What music do you run to?: I struggled a bit... - Couch to 5K

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What music do you run to?

OrigamiWolf profile image
OrigamiWolfGraduate
20 Replies

I struggled a bit with the longer runs and kept reading on here to slow it down, so I tried some advice I'd seen and ran to Outkast's Hey Ya because the site I'd seen (nerdfitness) said: "To get a cadence, try running to Outkast’s “Hey Ya” and time your strides to match the beat. That’s the cadence you’re looking for."

So from halfway through w6 until w9, I ran to Hey Ya. It really helped with cadence and somehow, astonishingly, I don't hate it yet (I mean, I hate it a tiny bit by now, but it's an awesome running song).

After my first run of week 9, I was finally sick of Hey Ya on repeat, so I looked for other songs at 80bpm, and some at 90bpm, and started running to those. What a difference! I really enjoyed R2, and I think it was at least half because of the music.

What do other people run to?

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OrigamiWolf profile image
OrigamiWolf
Graduate
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20 Replies
UnfitNoMore profile image
UnfitNoMoreGraduate

I think I was a little strange in that I ran to music that I wouldn’t try to keep up with, so for me it was death/thrash and speed metal all the way 🤣. I did enjoy a run to Madness a few times though… and the rhythm was pretty constant throughout.

Usually I run to the sound of my surroundings, a guided run on the NRC app, or a good podcast.

OrigamiWolf profile image
OrigamiWolfGraduate in reply to UnfitNoMore

I ran to some faster rock stuff at the start and it made me far too fast to cope 😁

Must investigate podcasts. I wonder if I'll cope without music for rhythm...

SueAppleRun profile image
SueAppleRunGraduate

Willow runs to Coldplay and he runs gently along looking happy, he runs to the beat and a few times he’s not had music he’s run faster and worn himself out. Me? I run to anything I enjoy, I don’t follow the beat at all so it’s anything from dance to trance to classical 😀 often though I like old tracks that i can sing along to, and of course Willows albums which have changed over the years

OrigamiWolf profile image
OrigamiWolfGraduate in reply to SueAppleRun

I'm like Willow, I think. The music stops me running too fast. Must try Coldplay.

I do like to sing along, though...

SueAppleRun profile image
SueAppleRunGraduate in reply to OrigamiWolf

You can sing along to Coldplay, when we first started running we shared a set of earbuds, so although I like a bit of Coldplay after weeks of nothing else I generally choose something else to run to

Thats the same song I used to try and run to a cadence. A great song to run to but certainly not on repeat 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

couchvssofa profile image
couchvssofaGraduate

Purely podcasts for me. For my graduation run I was listening to the global news podcast.

OrigamiWolf profile image
OrigamiWolfGraduate in reply to couchvssofa

I always thought I needed the rhythm to not run too fast. Podcasts are intriguing, though.

Oldfloss profile image
OldflossAdministratorGraduate

ABBA ... YEAYYYY ! A perfect beat in most tracks... listening to them, I can run for ever...Chiquitita, for a steady 1,2,3,4 warm up, and Waterloo has got me up more hills than I can count!

OrigamiWolf profile image
OrigamiWolfGraduate in reply to Oldfloss

Haven't tried Abba yet!

Oldfloss profile image
OldflossAdministratorGraduate in reply to OrigamiWolf

They are great for running to...seriously!

UnfitNoMore profile image
UnfitNoMoreGraduate in reply to Oldfloss

Yeah, they’d make me run (away) 😝

SueAppleRun profile image
SueAppleRunGraduate in reply to UnfitNoMore

UnfitNoMore 🤪even if Abba isn’t to our taste at least we recognise them I put on a random playlist once where I didn’t know any of the tracks and had a horrible 🏃‍♀️

Good to see you here 😀

Rennur profile image
RennurGraduate in reply to SueAppleRun

Even if you don't like ABBA, if you change your mind, you can be the first in line, just take a chance...

Cmoi profile image
CmoiGraduate

I'm another one who runs to music I like, not bpm. So depending on my mood it can be anything from Renaissance sacred choral music to Status Quo, Glenn Miller, The Wombles, Stromae... Podcasts too, or nothing.

Used for running cadence though, surely Hey ya is 160bpm, not 80bpm? Songs at 90bpm would be used at 180bpm. I'm a shortarse so that's pretty much my natural average cadence.

OrigamiWolf profile image
OrigamiWolfGraduate in reply to Cmoi

Yeah. I get confused. Google tells me one thing and the nerdfitness site tells me another. I'm wondering if the musical BPM is different from how fast you run to something?

Cmoi profile image
CmoiGraduate in reply to OrigamiWolf

In principle if you're running to the beat then your cadence will be very similar to that of the music's bpm. However, that depends on how you're using the music.

Take the two words Hey ya as an example: if your feet land four times over those two words you're running at 80bpm, if they land eight times you're at 160pbm.

However, that's not the same as pace (how many minutes it takes you to cover 1km or 1 mile) or speed (how many km or miles you can do in an hour.) I've got very short legs, and my stride is correspondingly short, so I'm not particularly fast.

Sorry, hard to explain in writing, that's probably confused you even more!

MissUnderstanding profile image
MissUnderstandingAdministratorGraduate

Loud dance music here. Radio 1’s Friday night dance party with Danny Howard is my favourite. I use the Pacesetter ones on BBC Sounds a lot as well.

Devon_straggler profile image
Devon_stragglerGraduate

I also struggled with longer runs, but found it was mostly a mental thing - I find I can enjoy music and still concentrate on the run, how far is left to go, whether I should just give in to the tiredness now because surely I can't keep going for another x minutes or x distance... Now I always listen to an audiobook (my phone doesn't reliably switch between podcasts and I don't want to stop mid-run to fiddle about with it). I've listened to some great stories that I wouldn't have had time for otherwise, I'm keen to get out to catch up on the next bit of the story, and while I'm running I'm far less aware of the running as my attention is all on what's happening in the book (which is particularly useful over winter as I've predominantly been running in the dark for months!). Now that I'm a bit fitter I can, and occasionally have when tech has failed me, run without anything at all, and may do more on shorter runs when the weather is nice and there are views to look at. But mostly I'll stick to my books :)

I like to run with audio books. I love reading and having a good book on the go often spurs me out on a run.

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