TrailMix App Review and Giveaway

When I first started marathon training, I put in a lot of long solo runs. While I like a good short solo run as much as anybody, there comes a time in long runs that I just need a distraction from the step, step, steppity, breath, breath, breath-ity. That's when my love of music and running solidified.

I have spent hours (wish I was exaggerating) putting together the perfect-for-me playlists for long runs and marathon race days because I know that when my morale gets low, I need something to help pick my feet up when my doubts kick in. For me, music has the power to erase negativity and fear and replace it with hope, joy, love, and positivity. 

Just look at all this positivity that music brought to the Birmingham Track Club social on Saturday. 

That's some serious feeling-the-music face.

A little bit softer now. Photos by David Christy Photography.

So when the people from TrailMix contacted me about trying out their app, I was definitely interested to check out something that would enhance my music-running relationship. 

From the makers of TrailMix:

We took a music player, combined it with a state-of-the-art beat analyzer, dynamic gait detector, and high fidelity audio time stretcher, then hid all the advanced technology under the hood. The result is magical: a simple, easy-to-use music player that can change the beat of any song to match your footsteps automatically.

The cows aren't as quite as good of running company as music.

It's really basic and easy to use, but genius. You can select your own playlist or let it choose songs for you from your library, and then run. The player will sense your movement and speed up or slow down the song as needed to match your pace.

If you're aiming for a certain tempo, you can dial in the tempo you want and let the app adjust your songs to match your desired tempo. And, no, your songs don't come out sounding like a recording of Alvin and the Chipmunks. They're just like the songs you love, only faster or slower. The only feature I wish it had that it doesn't (yet, maybe) is a way to put in the pace you want to run in a xx:xx format, but once you determine the BPM (beats per minute) that match your desired pace, it's easy to manually change the BPM to get all songs to match that pace you're hoping to hit.

To break it down into TrailMix bullet points:

• Simple to use
• Helps you to maintain your pace
• Doesn't make music sound like Chipmunks
• Possibly makes you run as fast as Lauren Fleshman (not guaranteed)

Ready to party yet?

New Year's Eve at Gip's Place

You can purchase the TrailMix app here. 

Or you can enter in the comments for a chance to win one of five free downloads of TrailMix. 

To enter: In a comment below, tell me your favorite power song for running.

For bonus entries (make sure to leave a separate comment for each so I can count them all!):

* Follow TrailMix on Twitter. Leave a comment telling me you do.

* Follow (or already follow) Yo Momma Runs on Twitter. Leave a comment telling me you do.

* Like TrailMix on Facebook. Leave a comment telling me you do.

* Like (or already like) Yo Momma runs on Facebook. Leave a comment telling me you do.

* Follow (or already follow) Yo Momma Runs via Google Friend connect. Leave a comment telling me you do.

* Share this giveaway via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or your blog. Leave a separate comment for each share!

This giveaway will close next Monday, January 28th, and I'll pick a winner via random.org. Thanks and get shakin'!