From Adidas' supershoes dominating the tarmac in London to the latest wearables to track your park runs and after-work slogs, as runners, we're inundated with the latest tech and essentials to make it easier than ever to lace up and set some PBs.
There are two camps to the running revolution that’s seemingly sweeping every run club across the world (and showing no signs of slowing down).
The purist, who wears knackered Reeboks, an old footy jersey, and listens to the cockatoos through Centennial Park. Or the lad with all the gear and no idea, wearing the latest ASICS (me), fitting Powerbeats Pros into their ear (also me), and curating a running playlist that lines up every stomp on the road with the beat of the track (sort of me). Well, Spotify reckons it can help with that last part.
Launching today, Running Mode is a new feature that easily turns playlists into structured running sessions built around a runner's goals, tempo, and music taste. It’s like if Strava Premium came with your favourite DJ or Olivia Dean.
Australia is one of just seven launch markets, alongside the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, and Sweden, for premium users, launched within the app's Fitness Hub, with 25 curated presets and customisable workout types.
It’s another innovative way that Spotify is meeting its audience where they’re listening. I know I’m not alone with the running playlist; just hours before lacing up for my first marathon in Sydney, I was frantically curating a playlist to match my desired PB, awkwardly reaching for my phone to hit skip mid-stride to take me out of the run.
Simply select a preset, press play, and Spotify matches beats to your selected tempo, moving through tracks so the soundtrack feels continuous rather than shuffled together.
Running Mode also includes optional audio cues, offering pacing prompts and encouragement without talking over the music, much like the digital training partners you’ll find on running apps such as Strava and Runna, and even from the biggest footwear brands like Nike and ASICS.
Sitting alongside the Peloton classes and creator workout videos already on Spotify, the convenience of keeping everything in the app will certainly convert a lot of people to Spotify, but if you’re already a subscriber elsewhere, like many of us are, it might just be a nice-to-have, rather than make the difference at the start line.
For Australian runners, it's certainly a low-friction addition to a market already crowded with running tech. If you're already paying for Spotify Premium and running with your phone, Running Mode is already there, waiting in the Fitness Hub, doing the work of matching music to your pace so you can focus on the run itself.