Tag Archives: music

Instructions for a kick-ass Halloween bike class

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Ingredients:

  • One (1) Hallowe’en playlist (found in my Workout Music section).
  • Two (2) Greater Victoria YMCA Freewheel (spin-type bike class) volunteer instructors; one carrying candy and wearing huge bear suit  (John Kelley), the other working the music (me).
  • Seventeen (or so) participants to fill up all the bikes.

Mix together. Whoop it up for 40 minutes. Sweat like crazy. Repeat every Hallowe’en.

Tips:

  • Make sure you work out how to do the Time Warp on the bike BEFORE trying to lead it in a full class.
  • To get the bear-suit wearing guy to keep the costume on the entire class, bribe him. Several of us agreed to donate $10 each to the YMCA if he did it. Mission accomplished.
  • When in doubt, throw more candy at the class participants.

I’m teaching the one-hour version Sunday morning Oct 31. It’s your last chance until next year to get in on the fun! (Alas, John and his bear suit won’t be there, and I’m not putting that thing on now. Ew.)

Playlist here.

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Half Marathon playlist

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I don’t usually listen to music while running – I’m considering it today during the Oak Bay Half Marathon. I might need something extra to keep me running at 5:40 average pace per kilometre for two hours! If I do, here’s what I’ll be listening to:

  • Is There a Ghost – Band of Horses
  • After Party – Ozomatli
  • Persion Griot – Dharmakassa
  • Blitzkrieg Bop – Ramones
  • You Gotta Help Me Out – Killers
  • Motivation – Sum 41
  • Vertigo – U2
  • Shut the Club Down – Girl Talk
  • Priscilla Blues – Rusty Augers
  • Pump It Up – Elvis Costello
  • Gutless – Hole
  • Grounds for Divorce – Elbow
  • Celtic Raga – Dharmakassa
  • Switching to Clide – various
  • Kalasnjikov – Goran Bregovic
  • Here’s the Thing – Girl Talk
  • Saw Red – Sublime and Gwen Stefani
  • Arezou – Niyaz
  • Road – Refractory
  • Monster Hospital – Metric
  • Galaxy Bounce – Chemical Brothers
  • TKO – Le Tigre
  • Romantic Rights – Death from Above
  • High Fidelity – Elvis Costello
  • Help I’m Alive – Metric
  • Set it Off – Girl Talk
  • Alive – Daft Punk
  • Credit in the Straight World – (Hole)
  • Absurd – Fluke
  • Move Your Ass – Scooter
  • Salaam – Gipsyland (feat. Anoushka)
  • Love Like a Sunset Pts 1-2 – Phoenix
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Running with the wind and the driving rain

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At 5:30 this morning it was pouring rain and windy in Victoria. Why would that stop me from running? They don’t postpone races until the weather is better, so why postpone a training run because the weather’s bad?

It was “only” a recovery run – 45 minutes easy. Except – the rain seemed to drive me along. My pace hovered around 6:00/km the entire time (usual recovery pace 6:30/km).

In short: I LOVED IT!

Raindrops stinging my face, windbreaker soaking through within 5 minutes, unavoidable puddles leading to squishy toes. And the sea — I love the ocean when it froths up into the shore. The tide was in, and the foam reached up to the walkway near Clover Point.

It reminded me of the song: Wild is the Wind. I’ll try to embed the Bowie version here:
Bowie does Wild is the Wind – YouTube

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My 101st post is about workout music…

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Exercising in middies & bloomers circa 1915 (thanks to Cornell University Library)

In March I had a request for workout music playlists, so I posted this. Recently I had another request, so I decided to publish this post as a page too. After the jump, you’ll see a couple of my playlists. Apologies to those who (when I polled readers a while ago) told me they are not interested in my music playlists!

Now on to the music >>

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