Forrester & Best Treadmill Mix, Ever

I don't want to brag, but I recently totally transitioned from running a 10 minute mile to a 8.5 minute mile.

My old strategy for picking up speed on the treadmill was to pretend like my mom was kidnapped at gunpoint but if I ran fast enough, I could like, save her somehow. Even if you have a vivid imagination, which I do, that's pretty hard to commit to that for longer than 20 seconds, because in the back of your mind you're like "this is totally fake, you fucking idiot." and you start thinking about something else and slow down. Also, it's weird.

I got faster doing two cool tricks. (By the way, huge disclaimer: I am so not an athlete. I run because I am a comedy writer who eats like three-course lunches every day and trail mix and if I didn't, I'd have to wear elastic pants every day, instead of several times a month.


I also happen to do believe that whole exercise-releases-endorphins thing but if I'm being totally honest, it's the not-wanting-to-get-super-fat thing that makes me exercise.) The first trick I learned from Brent Forrester.

Brent writes on the show this year. He has no body fat and like eleven Emmys. He grew up in Malibu and is extraordinarily positive and high energy. For whatever reason we get along great. Brent is also a nationally ranked aquathlete, which is a real thing even if it sounds like I made it up. You'll have to look it up yourself, but the point is, he's terribly fit and gave me this great tip about running: To get faster, he suggested I shift variables in my running and then reward myself. Here's how: I made the incline on my treadmill very high at my 10 minute mile for 2 minutes, which was super hard and completely sucked. But then to reward myself, I turned off the incline but MADE MY SPEED FASTER, which was a sneaky way of tricking my legs to totally run faster. It feels a lot easier than the incline but it's still faster than my former pace. Brent's so smart. He also wrote on the Ben Stiller show.


Which was one of my favorite shows ever growing up. So, double awesome.


But Mindy, what did you BUY?

I happen to have on my iPod the single best running mix ever made. It's a compilation of songs bought on iTunes or given to me by friends and it kicks so much ass and makes running so fun. So instead of pretending my mom is held at gun point, I pretend I'm a featured dancer in the music video of most of these following songs.

iTunes has several versions of workout mixes, but I think mine is better.

Enjoy!

Hung Up - Madonna
Mass Romantic - New Pornographers
Love at First Sight - Kylie Minogue
Yeah! - Usher
U.R.A.Q.T. - M.I.A.
Beautiful - Snoop
Gold Digger - Kanye West
Days Go By - Dirty Vegas
Dirrrty - Christina Aguilera
Chewing Gum - Annie
Check On it - Beyonce
Born in the U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen
My Love - JT
Damn I Wish I was Your Lover - Sophie B. Hawkins

Then I cool down to:

Long December (live MTV version) - Counting Crows

and if I'm really, really good, I'll do crunches to:

Remember the Time - Michael Jackson
Inside of Love - Nada Surf

Good for: Yourself. Friends who exercise.

Price: $28 or so, but come on. You already own "My Love" and "Check on It", right? Oh god, please say yes you guys.

www.iTunes.com