To make my playlist I just took the fast-paced songs by my favorite artists and put them on a playlist. I then put the playlist on random and just go. I like any song with a quick pace; strong instrumentals are especially good. I mainly listen to rock, but some hiphop is good as is some dance music. I, personally, wouldn't use an app. It's not because it's not a great idea but my Droid is way too heavy to run with and I greatly prefer my iPod Nano.

1. I've tried pre-configuring my playlist, playing random songs, and playing full albums. My only criteria is that the songs have a beat that easily fits with my pacing. When I ran my first HM, I preconfigured my playlist to start with some slower ambient music since I knew that the first few miles would be slow anyway, then I just gradually built up the music based on bpm for the remainder of the race. Although, having done this 3 times already, pacing doesn't correlate as well with bpm over longer distances, which kind of make sense.

2. I typically stick with songs that have progressive beats. Cadence.FM has recently been pretty useful for this.

3. Sure! I'd try out your app! I haven't found one yet that integrates well with the Nike+ app (certain OS limitations as well) - so I'm looking forward to checking out yours

Cheers,

Jacklyn