Category Archives: Random

Tunes for Training

Music Will Ease Your Sufferfest.

Sony Walkman & CD PlayerIt’s really amazing to think how far personal music players have come.  I still remember running with tapes on my first Sony Walkman.  Then I upgraded to a personal CD player with the blessed anti-skip technology, so I could listen to any CD of my choice.

Now with iPods, Shuffles, and iPhones we can have music during all our training workouts.  I’ve found that music can motivate me and make such a difference in my speed and the way I feel about a particular workout.

Particularly for long runs or long sessions on the trainer, music is a godsend.  Kris and I provided our top ten songs for biking and running. (I left out swimming because we don’t have waterproof headphones . . . yet!)

These songs are in no particular order.  The links will take you to YouTube so you can hear the songs.

Ben’s Top Tunes for Training ~

  1. Houdini – Foster the People
  2. Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
  3. Blind – Ke$ha
  4. Give Me Everything – Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer
  5. Spiralling – Keane
  6. A Crippling Blow – The Killers
  7. Rolling in the Deep – Adele
  8. Only Girl – Rihanna
  9. What You Know - Two Door Cinema Club
  10. Young Blood – The Naked and Famous

Kris’ Top Tunes for Training ~

  1. Marching On -  The Alarm
  2. Call to Arms – Angel & Airwaves
  3. Til Kingdom Come – Coldplay
  4. She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
  5. Misery – Good Charlotte
  6. Head On - The Jesus and Mary Chain
  7. Futures – Jimmy Eat World
  8. Let it Rock – Kevin Rudolph
  10. Extreme Ways – Moby

Now granted these are just our opinions.  But I think we could all use more suggestions for the many hours of training we have ahead of us.

So, what songs do you love to take on your runs and rides?  Please share your favorite tunes by making a comment below.

Junk Food Nutrition

Who says M&Ms can’t be Performance Enhancing Drugs

Endurance Athlete Junk Food

I thought I would take a break from the typical product review and talk about a bit of an off-beat topic.  During training and racing, as athlete’s we always think about high-performance nutrition like:

While these are great options they get old.  This got me thinking about Junk Food Nutrition.  Part of the fun of exercising so much is that you are allowed to eat a little bit more junk food – unless you’re trying to be a total weight weenie, which then I think you need to relax, live a little, and remember you aren’t Lance Armstrong.

Also, haven’t you noticed the strange cravings you get while biking or running far distances? Why not indulge some of those cravings?

The reason I thought about this topic was that I bought a huge multi-pack of those Austin Peanut Butter Crackers for a trip I went on.  I had a ton of leftovers, of course.   As I was on my bike trainer I thought why not give them a try.  They were actually pretty good, although I’m not sure they are necessarily the best for performance – and they did require extra hydration to go down.

A few of the other junkie things I have tried on the bike, while training and even racing include:

  • Nestle Cookie Dough (this was tough, I had to eat it early on in the ride)
  • Baked Potatoes with butter, salt and pepper – I used these a ton during Lotoja
  • Swedish Fish
  • Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • Giant Chocolate Muffins from Costco

What junk foods do you like use during racing or training?  Have you had any stories where you made a bad choice and mayhem ensued?  Or maybe you tried something off-beat and you set a new PR?

Please comment below and share your Junk Food Nutrition or related funny stories – links to blog would be great too.