I opened this blog with an important scientific experiment . With just days before the Ras al Khaimah Half Marathon it is time to return to science and answer the questions that matter to you.
I run with an ipod on, listening to music to help drown out surroundings. I don't fully understand why, but with the music I can generally run further and faster than without it.
I am not the only one. The head coach of the British students athletics team, Dr Costas Karageorghis, describes music as sport's "legal drug", and says it can increase performance by 20 per cent and reduce perception of effort by 10 per cent. It makes you more efficient, basically, and can even minimise pre-race nerves.
So, the big question is what kind of music makes you run faster? I've tried everything, largely because my ipod has an amazing ability to acquire unusual songs.
My first approach was to put my favourite music on, cue me listening to New Order, Oasis, The Verve and Ocean Colour Scene. It was great when I could sing along to Wonderwall or World In Motion (the bit where John Barnes rapped always made me run faster).
But I found my love of British Indie music and Britpop did not always transpire into inspiring sounds. Sure, listening to Jarvis Cocker putting the world to rights in Mis-Shapes or Common People was great but too often the songs would be more suitable to a relaxed evening with shisha than the intense level of pain my running would put me through.
I tried downloading so-called motivational songs, and quickly learnt that what advertising companies pitched as uplifting were not as effective on me as they had been pitched.
I went through a stage of listening to podcasts. I found ones that lasted around an hour that fitted with my runs, but recently have turned back to music.
What works best for me? Not letting my full ipod selection loose. I tried with the full collection on shuffle but it only served to highlight what ridiculous songs can sneak into your music collection. Somehow I have The Wurzels, famous in the UK solely for singing about combine harvesters, covering Shaggy's It Wasn't Me.
These days I have a selection of 100 or so of my favourite songs I put on shuffle. I've found I've been able to select the best songs and avoid distraction. Too much choice can be a bad thing.
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