November Gratitude Diaries Post #16: Beats Per Minute

I've discovered a couple of apps that keep me motivated as I run—they help you pace your steps to the beats per minute (BPM) of the music. It's kind of like dancing while you run and for some reason it makes me feel like a badass.

Spotify and Google Play have various free playlists that are categorized by BPM. Rock My Run is even fancier—you can set the music to change according to the pace at which you are actually running.  Some runners say 180 BPM is the ideal for running, but you can be working hard anywhere between 130 and 190.

Today I took my changes on a Spotify playlist called "Fun Run 150-165 BPM." As I ran through the peaceful Rose City Cemetery, the song that fit my pace and my mood perfectly was The Flaming Lips song, Fight Test. The perfect vibe, the perfect beat for my feet, and the perfect message for my mind as I sped past the gravestones in the misty grey morning. It's all a mystery...

The Flaming Lips: Fight Test

The test begins, now
​
I thought I was smart, I thought I was right
I thought it better not to fight, I thought there was a
Virtue in always being cool, so when it came time to
Fight I thought I'll just step aside and that the time would
Prove you wrong and that you would be the fool

I don't know where the sun beams end and the star
Lights begins it's all a mystery

Oh to fight is to defend if it's not
Now than tell me when would be the time that you would stand up
And be a man, for to lose I could accept but to surrender
I just wept and regretted this moment, oh that I, I
Was the fool

I don't know where the sun beams end and the star
Lights begins it's all a mystery

And I don't know how a man decides what right for his
Own life, it's all a mystery

Cause I'm a man not a boy and there are things
You can't avoid you have to face them when you're not prepared
To face them,
If I could I would but you're with him now it'd do no good
I should have fought him but instead I let him, I let
Him take it

I don't know where the sun beams end and the star
Lights begins it's all a mystery
And I don't know how a man decides what right for his
Own life, it's all a mystery

The test is over, now