Fartlekking to Mozart

[iain-strachan]

Week 7, 4km run report.

So I thought I'd try some different music this time. As well as loving running in time to classic hit songs, I'm also an avid classical music fan, so I thought I'd give some Mozart a go for running. I chose the first and last movements of the last three symphonies, 39,40 and 41 (because they're fast and lively).

Also I thought it would make a pretentiously eye-catching title for a post!

It wasn't entirely true fartlek. For the first two interval sessions I used the 10-20-30 interval method, with the iPhone jog-run-sprint app. You can customise it to set up your workout with warm up, cool down and any number (I chose two) of sets of interval training where you repeat the cycle 30 seconds jog, 20 seconds run and 10 seconds sprint five times, followed by a "pause" of 2 minutes (or whatever) when you walk slowly to let the heart rate recover.

After that, and a bit of a recovery walk, I finished the run with freer "fartlek" type intervals, alternating slow and fast. Here I found the Mozart (first movement of Jupiter symphony) worked really well - you could go fast for the lively bits, and slow down for the quieter sections. Classical is more difficult to run in time to because the tempo often changes, but I clicked into tempo for the final thumping bars of the Jupiter symphony right at the end (about 4.3 km including warm up walk) - it was a great feeling - crash bang wallop, end of run!!

You can see from the picture that this type of training produces interesting graphs - the two sets of five intervals can be seen as spikes, and the fartlek towards the end less regular spikes. Also the cadence is in various colours. In the lower graph you see the pace again, and the rollercoaster heart rate (max 166) in red.

Would you believe I analyse vital sign graphs (including heart rate) in my job, for hospital patients? I think if someone lying in a hospital bed produced a graph like this I'd get seriously worried! Definitely a case of tachycardia!

Anyway - a new training technique has been invented. I call it "Mozartlekking". Would Amadeus be turning in his grave? Knowing something of one of Mozart's alleged anti-social habits, I think he may have preferred the original term: "fartlek" ..

[Rigpig]

I love analysing data, it soothes my OCD tendencies to see patterns emerge I use Fitbit to record my exercise but it doesn't seem to be able to output something with as much resolution as your graphs.

[iain-strachan Graduate10 in reply to Rigpig]

This was using the Garmin Connect app with a Forerunner 35. However, the wrist based heart monitor doesn't work well for me - it seems to delay a long time before it picks up changes in heart rate. For example a while back I did an extremely brisk walk (4.5 mph) for about 20 minutes, but for the first six or seven it was saying my HR was less than 100. Then all of a sudden it jumped to 130. There's no way that happened.

So now I use a chest strap (Myzone MZ3) which can connect to the Garmin and give a much more reliable and fine resolution output.

[ForbiddenPlanet Graduate10 in reply to iain-strachan]

Interesting. Been thinking about a heart strap myself. Do you mind if I ask why you went for the Myzone 3 in preference to the Garmin heart straps?

I listen to all kinds of music while running, but I suppose more classical than anything else. Bach is a favourite of mine as listening to the counterpoint working itself out is a great distraction if I'm feeling tired or bored. Of course the final movement of the Jupiter has boss counterpoint!

Also like compilations of piano encores as I have played (murdered!) most of the pieces and it's fascinating to hear the different interpretative decisions made by different performers on pieces I play myself (and to hear them played properly!). We are blessed with modern technology that the recordings are so clear and we can hear every nuance.

[iain-strachan Graduate10 in reply to ForbiddenPlanet]

Hi, it was purely because I could get a good deal on the MyZone via my gym. I got one for £60 (which I think is around the same price as the Polar H10) but the gym has upgraded all the equipment, and so the treadmills, exercise bikes etc all interface to the MyZone chest strap. It's an ANT+ device so interfaces quite seamlessly to the Garmin watch. So if I'm wearing the watch and select an activity (e.g. Run Outdoors) the watch immediately says "HR Monitor connected" and takes its heart rate from that.

Yes, I didn't get to the last movement of the Jupiter on the run last night. The final crashing steps that got me to 4.3Km in the 4 km race was the coda from the first movement and it felt brilliant hammering out the strides in time to it. But I agree the last movement is epic - one of my favourite pieces ever. I'll have to reorder the playlist. The first movement of #40 is also good for running to - very "driven" if you know what I mean. I think the last movement of the Sibelius violin concerto would be good in the same way. Also the third (I think) movement of Shostakovich's 8th Symphony - a very relentless toccata.

