So yesterday Erika asked what’s on our running playlists. Now, I’ve had two versions of my playlist (3 mile and 4 mile) for over a year. It’s important to say up front, I spend countless runs skipping through songs and testing sequences to get my playlists just right. Once they are, I tend to use them until I outpace them. Nerd, OCD, whatever. I like the music to be energizing, but I also like to sync my steps with the beat. This means the BPM has to be perfect.
Some of my best songs come from pre-made cardio fitness compilations. They’re the right BPM and are already cross faded to blend nicely from one to another. I then mix in songs from my personal collection and voila!
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) my pace is quickening, but my playlist (namely the 4 miler) has remained the same. That means it’s time to rearrange, test new songs and the like. I tried mixing things up today for the first time. Catastrophe.
That’ll be a new project, but for now, here’s the answer to the question. I am generally done with my run by the end of track 10, but the other songs are there for cool down, and the occasional 5 mile stretch.
I’m working on my list too. Janelle Monae is the best to run to. I also have Beiber (favorite girl) and Beyonce (Upgrade U) on my list. Hey-ya should be a good addition for your increased speed. There has got to be a website out there that will recommend songs based on one’s speed. I just don’t know what it is. Let me know if you find one. I’ll do the same.
Oh!!! Hey-ya!! That’s probably good. I have seen a BPM website but not in over a year. I’ll have to find it again. It wasn’t exhaustive though – just had a list of popular running tunes. Generally I will Google the song title and BPM and it sometimes comes up. I’ll see how Hey-ya goes. I’ll see if any of those others might work too. Thanks lady!