Control the speed of running with music

At some point, regular jogging make you think that you can escape not only longer, but also faster. And in order to maintain the running speed at the desired level throughout the entire run, man needs some external control, or speed can fall or jump up and down. Such an instrument of external control can be music. And since a lot of people running around with headphones in their ears, such a method may be appropriate for many.

If you're running to the music, you could notice that the legs involuntarily begin to move in time with the music - unless, of course, the music is not too fast and not too slow. Human brain comfortably adjust to such external phenomena. So, if you will pick up the music with a suitable indicator of the BPM, it will be easier to keep running the desired tempo.

At any music is an indicator of its speed - the number of bits (drums) per minute (bits per minute, BPM). Technically speaking, the BPM indicates the number of quarter per minute, and therefore, is a relative, not an absolute measure of the speed of the music. In practice, however, to achieve our goals - the selection of songs for the control of the running speed - we may well use this index as a benchmark.

First you need to determine the BPM for your music library. The official information of MP3-files have such a field, but it is optional and usually not filled. Among the 30 gigabytes of music on my hard drive, there was not a single file, which this figure would have been exposed. But even if your favorite songs also do not contain this value - do not worry, because the network is full of programs that can analyze the mp3-files and put them to BPM. I'll tell you how to do this with iTunes-library, and solutions for the other players, I think you'll find yourself.

In order to put down the BPM in your iTunes library, we use a program beaTunes. The program is paid, but it has a two-week full-featured trial version and works as on OS X, and on Windows.

After you install and run the program, choose Tools> Analyze all songs (To analyze all the songs). In the window that appears, set the BPM Estimate tick (Rate BPM), select whether you want to replace the existing BPM where it already exists, and boldly press Analyze. The analysis will take place in the background, and its progress can be seen in the left point Task Queue menu (all tasks). My 30 GB of music were treated for about 30 minutes, so you can work out their business at this time.

Now you need to determine what you need BPM. For this we use already mentioned in the pages of "Layfhakera" site jog.fm. Right on the main page there is a field that is offered to enter either the speed at which you usually run or a speed at which you would like to run (in minutes per kilometer). After that, the site will show how BPM fits into a running speed. Now you can find in your library music with the right indicator. To expand the choice of several possible, firstly, to allow some error (e.g., not 150 BPM, and the range 148-152) - such error is little discernible in practice. And secondly, you will also work with the BPM of the song 2 times less - then one bit will account for more than one of your steps, but two. By using the iTunes Smart Playlist (New> Smart Playlist, or Command + Alt + N) to automatically assemble a playlist can be just a few clicks. How exactly - it is shown in the screenshot below.

The last stage of the formation of the running playlist can be already personal selection of songs from the list of found suitable for BPM. You can select the songs that you like more precisely, more energetic or more meditative - it all depends on your preferences. And most importantly, when after a while you want to increase the speed of its run, you can easily create a new playlist on the same principle, but with a different index of BPM.

A photo: Shutterstock