Show me someone who has run a long distance with an iPod full of cheap Top 40s hits, and I ll show you someone ready for the loony bin. The internal battle that a runner must win to complete marathon training, for example, requires more than just simple carb music. It requires sustenance for the mind and the soul, meat and potatoes and fiber. Composers we think of as classical not only invented high energy music, but they continue to take it to higher levels of subtlety and refinement.

And because it has built-in highs and lows, it allows you to pace yourself. In honor of this weekend s Waddell Reed Kansas City Marathon, we ve compiled some classical zingers to take your mind off the pain and help you get past the Wall. (While it is against the rules to wear hearing-obstructive devices on the course of Saturday s race, this list is meant for those inspired to start training for next year.) All of these pieces are available on iTunes.

But before you start downloading, ponder this: Based on what scientists are learning about music s ability to stimulate human physiology in an almost druglike manner does working out with an iPod amount to musical doping? Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians. The greatest minimalist composition of all time is an hourlong fabric of pulsating, bubbling forward motion. What better metaphor? Beethoven: Appassionata Sonata, solo piano, Op. 57.

Beethoven is at his most explosively energetic in the opening movement, gives you a rest in the middle section and then sprints to the finish line. Runners with heart conditions, beware of this one. Johann Strauss Jr.: Blue Danube Waltz. Remember the graceful, floating outer-space sequence in 2001 ? Director Kubrick chose well: This waltz is the epitome of buoyancy. If it doesn t make you work harder it might at least help you zone out. Prokofiev: Montagues and Capulets from Romeo and Juliet.