Parlez-vous français?

To answer my own question, no, I do not speak French, but I love listening to French music. I have used music by the French artist Yelle in past workouts and this week a spin class regular (Megan) posted a great remix of one Yelle's songs, "Que veux-tu", on Facebook. What better time to listen to it than the final week of Le Tour de France! Originally I wanted every song on the new playlist to be by a French artist, but that didn't quite work out. I did keep it more electronic so it still has somewhat of a European feel.

As an added bonus today, I threw in my favorite cycling parody videos. I downloaded the songs from iTunes, but decided not to use them in the workout. You really need to have watched the video first to appreciate the lyrics (I especially love when he smokes a cigarette, chomps on a baguette and chugs a bottle of red wine on his bike in "Le Velo"). It also helps if your're somewhat familiar with road cycling or maybe you know some cyclists. Anyway, let's get on with it.

"Le Velo"- MC Spandx

"Performance" - MC Spandx

Playlist #9- Sample and purchase songs on my iTunes Ping Playlist. 

*Not all songs were available on SoundCloud so I linked those to YouTube instead. 

*Octopus - Bloc Party

*Jai Ho - Bond







*Queen of a Sad Land - A Silent Film



*Keep it for Your Own - POP ETC






The cool down song, "Le Tour de France" by Haik Naltchayan, came from the documentary film Chasing Legends. Official movie trailer below:

VIVE LE TOUR! 

A shout out to my beloved, Ryan Finnegan :)

Enjoy!!

Trouble in Playlist Paradise...

Hey friends. Today is a sad day. The iMac (computer containing my entire iTunes library) is down. For how long, I'm not sure. We'll be taking it in to get worked on soon...hoping for an easy fix! It will be difficult, if not impossible, to put together a new playlist until the iMac is up and running. I know I promised some of you something new for next week. I do have a small library of songs on my iPad and my iPod so I will see what I can do with that. - Linds

Last Dinosaurs, Guineafowl, EverythingEverything (plus a few extras) and something new from Matt & Kim

It's been an extra long week of rain, sinuses and absolutely no exercising. Talk about depressing! I guess it gave me an excuse to stay inside and sample some music, which I did.

Here's the list:

Their song "Zoom" is my favorite so far. FREE download of their song "Honolulu" on the UK version of their website. Find them on iTunes.

Guineafowl on iTunes.

Everything Everything on iTunes

Bonjah on iTunes.

We Were Pirates on iTunes.

"Awkward" - San Cisco

Not a great selection of their songs on Soundcloud. Find them on iTunes.

Lastly, Matt and Kim with the first single from their upcoming album, Lightning (not out until the fall). Find all their music on iTunes.

"Let's Go" - Matt and Kim

Have a great day! 

Dig it.

Drum roll, please...

Introducing playlist #8, very appropriately titled, "Dig It". To those of you who had the pleasure (and the pain) of experiencing "Dig It" this last week, you know what I'm talking about.

I focused this workout on climbing. Out of the saddle climbing to be precise. More commonly referred to by cyclists as "digging". I carefully placed three very large hills into the ride. Each of these hills took about 4 minutes to climb and were much too steep to grind out in the saddle. We had a nice, gradually building, warm-up in the beginning leading to our first hill challenge. After our "American Baby" climb, we descended into a lovely fast flat to flush out some lactic acid buildup and then we hit it on some intervals (Tabata style). Finishing off the intervals with our one and only active recovery of the workout. Then, it was back to the hills. Bringing it all to an end with one last burst of speed and energy, a sprint to the finish line.

How's that for an incline? Ouch!

BTW, the 2012 Tour de France begins 6/30/12

I had positive feedback from many of you so this ride is officially a keeper! Also,  I would like to thank you for those comments and compliments. I really appreciate each of you making time for my classes and I always enjoy hearing what you think.

Playlist #8 - Dig It.

Sample and purchase songs here:iTunes Ping Playlist 
The first two songs are not available on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the links below.


Love No (Delorean Remix) 


Suzie- Boy Kill Boy


Old Yellow Bricks- Arctic Monkeys


American Baby- Dave Matthews Band


Be Good- Tokyo Police Club


Rise- Tabata Songs


In the Morning (Album Version)- The Coral


Santo Domingo- Rodrigo Y Gabriela


Fell in Love with a Girl- The White Stripes


Reptilia- The Strokes


Funny Little Feeling- Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers


Map of the Problematique- Muse


Woman- Wolfmother


Remind Me- Röyksopp


Light Through the Veins- Jon Hopkins

I'm still alive

Hey, hey! Just a quick post to let you know that I'm still alive, my friends. My week of vacation proved to be much more busy than I had expected, thus the delay in my playlist production. I have one in the works...almost done!

Until then, here is my favorite tune of the day :)

Animal Kingdom - Strange Attractor

Grilled Pizza and a Playlist

Here it is again. Sunday night. The saddest night of the week. 

I guess I can't really complain. I've had a pretty delicious weekend. My husband tried his hand at grilling pizza and it was a complete success. I mean, so good, it's all we did all weekend. Ate grilled pizza for every meal. Luckily, I chose a healthy-ish recipe and finally got back to my Sunday running group or I would be feeling a little guilty right about now.   

Pizzas from front to back; 

pear, gorgonzola & carmelized onions

veggie heaven, no cheese, no sauce- multigrain crust

standard margherita 

and 

BBQ chicken 

Other than chopping all of the toppings this meal was a breeze. Said the one who wasn't cooking. We, I mean, Ryan used fresh dough from our local Publix bakery, rolled it out, plopped it on the grill and topped it with our favorite things. About 6-9 minutes later, they were done! I definitely recommend trying this. You will love it. If you would like a beverage suggestion, I thought the meal paired well with this...

 I meant this... :) 

Victory's Golden Monkey. All kidding aside, it's a really good beer. 

So back to blogging about playlists. Here's the most recent workout. This is not the 55 minute playlist. If you want that, just let me know. This list is a version of the 55 min, I just slimmed it down to 45. Also, if you're on Facebook, please 'like' Belle Velo's new page!

Playlist #8- Sample and buy on iTunes.

No Sleep Till Brooklyn (Disoriented Mash)- Beastie Boys- FREE from Steady130

Seventeen Years- Ratatat

Mean Spirits- Silversun Pickups

Heavy Chevy- Alabama Shakes

Tabata 4- Rise

Northside Gal- J.D. McPherson

Archie-Leto (Radio Edit)- Archie (Find it, and a few others, HERE)

Heavy Cross- Gossip

Spiralling- Keane

Breakn' a Sweat (Zedd Remix)- Skrillex and The Doors

----------
Coming Down- Dum Dum Girls
Nude- Radiohead

Just to make this Sunday night a little bit sweeter, I will leave you with the newest song in my library. Enjoy!

SBTRKT- Wildfire

Treat your mutha right

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Thought you might enjoy this awesomely awful video.
Mr. T you have out done yourself on this one.

Happy Mutha's Day.