Tramp! (Beats Per Minute)

I'm a little tramp--not really. Last fall we bought our rebounder, a Bellicon Athletic, and everyone uses it and loves it--but me. I get on it every now and again, but I don't run on it like Hubby and Sweet Son do.

One reason was I was just too heavy to run comfortably. Now I'm okay.

The second reason was music. I have an iPod Shuffle and Nano, aren't I lucky. I had to buy new ear phones because those provided didn't fit my ears and were uncomfortable. The new ear phones are great around the house, but not while running. I had to secure them with a sweat band. It was icky, I was always pushing things back in place, and it just didn't work.

And another thing! I wiggle around a lot while I'm rebounding, and I was always catching my hands on the stupid cord. I've flipped the ear phones off my head, and the Shuffle.

So I thought I'd buy a portable iPod docking station with good sound to use in my living room. I was all ready to click buy when my son said, "Mom, did you know our DVD player plays CDs?" I said, "Prove it." Sure enough, it does. And the sound is good enough that it will work. Thank you, sweet son, for saving mom $90!

Okay, so then I needed some inspiring music. What inspires me to keep rebounding? Almost anything as long as it has a good driving force. Back in the 80s when I was an avid rebounder, I played current music. This go round everything I tried seemed slow.

Then by a small miracle, I came across a playlist for runners which included beats per minute of songs. Why had I never thought of that before? I quickly checked my playlist only to learn my selections, while music I enjoyed, had too slow BPM. I Googled some more and found this site, which is my favorite. I spent quite a bit of time on it tonight looking for songs I like (oldies, of course) that would work for me.

Am I the last person on the face of the earth to discover this???

So I made a 30-minute playlist and I've got my picks for an hour--but I'll have to build up to it. What did I choose? 80s songs, of course. There's a good reason that I did great with my rebounding in the 80s--the music I loved then had high BPM and worked perfectly.

Born to Run (150 bpm)
Footloose 165
Freeze Frame 187
Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves 169
Your Momma Don't Dance 150
Maniac 158
Runaway 153

My cooldown song is Dream Weaver. That's 30 minutes. I start slow and so I didn't choose a slower BPM song, I work up to it. I've got a long list of other songs I know and love for when I need to up my workout time.

I'm really excited about this. I'm hoping I feel well enough tomorrow to run in the morning. I was really excited to re-discover Cher's Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves. I hadn't heard that in years and I always loved it.