I have made some strange observations about running music. The first is that guitar driven rock (which I love) does not help me during a hard run. In fact, the more I'm suffering during a hard run, the more I am aggravated by such tunes. As a result I have very few guitar driven tunes on my running playlists. An exception is "When the Levee Breaks" which seems to work well for me.
The second observation is that, like you, I don't really like hip hop/rap but for running those beats are helpful. I have several songs that I only listen to while running that I don't ever listen to anywhere else and some that I'm even embarrassed to have on my iPod in certain company but if it works, it works. Some examples: Jay Z- Dirt off Your Shoulder, LL Cool J Headsprung and Kanye West Stronger all work really well for hard runs.
Third, classical music works really well for me, especially on hard runs. I don't feel the aggravation I sometimes feel with other genres when I'm trying to go fast. I discovered this on accident when I chose "Now Playing" and didn't realize that I had it on a classical guitar album and was too lazy to reset it after I started my run. Beethoven's 4th symphony is a favorite to run to.
I realize none of this helps you any but I'm curious if anyone has had similar observations.
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