The Scientific Way of Building a Running Mix

For those like me who are very hardheaded and anti-social, earphones and mp3 players are necessary partners during workout sessions. I don't make playlists for specific purposes like this. I just play an album i feel like listening to. The advantages are, well aside from gym buddies/fellow runners not bothering to talk to you, you choose the music/artist unlike canned gym sounds (akon, jai ho and Flo-rida), it would go on until you press stop, and you wouldn't have to deal with fellows watching tv full blast (makes you think twice why they go to the gym in the first place). The disadvantages however are a lot, you are confined to one artist, the beats per minute (bpm) vary extremely and randomly, the playlist does not run long enough for those long sessions which means you have to listen to the some songs twice, and lastly, because of the second reason, you may get tired of the songs or the artist prematurely. The only exception to all these, in my experience is...Lady Gaga. Haha.

Now that I'm re-emerging from my recovering period post-injury and after reading a few running books i've picked up in a Booksale spree, I've decided to take on a training plan and at the same time do this as scientifically as possible in order to prevent more injuries. After all, I am only 24 and it would be extremely embarassing if i look like i already have arthritis at this age. For years, I have been a pampered athlete, with a good coach always at my side to tell me what I'm doing wrong, whether it's my form, technique, or whatever. I get the reinforcement when needed. Now, it would take time for me to get used to being independent.

Aside from buying the ultimate training companion, which is another story, I figured I should incorporate my ipod in my development. Athough my nike+ toy increased in accuracy after a a few tries in calibration, maybe I could do more with it like thing is to play music at a certain bpm rate for "propulsion".

As much as a geek I am, I pretty much treated this task as a mystery-solving scooby doo adventure. Getting ready to play mixes in podrunner.com gets tiring at one point, although they do cook up some nice tracks.

The first task is to find the ideal bpm, and this chart which I got in run2r.com (run2rhythm) proved to be quite useful:

10 min/km	9 min/km	8 min/km	7 min/km	6 min/k	5 min/km	4 min/km
16 min/mile	14 min/mile	12 min/mile	10 min/mile	9 min/mile	8 min/mile	6 min/mile
150bpm	153bpm	156bpm	160bpm	163bpm	166bpm	171bpm

As for me, I found these suggested rates too fast for my taste. Most of my trance/techno collection are way too slow (130-150) but anyway, i chose to keep a range instead, and scavenge my mp3s for songs matching the range. One can find out the song's bpms in database sites like bpmdatabase.com or if you have much time to spare, you can check the bpm of your current mp3 collection using downloadable applications or an online tool. The iTunes BPM software (Mac) is especially helpful because you just tap your mousepad to the beat and click the set button to embed the data automatically in your mp3 file, much like when you edit the mp3 file info via command+i.

Funny thing though, I didn't know it would take me hours just to build a playlist which is only 1.5 hours long (and i'm even 4 minutes short) notwithstanding the comprehensive mp3 collection I have eating up my hard disk space. And now, realizing that it's just much too tedious, I would have to go back to playing albums during runs/workouts instead and bringing along a watch. But on the other hand, it was a nice exercise because through this I discovered non-dance music that I can play for runs, like for example, Led Zeppelin and The Ramones.

So here's my own mix, arranged from slowest to fastest (150-165 bpm):

• Jason Mraz - Make It Mine
• The Killers - Mr. Brightside
• Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
• Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
• Massive Attack - Tear Drop
• The Killers - Spaceman
• Toni Basil - Mickey (Yes! Mickey!)
• The Cure - Just Like Heaven
• Fatboy Slim - The Rockafeller Skank
• Jason Mraz - I Melt With You
• The Cure - A Forest
• Offspring - Come Out and Play
• Devo - Whip It (Haha!)
• Michale Sembello - Maniac (more Haha!)
• Led Zeppelin - Dyer Maker
• Led Zeppelin - Kashmir
• U2 - Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
• The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated
• Led Zeppelin - Black Dog

Til the next useless project. I shall use the playlist while running Botak (10k) on May 10 and see what happens.:D