Build A Workout: Failed Mix 3

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

This mix was developed off of Failed Mix 2 which you can read about HERE.

Alright! I got to go for another run and while I didnt think the mix flowed well enough to be successful, I am definitely getting more fit! When I started this project I was putting in 2 miles over 30 minutes. Today I put in 3 miles in 34 minutes! Lets start with the track list.

1. Akatsuki – Takahashi Yasunara

2. In for the Kill (Skrillex Remix) – La Roux

3. Prayer for the Refuge – Rise Against

4. Liberi Fatali – Nobuo Uematsu

5. Ringa Ringa – A R Rahman

6. Americano – Lady Gaga

7. The Decisive Battle – Powerglove

8. Bloody Mary – Lady Gaga

9. Viva Rock – Orange Range

The first thing you’ll notice is that I’ve increased the length of my run. After the last mix came up short, I increased the length to about 34 minutes. The two new song additions were added at the beginning to extend my initial warm up period and replace a failed stride. That failed stride which also failed as a warm up (“Viva Rock”) was moved to the cool down position in a last ditch effort to make it work.

How’d it go? The weakness in this mix was definitely the new additions. “Akatsuki” was an excellent warm up.

I mentioned last time that it can be a bit short so I added a second  warm up in the form of “In for the Kill”. Unfortunately I just couldnt get into the build. It starts off perfectly which is why I chose it. Right up to the first Skrillex dubstep drop at the minute and half mark it works great. The drop just didnt propel me forward the way I thought it would. The other problem is that the song then kind of stalls out before going back to its original momentum. Warm up‘s really require a more consistent build to motivate you to get faster and faster. This one just left my body confused wanting to accelerate when the pace of the song wasnt allowing it to.

I had a similar pacing problem with “Prayer for the Refugee”. While the song is pretty frickin amazing, I just felt that it didnt have the steadiness required for the stride positon. The song has this ebb and flow between its verses and chorus that just doesnt translate to the consistency necessary. Still, I love the song and I’ll definitely be trying it out as a burnout in my next workout.

Speaking of burnouts “Liberi Fatali” continues to be an amazing one! Actually from this point forward I have no complaints until the end of the mix as the rest works as well as it did in my previous mix.

I moved “Viva Rock” to the cool down position. Can you tell I really wanted this song to work? It was too fast paced for a warm up and too jumpy for a stride. I thought it might still be able to work as a cool down with its marching beat. Unfortunately, even here it left me feeling uneasy and confused trying to make my body work when it should have been time to rest. Maybe there is a place for this song in a workout mix somewhere but not for me. I think its time I retire this song after three failed attempts.

Lets hope I learn from these failures and eventually produce another great mix to run to. Good luck on your work outs!

Build a Workout: Failed Mix 2

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

Another run and another failed mix, a bit for the same reasons and a bit for different ones. This mix was developed off of Failed Mix 1 which you can read about HERE.

Here’s the tracklist:

1. Akatsuki – Takahashi Yasunara

2. Viva Rock – Orange Range

3. Liberi Fatali – Nobuo Uematsu

4. Ringa Ringa – A R Rahman

5. Americano – Lady Gaga

6. The Decisive Battle – Powerglove

7. Bloody Mary – Lady Gaga

8. We Are the Champions – Queen

Changes to this mix include adding a new warm up to the beginning of the mix, sliding  “Viva Rock” into the stride position previously occupied by “Born This Way” and replacing the stride “Government Hooker” with “Ringa Ringa”.

What went wrong? Two problems.

The first is that I still didnt like “Viva Rock” in my workout. It didn’t work out as a warm up so I thought it might as a stride due to its happy go lucky bounciness. I just wasnt feeling it. I felt like my body could never get into a good pace with the song while running which is never a good thing for a stride. I powered through it but at the end of the day, its possible “Viva Rock” just isnt meant for running.

The second and more important problem was mix length. This was actually my most productive run so far! It could be that it was my third one this week and my body is becoming more accustomed to it. I made the changes to this mix last minute and failed to look down at the length of the mix ahead of time. Currently I’ve been running 30 minutes and you’ll notice my first two mixes were approximately 32 minutes in length. I like to tack on a little space just in case. This mix clocked in at 28:21! If it had been a tiring day where I didnt feel like going the distance it wouldnt have been a problem. Instead, I had completed my usually distance at 25 minutes and was definitely ready for another stride to keep me going! Instead I was served a cool down and there went the end of my workout. Lesson: Know what you want ahead of time and plan for it. Now that I know my body is developing a bit for longer runs, I’ll either have to increase the length or increase the intensity. Either way this mix just didnt reach that standard.

How did the run actually go?

I started off with the Naruto villain theme music “Akatsuki”. This was an excellent warm up! The song has a full on chorus and lots of organ which are huge pluses in my get pumped to work out brain. The song also has a nice level build giving me enough time to get into the mood. The song keeps heaping on tension so that by the end of the two minutes youre ready to go. If the song has any weakness to take note of, it is definitely the length. This song being two minutes is probably what docked my overall time on my mix. Know yourself, if you need more than 2 minutes of warm up, you may want to tack this on the beginning of another warm up for some extra time.

“Viva Rock” once again disappointed as I mentioned above.

“Liberi Fatali” was just as excellent as ever as a burnout.

