All year, the only thing I told my wife I really wanted for Christmas was a new MP3 player.
The one I’ve been using for the last 3 years is an MPIO DMK, which has been a great little MP3 player…but it only has 128 MB storage, or roughly 45 songs-worth. I liked its small design, and it was great for workouts…
But I wanted a player big enough to hold my entire music library. With room to expand.
As much as I had been begging for an iPod, I didn’t really expect to get one. So, after opening my other great gifts (Santa was extraordinarily generous this year), the last gift I opened was a new 20GB, 4th Generation (click wheel) iPod. And in the stockings I found a leather carrying case and the iTrip FM transmitor for my car.
On top of everything else, the iPod was already loaded up with 9 full albums of Led Zepplin, and the greatest hits of Willie Nelson, Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Johhny Cash. Nearly 1GB of my favorites.
After spending the last several days loading most of my music collection onto the iPod, I realized that I would need to create several different workout playlists. First I would need one for kayaking/canoing. These tunes would consists of sing-along types (since most of my kayaking and canoe training is done solo, in rather remote rivers and creeks, I like to sing aloud while paddling), I filled it with a lot of slower-beat, acoustic blues and folk songs–a lot of Jeffrey Foucault, Townes Van Zandt, Van Morrison, and Bruce and Charlie Robison.
But the rest of my music collection is mostly a bunch of similar Texas music (Trish Murphy, Kelly Willis, Joy Ely, Guy Clark, Patty Griffin, and Pat Green). Not exactly great weight room motiviational music.
So, now I need to figure out some good pumping music for when I’m working out in the gym. I’m open for any suggestions…I could probably get by mostly on the 9 albums of Led Zepplin (what?)…but I’d like a little variety. I’ll let you know if I ever decide on a good playlist for the gym.





Just thought I’d comment that I’m in the exact same boat (so to speak). Wife got me an iPod, I have a ton of mellow music, including Kelly Willis, and I need a workout playlist. It’s the weightroom list that’s tough to develop out of a library like mine. Will have to rip some of those CD’s from my younger days. I came here on a search for workout playlists!
Left by Oscar on January 3rd, 2005 at 11:57 am