Music feels like an essential for many modern day runners; it pumps us up before we go out for our run and makes us feel like champions after we’re done. But when we’re running we tend to come across songs that inspire us to go even harder. Do those songs actually improve our running? Yes, but in parts.

Motivation
The songs that pump me up might last about 3-5 minutes and if I’m planning on running for an hour-or more-than that’s not enough time. What I like to do is leave a few of those songs at the very end of my play list, that way as I’m finishing I can do my last mile a little faster. So is motivation the only way music helps us? No.

Focus
Music can also help runners focus. Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to be aware of your surroundings and to keep an open eye, but if I’m running in the street there’s times I might come across useless distractions-like cars honking at each other for no apparent reason. Focus keeps us doing what we’re doing; it maintains our pace which we often don’t want to break.

Pacing Yourself
I don’t like looking at my watch too often because I start feeling I’m either going too fast or slow when I reach certain points. I still like to know what my pace is, so now what I do is I listen to a whole album and go based off that. I will kind of have an idea of where I’m at and how I’m doing. The difference of pacing myself based on the music I hear and looking at my watch is that the watch gives me seconds, and because of those seconds I might end up boosting my speed-for let’s say ten seconds-and that could drain me and ruin my pace. Going based of a song might keep me guessing but at least it keeps me at a certain pace.

This is from experience; I know there are people that don’t like running while listening to music. But lately it’s become a sort of trend-to a certain extent-and it helps. Now my question for you is “What music do you run to?” Leave a comment and let me know!

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