It’s finally spring in Vancity and I’m finally able to start running again! I’m not much for the treadmill, but I do love venturing outside for a short (or long!) run quaint or shine. It’s funny for me to say this because, before 4 years ago, I’d never been caught saying that I couldn’t wait to go running. Sure, I’d have a secret envy when I saw runners on the road thinking “how in the world can they keep going? I can’t even make it down the block without gasping for air!” But I’d never start training with an excuse that I’d never be able to run non-stop so why try? (A lot has changed in 4 years!).

I have mentioned before that I was under the false assumption that because I had bad knees I would never be fit and it wasn’t until a chiropractor discovered that my knee wasn’t tracking properly, and an athletic therapist fixed them, that I began my fitness journey. Always careful to wear the proper shoes and knee support of course.

In 2013 I signed up to do the SeaWheeze half marathon. It was the mob mentality, all my friends at work were doing it so I thought, “why not?”. I trained at my own pace, started training 8 months before the race (as opposed to the training program of 3 months) and slowly but surely got better. I’m a slow runner, but I finished that baby at 2.39, one minute less than my goal so I was ecstatic! I know I couldn’t have done it without the support of my co-workers, the Nike Training that I followed, and the Nike Run Club app but the one constant that always kept me going was (and is) the music mixes from RockMyRun.

Firstly, let me say that this review has been a long time coming. I can’t say enough good things about this! I discovered them years ago and used them for whenever I signed up for short fun runs and charity runs (that I always ended up walking because I never trained for them) long before you could have an app on your phone so a 30-45 minute download was free once a month. I wasn’t serious about working out or running so the free account was enough for me. Now their app allows your free account to stream the 30-45 minute mixes with little add interruptions but they’re almost not noticeable so if you want to try them the free account is the way to go, you can always upgrade to a Rockstar member when you realize how awesome this app is! When you first sign up, RockMyRun gives you a free trial Rockstar membership so you can test out all the benefits.

This app is my saving grace for workouts but it’s also the reason for my running motivation. Having a rockstar membership (about $5 a month or $35 per year CDN) allows me to sync the music to my pace or choose the beats per minute, and to listen to longer mixes that are 1 to 4 hours long for you marathon runners out there. I personally love what they call Body Driven Music™, it automatically personalizes the music to your body by either syncing to your steps – you slow down, then the music slows down; Heart – matches the music to your heart rate; or  Set BPM – allows you to set the beats per minute (BPM) of the music to your desired cadence. This Body Driven Music™ is exclusive to RockMyRun and the reason why I prefer it for my workouts over other services like Spotify or Apple Music. My next purchase will be a blue tooth heart rate monitor so I can sync the music to my heartbeat.

Now, the music… they have something for everybody! Gangsta rap, R&B, pop, merengue, Christian, country, I mean EVERYBODY! And, if by any chance you don’t find something you like you can email them and they will work to add mixes that are to your taste.

Another great feature is the “Save Data Mode”, you can favorite stations and even set the save data to, you guessed it, save your data. RockMyRun already uses little data (a one hour workout would use about 30MB of data) but you can set the save data mode so you can still listen if you’re on airplane mode (like when I use the mixes to teach my fitness classes so I have no interruptions).

The app also allows you to set preferences on the kind of music you like so it can give you suggestions on which stations to try out. You can search by BPM, artist, genre, length, and even activity. I’ve found some chill out stations that are great for cool downs and yoga.

I follow these guys on social media and recently entered a give-away where I won a lifetime subscription and some other goodies, including a personalized mix with some of my favorite power songs, this is what prompted me to get writing this review, now that I have them for a lifetime I want to share their awesomeness with the world. Seriously, this app is a must-have if you really want to get into running and you’re like me, who cannot run without music! Go to www.rockmyrun.com and get a free account to try them out. You’ll soon realize that you’ll want to have a rockstar subscription.