The Best Running Playlists You Need to Power You to a New PR

These speedy songs will help you pick up the pace.

While pop songs are often upbeat, they're not always uptempo. Simply put, the beat that'll get you onto a dance floor doesn't necessarily make for the best running playlist material. In either instance, you'll be moving, but when you add tempo to the mix, that's when you'll really start to break a sweat. (Seriously: Science has proven that listening to music makes you more active.)

So to kick your cardio up a notch, here are two different best running playlists packed with fast-paced songs from multiple genres. The first is full of flashback hits at a moderately high tempo to power you through longer runs (at just over an hour, making this the best running playlist for acing a beginner's half-marathon training program). The second best running playlist below is all fast-paced tunes to help you crush running interval workouts and really pick up speed. 

Need more tunes to round out your best running playlist so you have new music for every minute of your training sesh? Hand-pick your favorites from our top 170+ epic workout songs to add to your personalized best running playlist mix.

The Best Running Playlist for a Long Run

The Shock of the Lightning — Oasis

My Apocalypse — Metallica

Damaged — Danity Kane

Womanizer — Britney Spears

Disturbia — Rihanna

I Don’t Care — Fall Out Boy

The Right Life (Tiesto Remix) — Seal

Gettin’ Up — Q-Tip

Shawty Get Loose — Lil Mama (feat. Chris Brown and T-Pain)

Psychosocial — Slipknot

Going Wrong — Armin van Buuren, DJ Shah, Chris Jones

About a Girl — The Academy Is…

A Milli — Lil Wayne

Universal Mind Control (UMC) — Common 

Feedback — Janet Jackson

I Kissed a Girl — Katy Perry

Something is Not Right With Me — Cold War Kids

The Best Running Playlist for Sprints and Intervals

Latch — Disclosure and Sam Smith

Coming of Age — Foster the People

Higher Ground — TNGHT

High You Are (Branchez Remix) — What So Not

Supernova — Ray LaMontagne

Asleep at the Wheel — Band of Skulls 

I Will Steal You Back — Jimmy Eat World 

Now — Paramore

Radioactive — Imagine Dragons (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

Phantoms Can't Hang — Deadmau5