I had always thought that you need music with a fast beat to run to, but having repeated my 'fast' playlist ad nauseum I tried my opera and classical playlist this morning and found I ran just as fast -in fact slightly faster! Has anyone else tried more serene music
for running? And to what effect?
These days I tend to listen to BBC Radio 4 podcasts.
I think it may make a difference what the overall tenor is - I reckon that if I am listening to faster tracks and then a slower one comes on, I do go more slowly, but not if all the music is at that sort of pace.
I think Radio 4 is a really good idea. I am always needing to catch up on some programme or other, so running could be the golden opportunity Maybe Pick of the Week? Or Desert Island Discs. Or even the Archers (that Rob and Helen nonsense would certainly get my adrenaline levels up)
I use the Radio 4 podcasts (love ipm, love Edie Mair's voice.) Sometimes I miss what's said due to traffic noise. (As for Rob & Helen- that Rob is a bad lot & Helen's going to fall for it -What is it with us women & sob stories?)
Helen for heaven's sake! Anyone who lets his wife scrape her lovingly poached salmon off the floor all by herself and stomps off to bed is a BAD lot!
exactly
It has to be the omnibus tho' - or you listen to the theme music a lot - and you have to curse Rob (+ Jennifer) under your breath. Comedy is a bit hit and miss - you draw some odd looks bursting out laughing at apparently nothing, when your face is already bright red and you are breathing heavily .
I run to the omnibus edition 
There are times when I've tutted or t'cha-ed as I've been running past some poor person and they have looked at me as if I'm mad. Can't think why!
I surprisingly found I'd had enough of music once I'd graduated and I needed to try something different. I tried some old Radio 4 podcasts of Clare Balding's Ramblings and was so absorbed by them I ran for further than I ever had before.
Another great idea. I love Clare! It might be a more decorous listening than the Queen of the Night Aria from The Magic Flute. I dread to think what anyone might have thought as I sang along to it today!
If you can sing while you're running, then you're not running fast enough! 
Not quite singing, more high-pitched gasping. Haven't you seen the famous ad which features that aria 
Dies Irae is a good one, as is Zadok the Priest. I like running to almost anything by Bach as well, because it is so rhythmical and fast it keeps me going. In fact, just about anything Baroque works for me
Right I feel a new playlist coming on...I love both your suggestions. Just need to find a few more now. Maybe a change of mood/ pace though. All that exultation might get a bit exhausting after 30 minutes...
I have a rock playlist as well, but my classical playlist makes a nice change. I'll be using it on Christmas morning! Enjoy putting your list together
I normally listen to LBC podcasts now if I am going for a longish run alone (for Parkrun & with my daughters I sometimes still use Stamina) I find I run at just as quick a pace, and probably more even paced with the podcasts.Strange isn't it!
I haven't graduated yet (just done week 7 run 1) so I am still using the Laura podcasts. However I found the music on them was errr...., 'not to my liking' shall we say so I used Audacity, a free mp3 editing package, to strip out the music and insert my own.
Like you I thought that fast music would make me run a bit faster but I have come to the conclusion that, for me, it makes very little difference. I have experimented with lots of different types of music including classical and the only type that made me run a little faster was Irish music (The Chieftains, The Dubliners etc). It also makes me run with a silly grin on my face, especially the Dubliners.
A technical malfunction last week ( I forgot my headphones) led to me running without sound but the blackbirds and robins provided a nice soundtrack, I didn't even know that there was a dawn chorus in the winter!
Up to this point I have to say though that I prefer loud guitar-based rock so that I can't hear myself wheezing and coughing my way round my local park.
I will be experimenting with a R4 podcast or two though to see what happens
Seems to me a lot of Celtic folk or folk/rock has the right kind of beat for my pace. I love 3 Daft Monkeys for that (no, I'm not on commission!)
Even when you are doing the runs, no need for Laura and that awful awful music. Use Runkeeper or a similar app and program the runs to have the correct intervals.
My favourite BBC podcast for running though is their Ouch disability podcast.
I have made a playlist of all my favorites that I keep adding to and play on random. I was conscious of trying to keep it fast at first but it doesn't really make my feet go any faster. I like happy music, my favorite to run to is Bellowhead as I find all the instruments and arranging interesting but I have to try to stop myself singing along and playing my air trombone.
Rather than following a beat I prefer inspirational music that makes me feel powerful! It works for me.
I have to run in time to the beat so I still alternate the three C25K podcasts. I've tried other music: I bought the 101 Running Songs CDs but they weren't helpful; you try running to Fatboy Slim's The Rockafeller Skank - it's all over the place! Fortunately I don't mind the Audiofuel tracks - it's the beat that's important.
I've just found this website - could be useful: djsteveboy.com/podrunner.html
Good grief - just checked out that website. That would drive me nuts. Will look for other similar free lists though, if this kind of thing exists.
The thing that annoyed me most about 101 Running Songs was that it didn't include a BPM for each track. Surely, if you create a CD specifically for runners, that would be a helpful thing? Oh, well...
I walk to them instead, sometimes quickly!
I love it - I bought it as a graduation present to myself. Loads of music I would never normally listen to.
I listen to audio books, I find the story distracts me and makes it much easier!
This has got me thinking! I often think that I should sort out a classical playlist finishing with the Hallelujah Chorus for a bit of cheesiness! Am currently learning Rossini's 'Messe Solenelle' which I'm loving and I think the recording that I've got would be good as it goes at a decent lick! Will have a go and see what it's like to run to.
If anything it's audio books for me, though it tend to miss some of the story as I tend to zone it out, so I generally run naked.
However returning to the original question. I think it's subconscious, I find myself (especially this time of the year) singing in my head while running, one beat per footfall, so I think the idea is you work out your BPM for your current pace, start off with that then gradually increase the BPM of the music which will lead to you running faster as your feet which are now programmed to run to the beat do so. Unfortunately the song which I 'sing' in my head is "jingle bells, batman smells, robin flew away" etc, I'm sure you know the rest.
I have tried a veritable feast of variations with regard to running poddies. I even did a run to GARDENER's Question Time once which was TOTALLY WEIRD! I guess it's whatever keeps your brain NOT thinking about giving up. I have found that I will give up and walk much quicker than if I have something playing in my ears, keeping my thoughts spaced out. So ROCK music, ABBA music, The Archers, those awful business motivation things, heavy breathing....ANYTHING that floats your aural boat is the answer.
HAPPY XMAS
I think that any music that moves you is the right music, regardless of beat. I haven't tried classical yet, but I love a bit of reggae. The most unusual music I have tried running to is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan singing Sufi devotional songs, which I admit has not always worked, but when in the groove, on long runs, it is almost mesmeric and very grounding. I also burst into a big grin when Samba Pa Ti, a favourite from my youth, started playing when running along Saunton Sands with the missus, reminding me that I am very much the Sainsbury's demographic!
Music to run with
Running with music
Music to run to for ‘oldies’
Some suggestions for CLASSICAL MUSIC to run to PLEASE
music for running