You may recognize “Ringa Ringa” from the movie Slumdog Millionaire. I find that the best strides have a consistent drum beat. This song is just 4 and half minutes of stride bliss. The slick tapping drums kept my body moving and the vocals kept my mind distracted and entranced the whole time keeping from thinking too deeply about my run. Thats a good thing.

“Americano” continues to provide a great mid-level warm up that brought me out of my stride to and even faster paced run.

I was starting to get tired but once again “The Decisive Battle” kept me racing for another 4 minutes!

“Blood Mary” rounded out my run with another encouraging stride. All I wanted to do was head into another burn out when it ended.

Unfortunately I went into “We Are the Champions“, my cool down. I definitely felt like a champion, I just wanted to go further.

So yes, another failed mix but its only by failing that we can learn to succeed! Thanks for continuing to read. I hope soon I’ll add enough songs and ideas that you can begin building your own mixes. Please comment, share, like and stay connected.

Build a Workout: Failed Mix 1

If you’re not sure what this is about, start by heading HERE and reading the introduction to this section of my blog.

This next mix is being dubbed a failed mix because it doesnt work for me. It is the first alteration of my Initial Mix. Let’s start by laying out the tracklist:

1. Viva Rock – Orange Range

2. Born This Way – Lady Gaga

3. Liberi Fatali – Nobuo Uematsu

4. Government Hooker – Lady Gaga

5. Americano – Lady Gaga

6. The Decisive Battle – Powerglove

7. Bloody Mary – Lady Gaga

8. We Are the Champions – Queen

First lets quickly go over the changes and then I’ll go into the details. I switched out “Marry the Night” for “Viva Rock” as my warm up. Then I switched out “Judas” for “Liberi Fatali” as my burnout. Lastly, I replaced the not so productive “Scheise” stride for another burnout, ” The Decisive Battle” in the hopes to boost me up for a second wind.

Where did things go wrong? Immediately. Maybe I’m just tired because I worked out yesterday but “Viva Rock” built up way too quickly! I thought the song would work well as a warm up because it slowly builds on itself getting more and more powerful. Unfortunately it goes from zero to 50 in like the first 20 seconds and my body was just not prepared for that level of energy. Having a great warm up is extremely important to your run. If you try to fire up the body too fast, you’re asking for your body to quit on you. That is exactly what mine did. I still think “Viva Rock has potential to motivate me on a run, I’ll just have to shift its position in the next mix.

Thanks to my rough start, I was practically out of breath by the time I got to “Born This Way”. Thankfully, the song served its purpose perfectly as an upbeat stride and kept me going strong for the next 4 minutes despite being very winded.

At this point in my run, I was about ready to collapse. This is where a great burnout can really shine and “Liberi Fatali” is BLINDING! I was about to keel over and yet the second those strings came in, I knew it wasnt time to give up yet.The first minute and a half of the song isn’t exactly burnout material but you can feel the build and that alone kept me at a steady pace. Then at 1:28 things start to go insane! As the choir starts pumping in full power and the drums starst to create this incredible march, the adrenaline just started pumping into me. I pumped the treadmill up to 7mph and was cruising along happily when 1:51 hit! I cranked it up to 8mph and was just running full speed ahead till the end of the song! This is a perfect example of a burnout. One minute I was ready to crash, the next I’m running faster than ever. Add this one to permanent list!

While the burnout served its purpose, I could never been more thankful for “Government Hooker”. I slowed way down to a walk, my body ready to keel over thanks to it being pushed too hard during the warm up. Here I will again mention that a stride serves its purpose by getting you to keep a specific pace and keep going. The speed isnt what matters. I definitely rested through most of this one.

Americano did a good job of warming me back up and I was feeling good again but halfway through the song my body started giving me the give up signals. I powered through it because I knew what was coming next.

Oh Powerglove! Powerglove combines metal with various videogame soundtracks and tv show themes. “The Decisive Battle” is the boss battle theme from Final Fantasy VI and just the little midi version of the song gets me going. Hearing electric guitars power through the main melody gets my body moving like nothing else. There’s a reason termites work faster to metal. Speed and power metal are great for burnouts and “The Decisive Battle” was no exception. I was very thankful I added a second burnout to this mix since it allowed me to push myself a little harder than I would have with another stride here.

This lead into my second stride, “Bloody Mary”. At this point my mind and body were pretty much gone so I dont have much to say about it.

When “We Are the Champions” finally began to blair into my ears, I definitely felt like one, thought a tired one for sure.

Overall this mix wasnt a bad one. It mostly worked and would be listed as my next official mix with a playlist for it if not for the abrupt warm up. Lesson learned. I’ll try again and keep adding songs to my permanent lists. If you havent already noticed, I’ve been adding each successful song to permanent lists where you can go to find music to build your own mixes. Thanks for reading! Come back for more! Comment and share cause I would love some feedback.

Build a Workout Burnout: Powerglove – The Decisive Battle

Oh Powerglove! Powerglove combines metal with various videogame soundtracks and tv show themes. “The Decisive Battle” is the boss battle theme from Final Fantasy VI and just the little midi version of the song gets me going. Hearing electric guitars power through the main melody gets my body moving like nothing else. There’s a reason termites work faster to metal. Speed and power metal are great for burnouts and “The Decisive Battle” was no exception.