You’ve pounded the pavement to no avail. You’ve traipsed over your fair share of trails, fruitlessly. You’ve gulped down GU and freebased ferritin without a hint of improvement. You’ve meddled in meditation and maxed out your mantras, but your ills are not psychosomatic. For whatever reason, your race times have plateaued, you’re at your wit’s end, and don’t know where to turn to get over that hump.

Well maybe, the answer… is music?

That’s right, there may be an ideal cadence for running, and it’s been observed to be right around 180 steps-per-minute. One of the world’s foremost experts on endurance athletics, Jack Daniels, brought this discovery to light in his 1998 tome Daniels’ Running Formula, considered by many to be the bible of the sport. And ever since, athletes from Olympic-caliber studs to first-timers have improved their performance by normalizing their stride rate, regardless of pace.

That’s where runnin’ along to some groovy tunes comes in. Sure, you could run with a metronome, but a playlist comprised of 180 beats-per-minute songs will provide the same service in a far less annoying way!

So with that in mind, what if I told you the secret to running your best 5K ever might just be sitting at the bottom of your 31-year-old cousin Cody’s sock drawer?

No, I’m not talking about that baggie of oregano he bought from some teens behind the gas station that he occasionally pretends to get high off of.

I’m talking about his first-generation iPod Mini.

Because many of the same songs that Cody rocked out to while carving “KoЯn” into his desk in high school, just so happen to be recorded at the same tempo as your optimum running cadence!

Don’t worry, you don’t have to make an excuse to visit your aunt and uncle’s house, then sift through Cody’s sticky room to track down his performance enhancing MP3 player, because we’ve recreated its contents right here!

Go ahead and follow Citius Mag’s Fastest 5k Ever Playlist below, and be sure to share your finish line photo with us from your next PR performance!

https://play.spotify.com/user/1230491906/playlist/291uwKPhfcvxqR6soBdoQE