How music helped us improve our endurance and running performance.
As runners, most of us are constantly considering the importance of the right ingredients to support our running performance and endurance. These normally include nutrition, sleep, supplements, selection of gear, etc. What we often don’t pay attention to, or those of us that prefer to listen to music while running is how the music we select affects our day’s workout. As passionate trail runners and musicians, we want to share with you our story of how composing our music has helped us improve our endurance and running performance.
Recovery Run
It was one of those cold and rainy days in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland when the two of us decided to go out for a 20 KM trail run. The weather conditions weren’t ideal but good enough for our running group S-Fit to give it a go. We had just recently completed a competition called “The Icelandic Volcanic Trail Run”, both of us finishing the race in the top 20 so we were struggling a bit with tired legs and therefore agreed that we would take it easy, run at a slow steady pace, minimizing our heart rate (bpm). Normally when we run together, we prefer listening to music from our customized playlists. On this day though and for a coincidence we both found ourselves without our headphones and therefore had to do without music.
The Relaxing Sounds of Gravel and Volcanic Sands.
After a 20-minute run on the trails, Olafur mentioned how relaxing and soothing the sound of our shoes touching the trails, mostly made out of gravel, grass, and lava sand were that day. This was something neither of us had paid much attention to before, both being used to wearing our noise-cancelling headphones with music blasting. This observation caught Samuel’s attention, as he was thinking the same being focused on enjoying the rhythm and sounds of footsteps, running at a steady pace of 6 - 7min per km. Both of us agreed that day, how relatively effortless the run had been despite us recovering from a challenging race. Later that evening while studying our run via our devices as we normally do, we noticed that our heart rates had dropped to a lower bpm than usual. This made us think that it must somehow have been related to us not listening to our normal music, but rather concentrating and listening to our footsteps and soothing sounds of gravel.
About S-Fit
“The story behind S-Fit dates back to our teenage years when both of us were attending one of the usual and boring classes in high school. We started to talk about our interest in music and some weeks later decided to form a band. Long story short, a few years later we were touring the U.K and Europe performing our music. As we grew older, running and other outdoor activities started to play a bigger role in our lives and the spare time we had from our families. That is when we established our little sports group “S-Fit” which we have now competed under for some years with let’s say satisfying results.
Music that Reduces your Heart Rate
Back to our trail run and when we discovered that our improved performance and energy level from the recovery run had most likely been related to us not listening to music, or what we later discovered not listening to the right music. This couldn’t have been a coincidence as we had many times encountered similar circumstances. We agreed that we would need to explore in more detail and that is when we decided to record our next run focusing on our steps and the relaxing sound of gravel, which would later become the beat in our music and album. After months of trials and testing, different sounds, and structures of compositions, we believe that we have been able to compose an album with sounds that can improve running performance. We would therefore love to share our experience and musical journey with fellow runners.
Where and how to listen
The album is available on streaming media, Bandcamp, Spotify, and Youtube, we recommend starting from the beginning allowing the initial sounds of gravel and melodies to be part of your run getting you into the right meditation state from the start.
Allow the album to guide you through your run
Music for trail running: endurance/moderate album

Trail 1 - Meditation:
Allow the initial steps and sounds to sink in, this will prepare you for your run, reducing your normal bpm and increasing your running endurance throughout your + 60-minute run
Trail 2 - Nature Spirit:
Stop thinking about your run and focus on your surroundings, feel how the sounds interact with nature, this will calm you down while still keeping a steady pace
Trail 3 - Cardio Strength:
As you are now entering the 30minute mark of your run your mind is telling you to not overdo it, this mindset will increase your heart rate, don’t listen to your mind, focus on those footsteps
Trail 4 - Steady Pace:
You are on autopilot and feeling the pleasure of your run, thinking you can do this for a long time, feel the flow and keep concentrating on those footsteps.
Trail 5 - Stay Active:
Keep it up you’re doing great, as you are approaching the 50-minute mark you feel tempted to slow down, don’t lose focus, concentrate and keep pumping those glutes
Trail 6 - Motivation Drive:
Great work, you’re crushing it and getting closer to the end of your run, why not give it that extra effort, there is no harm in pushing yourself during those last 10 minutes as long as you enjoy the effort.

Repeat for Longer Runs
For those going for a longer run, we highly recommend repeating the process. Based on our experience starting with Trail 1 again after an hour or so helps you to adjust your bpm resetting you for another successful hour of running. We hope that you will give it a try and share your experience, enjoy the run!

With regards, Ólafur Josephsson & Samúel White, founders of S-Fit