My love affair with Eminem

So, I should probably start by saying I've never met Eminem, don't even neccessarily like him, and listening to too much of his music in a row is a bit much for me, but wow, he has some very powerful songs.

For many years now, my all time favourite has been "Lose Yourself". There is just a certain amount of anger and rage in that song that just makes me run harder and faster than I normally ever would. I love it. When the song comes on, I just give it my all. It's fantastic.

Next up was "Love the Way You Lie", which features Rhianna along with Eminem. I've never really looked into the meaning of the song, but it seems very domestic violence like in its words. Since I am often running on my lunch breaks at work, it somewhat fits in with my job and I just power through my runs along with it.

After that, one day while running at work, someone was playing their exercise playlist and "Not Afraid" came along. I instantly recognized it was Eminem and the song just clicked with me. Had a nice beat, all that good stuff, so looked it up and it became part of my running playlist.

And most recently, I was reading the Healthy Tipping Point blog and came across a post where Caitlin was talking about a song she played that kept her going. I liked that she played it over and over again (I often do this, especially when a song just keeps my motivation up), and so I felt compelled to check it out. It's "Till I Collapse" and once again, Eminem has delivered another song that just really works for running. It truly is perfect, with a great beat, great lyrics and just enough heart to keep you working. I love it.

So, thank you Eminem, for the incredible beat of your songs. Thanks for the anger and the rage you put into your lyrics. Thanks for phrases that just fit in with a running mantra and make me want to push just a little bit more. I will continue to look out for more songs that you create that fit into my needs, because you are good at it, and I like that sort of music when I run!!

Swimming with music

So, my husband got me a very cool Christmas present this year, a waterproof ipod shuffle from H2O Audio. Life has been busy and it wasn't until Friday that I finally got to try it. And, well, it was amazing. I mean, truly amazing. It was such a different feeling being in the water with the music I chose and actually hearing it with every stroke. It made the workout truly amazing!! I loved it. I can hardly wait to swim again. How far am I going? Doesn't matter, as long as there is music, I'll keep on swimming. It was just plain awesome.

That's all I really have to say. I can hardly wait to go swimming again!! Just so I can listen to music in the water!! Whoever thought that up is just a genius!!

Little change, big difference

So tonight, when I was doing some strength exercises, I changed things up a bit. The biggest change, was on the squats I do. I have a barbell resting on my shoulders and basically do your typical squat. Today however, each time a squatted down, I paused for a second. It might have been less, but it felt like forever. This difference really made my legs ignite. It was incredible. I was actually breathing heavy even. I couldn't believe how such a small change could make such a big impact. I'm guessing my legs will be a little stiff tomorrow. But in a good way!!