“Marathon season has stormed into Pittsburgh,” writes Jeremy Reynolds in Sunday’s (3/10) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Classical music is not the average runner’s ideal running music…. Still, … I can’t be the only person who occasionally cues up some Tchaikovsky or Mendelssohn while out jogging…. The tempo of the music, or beats per minute, should correspond to your number of steps per minute. Humans tend to move best in speeds between 60 and 180 beats per minute, and running occupies the higher end of that range. I … have created a public Spotify playlist called ‘Classical music for running (155-190 bpm)’ that ranges from music with about 155 bpm up to 190 and even a bit faster. For me, that starts at about an 11-minute mile pace for warming up and finishes at a sub 6-minute mile pace…. The playlist—37 songs—runs for about 4 hours.… Everyone from Berlioz, Brahms and Beethoven to Mendelssohn, Mozart and Mahler make an appearance. Some of the pieces have slower introductions before they hit their stride. Some have sections that stray from their original tempo. I tend to skip around…. Plenty of pieces listed … hit right around 180 bpm if that’s your jam.”
Posted March 12, 2019
