Discussion: Running Music

Hey, everyone;

I sometimes listen to music while running, especially along routes that are very familiar to me. I'm a big classical music enthusiast, but classical music generally has too wide a range of dynamics and tempi to be effective for motivation and pacing. A two-fold question then:

1. Do any of you have recommendations for running music meeting these criteria:
- Consistent tempo, between 150-170 bpm
- Small dynamic fluctuation
- Inspiring

2. What do you listen to when you run? More generally, with what activities do you preoccupy yourself while practicing (e.g. map-reading, books while on ellipticals or bikes, etc)?

Thanks!

I like the sound-tracks tnipen uses on his O-videos - dunno if they have the characteristics you list above, but they make me wanna charge around in the woods! eg, october 27...
http://attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_306/period...

Try "The Chemical Brothers". Their stuff will fit your criteria. I assume that you enjoy electronic dance beats. They usually are clacified as Trance or Big Beat music.
Its all energetic and heavy on consistent beats perfect for running.
I have my iPod loaded with them and do lots of trail running listening to it.

Try the album "Dig your Own hole" to start.

BTW - I enjoy classical as well but usually save it for my commute. Currently working my way thru Mozarts , "Die Zauberflöte"

Some suggestions coming from someone raised on punk and mellowing it down:-).

Are You Gonna Go My Way? ? Lenny Kravitz
Tick Tick Boom - The Hives (tempo)
Wolf Like Me - TV on the Radio (terrain)
Do the Evolution - Pearl Jam (terrain)
Lose Yourself - Eminem (gym)
Silent Shout - The Knife (urban running at night)
Heavy Metal Drummer - Wilco (even tempo)
Blue Orchid - White Stripes (hill climbing)

Oh, and my favourite techno:

Danger! High Voltage! - Electric Six

On a trancey tip....

http://www.ianbetts.com/mixes

Enjoy

I vaguely remember a past discussion on this but I can't seem to find it. I remember someone saying iTunes has a list music for running/working out that has a BPM in that range.

Here is the best! http://www.djsteveboy.com/mixes.html
DJ Steve Boy mixes it up new every week. You can download his podcast or right from his website. New everyweek and some really great training tips as well. Enjoy, it has changed my running forever!

best orientering psyc up some ever is The Distance by Cake

Ahh i cant recomend classical a that is not too my taste.
I normally run to waht ever is on my ipod, the tempo is not why i run with it, it is more as a distraction on long runs.
I go for rock music as my choice, mettalica, linkin park, nirvana...any thing that i enjoy. A fast pace helps me push when i am sore.

You could also check out http://www.jogtunes.com/

All sorts of ways to sort and get tunes with BPM ranges by genre.

Thank-you all for your responses; I now have a trove of motivating music.

I can recommend anything from Rammstein: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egtJMKz8lms

And if you like Rammstein, you'll probably also like And One. What is it about german techno? Anyway, this particular song always makes me feel like a machine. In a good way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLpUcHEvMsQ

(The animation isn't originally from And One, but I think it fits perfectly.)

Explosions in the Sky

I recommend Bulgarian or macedonian dance music. The 9/16 (daichovo) meter is particularly interesting to run to. short-short-short-long. Paiduska (5/16) is pretty much impossible to run with.

Give it All - Rise Against (pump-up music)

speed of sound by Coldplay, actually this is HRZ 3 music for me

Such Great Heights - The Postal Service

Just don't play your music loud at the car park at O meets (your taste might not match that of the others in the area!!!).

Speaking of parking lots. When I think of J-man I think of his theme music that I heard on cheap tinny speakers at the US Champs in Colorado. It is Final Countdown by Europe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZkllM8znx4

Hope you guys are talking about trail running.

Can't understand why anybody takes the risk of running around or riding bikes in cities with ipod's blaring in their ears. You need every sense available to you when doing so. I rekon my ears have saved me many times and I don't even train regularly!

