repeat too often. I had a wireless pair of headphones but I left them on the plane home from Cuba. 😑 So I am back to my old school wired pair.
In other news, it seems I and most of the family have Covid. My mum was in the hospital last week with it from her care home and I went to visit so it’s likely the culprit in spite of the masks, face shields and gowns the hospital made me wear. On the plus side I did get my 20k long run in yesterday before I realized I was actually down with more than a cold :). I wanted to do it outdoors but I felt off and just could not face the cold -17 morning wind chill, so treadmill it was.
I also just signed up for the Tartan Ottawa Marathon in late May. I’ve heard it’s a nice race from a number of people. We also have some family to say hello to while we are there so it should be nice.
Sorry to hear you & the family have got Covid. Hope your Mum is ok. It’s doing the rounds again here. Well done on getting the 20K done. Hope you recover quickly 👍🏻
Oh no Decker! I’m sorry to read that. I just replied to nowster above that there seems to be a lot of COVID still around here, and it seems there too! I hope you all recover well and that your mum gets out of hospital soon.
I’m in full admiration mode that you ran 20K on a treadmill!!!! The most I’ve ever managed to do is about 7K so I really take my hat off to you for doing that distance 👏
That marathon sounds fun. Do you have to wear a bit of tartan? 🙂
Happy training to you and here’s to a full recovery for you all.
I vaguely remember our late August heat high 20s to low 30s usually . It’s hard to run in and you have to replenish more often. I’m guessing your summers are warmer than ours.
It was already 30 degrees by 8am today but we’re having a heatwave so it has been late 30’s pushing 40 for a few days. I think it’s cooling down by tomorrow. My slow 5k today registered as a threshold run due to heartrate. Good day for swimming 😎
My sky today is blue too, just not so blue as yours 😍
I do love my silent runs too, just the sound of my footfall and breathing, which can be very hypnotic and somehow soothing. They do give a great opportunity for deep thinking 🙂
What can I say? Remember? you ask. Well I remember very little these days 🙈 Although Boney M is far enough back that I clearly remember them 🤷♀️
I am very lazy and simply share my daughter's 'Working' playlist (that's the one she feels is suitable as non-invasive background music!). She updates it, and I listen in shuffle mode!!! Surprises all round, although as she doesn't seem to delete very much, I do now know a lot of the tracks 🙃
There is one track that gets me dancing though. It first happened on a long bike ride ... interesting concept I know, 'dancing on a bike' but it's hard to overstate the lift that track gave me that day as I vigorously waved one arm in the air and wiggled my hips on the seat😍 I do occasionally skip along to something when I'm running, and I definitely 'sing' along if no-one is listening, but 'dance' would be a bit of a stretch I think 😎
I do almost always listen to music running or walking or riding, mostly to hide my huffing and puffing, and thudding feet (how people don't hear me coming up behind them I will never understand); I do immerse myself in silence whenever I have the house to myself though, and I just love that!
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Get the kettle on folks! It's the weekly chat for the 6th July - 12th July 🍪 ☕