Original Running Music

My dream for “running music” involves creating albums and extended compositions that take the experience of running in mind in their tempos and mental/emotional narratives. That doesn’t mean the lyrics are happy all the time or always about running, but are actually about enduring challenge, working to overcome obstacles, reframing mindsets, accepting reality, and celebrating the awesome. Life is hard and often so is running. It can also be a pleasure. It’s a great metaphor for life.

So far I have written an EP called “Songs for Running,” that explores going from a 160 steps per minute cadence (the first 2 songs) to a 180 spm cadence (in the last 4 songs.) “Choose to Run” was created as a workout composition with a 10 minure warm-up, 10 minutes of 60 second “stride” intervals and a 5 minute cool down. Marathoners Rocking New York is a full length concept album about a 70’s NY punk running the marathon for the first time. The tracks can help runners (or the marathon curious) visualize the NYC course as a 40 minute workout and can be done on a treadmill to simulate the hills. “I Was Born to Run Too,” is a song about reading the book Born to Run and realizing that we runners are all connected to ancient ancestors, elite ultra-marathoners, and indigenous people in the Copper Canyons by our innate drive to “Run Free.” It was commissioned by Christopher McDougall in anticipation of Born to Run 2: The Ultimate Training Guide.

Having a consistent cadence and mental focus can enhance everyday running. Intuitively, I was drawn to it because running and creating music are activities that helped me to gain more mental clarity and physical resilience during difficult times. It turns out there are scientific reasons for this because they both can increase dopamine and give sense of flow or “the runner’s high.” A lot of people could benefit from this as our culture becomes increasingly sedentary and distracted to the point of paralysis by information overload. Going out for a run (with or without music) is a great way to combat that. Music can help make it feel better/easier and keep you doing it more consistently for longer.

I love the idea of running to an album with a consistent narrative, but most regular albums are all over the place tempo-wise. A lot of people seem to be able to run with music without considering tempo or synchronization, but I'm not one of those people. When I hear music and I’m moving, I instinctively want to synchronize to it and if I can’t or if it has me doing a cadence that sucks for running it makes my run feel like a slog. So that lead me research optimal tempos for running and discovering the sweet spot of 175-190 bpm. 180 bpm is the memorable shorthand and that exact tempo usually works pretty well, so that’s why most of my music is in that tempo.

If you’ve stumbled across this website and have been willing to read this far, hopefully you agree and I’d like to hear from you! I’m interested in hearing from runners about what’s working for them or what they’re struggling with regarding running to180 bpm music. Really, there’s no commitment, but if this stuff interests you as much as me, please shoot me a message. It just might inspire more music, or I can keep you in the loop as things evolve.

Since “Running Music” doesn’t exist as genre or alternative entertainment format (yet) I usually do my runs to playlists (or weird unfinished work in progress tracks.) Putting together playlists can be time consuming, especially if you have specific tastes and certain running goals in mind. If you’re interested in what I’m doing, let me “DJ” a run for you by putting together a custom playlist. As an RRCA certified running coach and formerly NASM and ACE certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor I can also find songs that can cater to your workout goals. So, please get in touch!