As for Bach - I think the Brandenburgs might well work well for running. Must give it a try. I'm very fond of the suites for unaccompanied cello. Prelude to No 6 could be a good one.

[ForbiddenPlanet Graduate10 in reply to iain-strachan]

That was an excellent price! Here's hoping for upcoming Black Friday deals.

Symph 40 mov 1 fascinated me when I was younger. Must have sounded like absolute noise to 18th century audiences, with an opening theme built on a minor second. Haven't listened to late Mozart for a while, will look for a playlist.

Brandenburgs are good, though I tend to just input a search term into my music app (Tidal) and let it play whatever it finds randomly. So for example it will play random "Bach" pieces and I just press skip on anything that doesn't fit my mood of the moment. Though Tidal is not the best for classical; Bartok is probably my favourite composer from the 20th century and it has very little of his, though what it did have was interesting. Prokofiev piano Concerto 1 also a fave - totally wild and bonkers - great video of Martha Argerich playing it, on Youtube.

Your other suggestions also v interesting, though I think I might find that toccata a little oppressive!

[iain-strachan Graduate10 in reply to ForbiddenPlanet]

Try this one: youtube.com/watch?v=bDaxqCJ...(Not working as expected?)

The tempo is just about right for (my) running cadence. Around 165 beats per minute. Aggression like that I find really fires me up!

[ForbiddenPlanet Graduate10 in reply to iain-strachan]

I see what you mean. That is an excellent video. Didn't realise you could embed like that. Hmm ... maybe this link will show Martha doing her thing ...

youtube.com/watch?v=JqCwQ9c...(Not working as expected?)

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate10]

No, I don't think Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would be turning in his grave, he liked new types of music, remember he wrote a symphony when he was only 7 or 8.

Glad that you enjoyed your Mozartlekking, just as a coincidence as I am relaxing just now, listening to a CD called 'Mozart for Meditation', the music is mainly from slow movements of his concertos and symphonies, not really suitable for running I admit, more late-night relaxing type music by the great man.

[iain-strachan Graduate10 in reply to AlMorr]

I would think the slow movement from the clarinet quintet would be great for relaxing/meditation. I think I like it even better than the clarinet concerto.

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate10 in reply to iain-strachan]

I have both on the same CD.

[Grannyhugs Graduate10]

Lovely graphs. You’d seriously freek out with mine and tell me to give up exercise

[iain-strachan Graduate10 in reply to Grannyhugs]

I doubt it. As you said your HR returns to normal quickly so that shows you are fit. If someone is lying in bed an their HR is 150 plus (and maybe respiration about 25-30 breaths per minute - which it may well be when running!) and their blood pressure is through the roof and oxygen saturation below 90%, then you'd have a real emergency. But if those (apart from the oxygen sats) were while running that would be normal. I took my blood pressure once immediately after a run and running up the stairs to the office. It was 212/70 OMG!! But in 1 minute the top figure was down to 137, and a minute later 124 - pretty normal. You'd worry if your blood pressure didn't go up during running.

[Grannyhugs Graduate10 in reply to iain-strachan]

Thank you very reassuring.

[misswobble Graduate10]

Sounds fab! I think a change of tempo during the run is a good idea. You can plough a furrow doing the same speed 🙂. Music is a great accompaniment isn’t it Much more fun with an orchestra 😁

I reckon the Carl Orff thing would be good. Wheel of fortune chorus 🙂

[iain-strachan Graduate10 in reply to misswobble]

Could be - once it got going, but the opening "O fortuna" is a bit slow. How about "Mars" from the Planets?

[misswobble Graduate10]

It speeds up a treat. Very slow running is good. It’s a good thing to do. It’s fartlekking proper 😁. Another good fun thing is running very slowly to very fast music. I usually choose Baba O’Riley or Paranoid 😁.

I like Mars very much 👍 1812th should be a blast 😁🌪

[iain-strachan Graduate10 in reply to misswobble]

Have a listen to "Short ride in a fast machine" by John Adams. It can be found quite easily on Youtube.

[misswobble Graduate10 in reply to iain-strachan]

Righto. Will do. I love a new tune 😃👍

[Granspeed Graduate10]

Love the graphs. New form of art. And I’m off to make a playlist! 👍👏🏼🎉

[Debston Graduate10]

Mozartlekking, I love it! 🤣 I didn't know about his antisocial farting habit, ewww!