Upsides to the Down Economy/ How to Pick Running Songs

I have been taking a Fitness 101 Program with Footworks in South Miami. I am in the 3-1 group, which means we run 3 minutes and then walk 1. We run a 5 K most nights (3.1 miles), but the other night, we ran 4 miles. This was a feeling of accomplishment for me since I have never run that far before. We all agreed that running in a group, with a leader who pushes you to finish, is a real help. But since we only run 2 days a week, I am running 1 or 2 other days on my own. A girl in my class mentioned she found it hard to run on her own. I told her to put running music on her I-Pod. She told me she had done that, but was unsure on how to find music that would get her feet a movin'. I explained to her my method. I downloaded songs I thought would be good to run to (found some suggestions on-line, got others from my sisters, both runners) and then I tried them out on my runs. I made a note of the songs that made me want to run and kept a list. These songs became my Top Running songs. If I liked a song, but it was not quite fast enough, I might choose it as a Warm Up song (like the Dire Straits "Walk of Life"). As Cool Down songs, I choose songs that make me feel good and able to bask in the glow of my accomplishment, like Bruce Springsteen's "My Beautiful Reward". Listening to it after my run, is my beautiful reward for running.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference." Robert Frost