Filed under: gym, music to run to, podwogging, running | Tags: gym, music to run to, podwogging, running
I’ve discovered podwogging, defined by a man named Jim Webster as:
The act of walking and/or jogging in time to music played on a portable MP3 player
This was an accidental discovery. Some time ago, I found myself bouncing along happily to a track I wouldn’t normally listen to for pleasure: Eminem’s Lose Yourself. I was running in total harmony with the beat, and found myself upping my normal pace a notch to keep time. Somewhat shamefully, I will also admit publicly to a penchant for Kenny Loggins’ Footloose when on the treadmill. I did a bit of Googling to find out the rhythm (measured in beats per minute or BPM) of these tracks and – you guessed it – found they are very similar: Eminem comes in at 171 BPM and Kenny racks up 174. Hmm, I thought, there must be something in this.
Others have done far more scientific research than me. This chart could prove to be useful to work out your ideal BPM for running comfortably and pushing yourself a bit harder. According to that chart, I need to find some tracks around the 160 BPM mark to maintain a consistent nine-minute mile pace, adding in a few 170 BPM tracks to help me speed up.
JamGlue is handy for finding out the BPM for popular music. There are downloadable tools available for scanning tracks yourself of course, but I haven’t managed to find one that works with iTunes on Windows. Maybe I’ll have to get a Mac after all…
It’s worth pointing out that there are other tracks that I absolutely adore running to, that don’t fit the Jogwogging theory. Last week, running the third race in the Finch Coasters Woodland 5 Series, I hit the bottom of a hill (which was actually more like a ladder made of tree roots, it was so steep) when the Faithless track Insomnia filled my eardrums. I more or less bounded up the hill, dead in time with the beat of the music. That track measures 127 on the BPM scale – but it was just perfect for that hill at that particular moment in time. I’ve also discovered that it is also a particularly good tune for zoning out on the treadmill, to the point where I’m almost completely unaware of what’s going on in the gym around me.
So it’s good not to get too obsessed with the BPM thing then.