If you're doing so I suggest....the beatles "Fool on the Hill"....might be appropriate listening, or Beck's "Loser".

I see so many people running around and crossing roads while wearing ipods or talking on their mobiles (cell phones). What idiots. Then again it might be some sort of orienteering training so that you can run and do something else at the same time, like read a map.

A.P.'s own version of Godwin's Law: the longer a thread, the more probable a "stick-in-the-mud" comment brings it to a close. Argument lost:-).

The ultimate orineteering song has to be Hunter by Bjork

I'm going hunting..I'm the Hunter

I'll bring back the goods but I don't know when

I thought I could organise freedom

How Scandanavian of me..

Haile Gebrselassie, the Olympian distance runner from Ethiopia often requested techno music be played over the sound system during his races. The song ?Scatman? which has a B.P.M. of around 135 was apparently his favourite and spured him on to many race wins and record times.

So I'm a "stick-in-the-mud" and you're bulletproof.

Sorry to be so safety concious.

So turn it up urthbouy - real loud!

Interesting - were other runners in the race given equal consideration in picking music or does the anecdote imply that race organisers were giving Gebrselassie preferential treatment? If the former, I wonder if anyone ever deliberately tried to pick music Gebrselassie disliked.

More on topic, I suspect a great many of the contributors to the thread do listen to music while running mostly, if not entirely, on trails away from traffic. Or on treadmills, where music may be even more appreciated, though audiovisual entertainment is often an option in that case. I can't see that it's necessarily a safety issue regardless of where they run provided they keep their wits about them, though clearly not everyone does so.

And no matter how obnoxious, runners, pedestrians and cyclists do have the right-of-way.

We just passed a local law establishing onerous fines for car-users who fail to yield, or throw open doors in the path of such citizens.

So drivers who expect runners to jump out of their way, may instead decide to be a bit more polite, and learn to share the road, even with others who might be oblivious to their monster, hurtling SUV.

jtorranc

Agree that it's a great way of passing time while on a treadmill.

I find it a little wierd watching sports on the screens at our gym.

When watching football (rugby league) whilst on the treadmill one feels the urge to sidestep or perform some other manouver (spl?) that the player with the ball is performing (or should in ones own opinion) .

I suppose the perfect treadmill song or video would be Here it goes again but the urges brought on by watching/listening to this could get you into a lot of trouble with your neighbouring treadmillers.

For a bit slower more casual run, I like 'DJ Tiesto'. For a bit harder, try 'The Crystal Method' (songs such as Weapons of Mass Distortion), and really hard (but more rock) try 'Rage Against the Machine'.

It's really weird, I never ever stop listening to music except when I'm running - I just can't equate the two at all.

The other thing that always gets me is what good music taste orienteers have - not many sporting conversations ever tread near the Knife, Cake, The Postal Service and my favourite Bjork lyric in the world ever. Listening to Silent Shout right now, and we play it in the gym for circuits sometimes, but have never tried running to it. It's absolutely superb though.

You started with classical. Try any of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, nice pace, peppy, inspirational.

If you like classical but find that it's hard to run with because of the dynamic variation, try some guitarists: Preston Reed, Michael Hedges, Andy McKee, etc. They pepper my running playlists but are also often the music of choice when playing Catching Features - no words means less distractions, but the sound keeps you pumped.

Yes, Rammstein is always a good choice!

Some good old AC/DC. The earlier albums with Bon Scott on vocals. i.e. hell ain't a bad place to be, live wire, high voltage, shot down in flames, girls got the rythm, high way to hell etc.

Andy Hunter has some nice beats

I used to have a cassette player with a speed control. I could bring anything to the right tempo. Typically stuff was sped up, usually not to the chipmunks range. Of course, then if I was feeling lazy, I could slow it down. It was good for walking fast too. When I used it for normal purposes, the pitch tended to be a little unsteady.

For me works great Vanessa Mae - Storm and Cancan.

Came across this quite serendipitously.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Armchair-Orienteer-Gil...