I often listen to music when I run by myself so I’ve created my running playlist on Spotify. I wrote about this in 2018 (wow, that seems so long ago!) and was just making the transition from playing music from a variety of sources to using Spotify. Now I just have my playlist and listen to that when I need some motivation or distraction or just a good beat to run with. I don’t usually listen to music when I’m running with someone or if I just want to listen to the sounds of nature.
I see that some of the songs that I mentioned in my earlier post are still on my playlist. Some of them I’ve forgotten about. Also, I said I was considering adding Lady Gaga to my playlist. I did that ages ago. Her music usually always has a strong beat.
Inspirational Music
There’s always music to listen to that keeps you moving. Figure out what song makes you want to dance when it plays and that’s a good candidate for your running playlist. Anything that makes you want to move can go into your playlist.
I find it helpful though to have songs that not only want to make me move but also inspire me to keep going. You know, songs that just motivate me.
There are a few songs on my playlist right now that have inspirational lyrics for when you’re slogging through a long run.
The first is I Run for Life by Melissa Etheridge. She obviously wrote it to promote breast cancer awareness and I can just see her singing this song before a Relay for Life event or some kind of fund raising race. I find it to be motivational.
The second is The Champion by Carrie Underwood and Ludacris. She wrote this for a Super Bowl but the lyrics really apply to anyone. The emphasis is on athletes but it works for me.
I think my favorite inspirational song is Hall of Fame by The Script, featuring will.i.am. It gets me moving and gives me something to think about while I’m running. The lyrics are inspirational and the music is great. I highly recommend this song.
My playlist is lengthy but these three songs stand out for being inspirational.
Finding Inspirational Music
You may ask how do you go about finding inspirational music. I ask around for advice on songs. I also read what people post for playlists and look for songs that I think I’ll like. This works for finding songs with a good beat.
Spotify and Pandora both have their own running playlists so I read through what they suggest and tag the ones that I want to add to my own playlist. This is a really easy way to add songs to the list.
One way that I’ve found to really find inspirational music is to listen to the soundtrack for videos for sporting events. For example, I watch some Youtube videos about triathlons and they always have inspiring music in the background. If you don’t recognize it, you can use Google to identify the music. I just ask Google, “what song is this?” and it usually identifies the song without problem.
Conclusion
I’m constantly adding songs to my playlist. I periodically go through and remove some but I don’t do this as often as I add to the list. So, the list gets pretty long. Fortunately if a song comes on that I don’t want to listen to, it’s easy to skip it and go on to the next.
Let me know what songs really motivate you. I’d love to add your recommendations to my playlist.