Below is a playlist I made for you on Mixaloo of songs I LOVE to listen to when it’s time to rock and roll.
Mixaloo Old and New Workout Favorites.

What’s on your ipod?!

The two main problems I have with my own iPod ear buds are that the cord is too short for my stationary bike days or that the ear buds will fall out of my ears on run days (I have the standard pair that comes with the iPod Nano).

First, I tried the 2XL Spoke.  Basically, there is a gel covering that is supposed to allow for better sound quality and comes with interchangeable gel covers.  These did not work for me at all.  That gel cover at the end felt kind of weird and I couldn’t keep them in my ears.

Then, I tried the Ratio Ear Bud Wrecking Ball. Cords on these are longer than standard, sound quality was good and I had no problems with them falling out of my ears!

Finally, I tried the Groove. The fit on these is completely different but also worked fine for me.

I tested these products while riding my trainer in the garage. In addition, I took the RATIO’s trail running.    The RATIO’s were my favorite of the three pairs, mainly for cord length and comfort in my ears.

I believe if you have certain conditions where you need longer cords or different delivery methods for keeping the ear buds in your ears, these would be a good bet.

You can buy 2XL online with starting prices at $9.99.

That was a massive training, people.

I think my mind was just in a daze for the whole month of July- just do what you have to survive and that’s it.

But, I am coming alive now!  I positively love trail running and just recently signed up for the Wine Country Half Marathon in Calistoga (Oct. 31st) to do just for fun.  No time goals and no pressure- just for FUN!  There are a few bike races left in the season and I will likely drag my feet and do them…I love bike racing but, am not feeling the love for it at the moment. And yoga.  Lots of it as much as possible.  Haven’t lifted a kettlebell in months?! Yikes. What’s got into me on that? I can only be passionate about a few things at a time, ha ha ha.

So many goals, so little time!

Since becoming a stay at home mom, all I’ve ever wanted was to earn money doing something I love.   If you love it, then, it won’t feel like work.  It’d be like play.  I also think then when you are going in the right direction that the doors will open for you and when you’re not, the doors will close.  My doors started opening when I was granted that partial scholarship to Yoga Works. And, then, I got hired to teach yoga at my kids’ school!  And, I am happy with all that.  And, if I could just squeeze in a few classes a week in my community, I would be thrilled!

So, I will leave you with a playlist of my most favorite songs, at the moment! Enjoy!

Second, I want to say thank you to Monique, owner of Ultimate Kickboxing and Fitness, for allowing me to teach in her gym. Ultimate Kickboxing offers kettlebell classes, power/cardio classes, kickboxing, as well as personal training. I will definitely plan on going back to learn new kettlebell skills!

What did we do and how did it go?

I thought it went great. I had 15 people and the majority never having done yoga before. Wow. What an honor. I can only hope that they will continue to practice yoga so that someday they may love it like I do! We focused on hip opening standing poses that included Trikonasana, Ardha Chandrasana, Parsvakonasana, Vira 2, and Prasarita Padottanasana. I challenged them with two hard poses just to make them laugh (Bakasana and Ardha Chandrasana) and I was glad to know enough yoga to offer modifications for each pose so that they all had a place to stop and enjoy.  My playlist was a non traditional yoga mix that included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snow Patrol, Simon and Garfunkel, IZ, Hall and Oates and lots of other mellowish tunes that I hoped to offer energy to the class but not get them hyped up…not sure how they felt about it, but, I liked it! In retrospect, I needed a few more slow songs in the beginning for the warm-up and just use a few of the high energy songs for the main part of the class with nothing but SLOW SLOW at the end.  With teaching, I’ve learned that using the correct terminology is the hardest part of teaching the asanas.  Will really need to focus on that when I start teaching regularly.

Here’s some photos of the event:

A big thank you to all you who attended my first yoga class!

Unable to spend the evening with my wife and boys, I was forced to fend for myself. After spendng a few minutes on twitter, I got hungry. I googled the local area, and looked up places to eat. There was a restaurant about a city block away called “Jazz Alley”. I was worried that it may be a bit “night clubby” for me and thereby difficult to explain to Rachel. But, I thought it would be a worthwhile place to check into. If it didn’t work out, Mc Donald’s was not too far away. 

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve felt “cool” . But, gotta say that after a great meal, two glasses of Argentine Malbec, and one set of “Scenes” with guitarist John Stowell, I was cool as ICE. Most fun I’ve ever had dining alone. The only thing that would have made it better would have been Rachel along for the evening. Next time for certain. I did notice that someone was recording the set, and guess what! Here it is on You Tube just a couple of days later. Enjoy it, if you’re cool enough…

Paul

Below are some of my current favorites, but, I’m OPEN to lots of new tunes.  Hint, hint, hint..Need to move away from 1980′s and 90′s rock and move into the 2000′s at least!

I’d love to hear about your favorite songs for working out!

This post has been edited:  Firefox browser would not let me post my mix inside the actual post.

This was awesome!! Thanks everybody for all the great songs! Mixaloo is a great place to make a mix for music lovers, but, I had to use Itunes to hear the song or to find the name of the CD and some songs just aren’t on Mixaloo. Please feel free to add your favorites as well!

Edited to add the top 100 workout songs of 2008. (link)

Loving the theme song from the Tour de France.