A lot of people don't like treadmills. I don't mind them. I do love my runs outside, but when my neighborhood has a community exercise room that strangely nobody seems to use except me (an introvert's dream!), I take advantage! Today, during my workout, I took the initiative to compile a list of songs that played on my device in shuffled formation, and match the pace of my feet with each and every song's individual tempo. I adjusted the speed on the treadmill for each song that came on, and it was a ton of fun to see literally how fast each tempo of each song was. Here are the 10 songs from today's experiment, in slowest-to-fastest order:
1. "Just a Girl" ~ No Doubt ~ 3.2mph
2. "One Night in Bangkok" ~ Murray Head ~ 3.3mph
3. "Dream Lover" ~ Bobby Darin ~ 3.6mph (also a fun one to cha-cha dance to, in case you're always looking for someone to cha-cha with you)
4. "God Only Knows" ~ The Beach Boys ~ 3.7mph
5. "No One Needs to Know" ~ Shania Twain ~ 4.0mph
HALFWAY DONE WITH THE LIST.
NOW TIME TO SPEED THINGS UP A TINY BIT.
(However, the interesting bit is that some of these next songs wouldn't necessarily be ones that your brain would initially hear and go, "Wow, that song is RAPID.")
6. "The Jazz Police" ~ Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band ~ 5.1mph
7. "Promises" ~ Eric Clapton ~ 5.2mph
8. "Long Black Train" ~ Josh Turner ~ 5.3mph
9. "Take the Long Way Home" ~ Supertramp ~ 5.4mph (this live version was taken a little faster, I think)
10. "The Dirty Boogie" ~ The Brian Setzer Orchestra ~ 6.3mph for running, 3.15mph for walking (another reason I love Brian Setzer is because he & I share the same birthday)
In conclusion, making the speed of your feet perfectly line up with the speed of your music can be really fun to do, and if you're looking for a way to help yourself enjoy your treadmill more, try this. For walking speeds (those within the 3-point-something-mile-an-hour range), I recommend adjusting your treadmill's incline mechanism, so it can enhance your workout even more.
Be safe and have a fun run!
