Ask 10 trail runners whether they run with music and you’ll get 10 different answers.
Ask them why, and you’ll get 10 different philosophies about what running is actually for. Motivation. Meditation. Both. Neither. The honest answer, as with most things in trail running, is that it depends.
Here’s what the research says, what the trail teaches you, and what a few people here at KEEN actually do.
There’s real science behind the feeling that a good song makes a hard run easier. Music can reduce perceived effort, improve mood, and help you maintain a steadier pace – particularly on long, monotonous stretches where your brain starts doing math about how far you still have to go.
For some runners, music is less about performance and more about access. It’s the thing that gets them out the door.
“I NEED music. I have different playlists depending on my mood – EDM, classic rock, 2000s hip hop,” says Kelsey, KEEN product development. She deliberately opts for cheap Bluetooth headphones, a practical choice for someone who doesn’t trust herself with expensive wireless ones. Sometimes, the best gear is the stuff you don’t have to worry about losing.
Bex, KEEN supply chain, takes a more context-specific approach. She only listens when she’s running roads. “Road running is boring!,” she says, laughing. After trying four different pairs of earbuds over six years, she finally invested in Bose Ultra Open Earbuds and considers the search over. She almost always wears just one, a habit she picked up for safety that stuck even when safety isn’t the concern.
Open-ear headphones have changed the calculation for a lot of runners, including some who resisted music for years. Ginny, from the KEEN creative team, ran without it for a long time before a colleague showed her his open-ear pair. She picked up a set of JLab Flex Open earbuds and was surprised by how much she liked them.
“It’s like background music, and you can still hear everything around you," she says. Even so, she draws a line at the trailhead. On trails, she still goes without, preferring to take in the sounds around her.
If you do run with music and want a starting point, KEEN’s own KEEN2Run playlist has 16 hours of trail-worthy tracks, ranging from Yugo rock to shoegaze, built to move like the trails themselves.
Trail running has a way of making music feel beside the point. When the terrain is technical, your attention belongs to your feet. When the views are worth stopping for, headphones can feel like a barrier between you and the reason you came out here.
“Running is my time to unplug, feel into my body, and become absorbed in the world around me,” says George, KEEN trail running. For him, the trail is the content. Music is something he saves for recovery, not the run itself.
Mindy in KEEN Communications has run eight marathons and nine 50K ultras, and her approach has evolved into something more relaxed than a firm rule. She enjoys running both with and without music. These days, if she wants something to listen to, she plays it quietly from the speaker in her vest pocket rather than wearing headphones. It’s a small distinction, but meaningful, and lets her stay aware of her surroundings while still getting a little company on the move.
Lindsey, who works on our IT team, skips music for a different reason: it tends to land off-beat with her cadence, and that bothers her more than silence does. She listens to podcasts instead when she wants audio company, using Anker Sport X20 earbuds specifically because they have physical buttons. Turns out touch controls and running gloves – or sweaty hands – are not friends.
One pattern that shows up across the board is that music preferences often shift with the terrain. Road running, with its predictable surface and ambient noise, can feel like a time where music is more in its place. Trails, though, demand more attention, reward more presence, and offer more of their own soundtrack.
Several KEENers here use music situationally, rather than as a fixed habit: roads yes, trails maybe not, long solo efforts differently than short ones, mornings differently than afternoons. There’s no wrong answer, just different tradeoffs. Your run, your tunes. Or not.
Run with music if it gets you out the door, keeps you going, or simply makes the miles more enjoyable. Run without it if the trail itself is what you’re out there for, or if you want to stay sharp on technical terrain. Sometimes, it just depends on the day.
And if you’re curious about open-ear headphones, they’ve made the choice a little easier for more than a few people here. They might be worth taking for a spin before you write off music entirely on the trail.
