When I first started running a couple of years ago, I thought I needed music to do so. I bought a cheap MP3 player, uploaded Katy Perry, and away I went. Nothing gets me running like "Hot & Cold."
Along the way I uploaded hundreds of songs from old CDs and so forth. For a year or so I ran with music all the time. But by the time I added a "music?" yes/no to my 2010 running spreadsheet (do you keep a spreadsheet of your runs/times/weather conditions, or am I the only one who's that obsessive?) I had stopped listening most of the time.
Why? I don't remember. I think I forgot the MP3 one time, or it had a dead battery, or something. And once I was out of the habit, I guess I found I enjoyed running in silence. Looking over my 2011 spreadsheet, I realize I haven't run WITH music since June.
I was thinking of this today whilst running on the trail, because it was pretty quiet, except when I crossed the Beltway or I-66. It reminded me how quiet yesterday was on the trail at 6:45, and how loud it was in D.C. at 7:45. There's plenty of noise in the city without adding any of my own.
In any event, even when I do run with music, I only wear a headphone in one ear. I like to have the other ear clear to hear traffic, cyclists (those that bother to warn they're coming up behind me) and so forth. I'm going to do a short run on Sunday. Maybe I'll wear the MP3 player just to see how doing so changes my approach.
I've had mixed experiences on this. As I'll discuss later, running does not come naturally to me - my mind tends to torment me on longer runs, tries to tempt me to stop early. So, I find I need to listen to something mostly to distract me from thinking about running.
ReplyDeleteI started out with music, but as I trained for the marathon I found that music tended to accelerate my pace, leaving me hurting toward the end of my long runs. As I worked toward the longest runs I switched to podcasts for the early parts of the run and music late. Turns out Car Talk and This American Life could keep me distracted from thinking about how I felt for 2-3 hours, and then music could lift my mood for a while. Still, even then, I'd often just crave silence after a while.
Music was very important to me on my marathon race day, but I'll get into that later...