Over Christmas, I visited my parents, who live in a retirement community. I met my mom's really cool friend, Marilyn, who has recently taken up running (I won't presume to guess her age, but she lives in the same retirement community as my folks, so it's safe to say she's slightly more mature than most folks who begin a running routine). She's slated to run a leg of a marathon soon. She and I talked fitness and running, of course, and the conversation turned to music.

"I have some songs I'll listen to four times in a row because the beat is just what I need to keep my pace," she said. Marilyn didn't know how right she was.

The beats per minute (BPM) in certain songs can definitely affect your pace. This article breaks down the BPM that corresponds to different walking and running paces. For example, if you want to walk a 15 minute mile (4 mph), you want a song with a BPM of 140. To run an eight minute mile (7.5 mph), you want a song closer to 170 BPM. The question is, how do you know the BPM of your favorite songs?

This website breaks down the BPM of lots of popular songs, all listed by the artist's name. But, if you have a particular song, a quick Google search should give you your answer. I just searched "Walk Like An Egyptian BPM" and found that it's just as fast as I thought -- 205 BPM! No wonder it gets me moving!

And, if you have a particular song you just love running to, and find that the BPM doesn't match your pace, who the heck cares? Keep playing it -- there's more to motivation than the science behind the speed of the beat!