Inside the earbuds of … Matt Strawn

Welcome to this week’s installment of Inside the Earbuds of… If you're like me, you've probably stayed up wondering 'what do PPTC's Matt Strawn and decorated Olympian Michael Phelps have in common?'. Am I right? No? Well...both athletes have a pre-race ritual of listening to music before competition to get pumped 'em up or calmed down. 

Like most runners I have a strong emotional connection to running.  Sometimes I run when I'm feeling great and running outside can make a good day that much better. Other times when things seem to not be going my way, I feel like I just need to drop everything and go for a run. The pure activity of running, even when I'm not feeling particularly fit or full of energy, helps me to regain a positive perspective and appreciate the freedom to get out and be active.

At any given time I have about 50 bands that I might call my "favorite” bands. A couple years ago I realized that many of my favorite bands have songs with "run" in a song title. Being a literal-minded person, I decided to make a playlist of these “run"ning tracks. Something about hearing a song lyric like "run on for a long time" (Moby – “Run On”) gets me fired up and ready to, well, run on for a long time.

Like basketball or football players with headphones on grooving to their favorite jams prior to a big game -- I listen to music BEFORE I compete. It puts me in a good frame of mind and in an emotional state that I can feed off during the race.

Enjoy my playlist!

1. Wolf Parade - You Are a Runner And I am My Father's Son 2. Moby - Run On 3. Cut Copy – Midnight Runner 4. Tom Petty - Runnin' Down a Dream 5. Julian Plenti - Only if you Run 6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Runaway 7. Snow Patrol - Run 8. Phoenix - Run Run Run 9. Ghostpoet - Run Run Run 10. The Velvet Underground - Run Run Run 11. Gavin Rosdale - Forever May You Run 12. U2 - Running to Stand Still

Want to share your workout playlist? Great! Send an email to earbuds@pptc.org.