Friday, November 12, 2010

Music: Adding to the running experience or taking away


A "sponsor" recent gave me the new 16G nano by Apple. Without sounding like a commercial for Mr. Jobs, because we all know the last thing he needs is an endorsement by a runner in Bluffton, SC... This thing ROCKS!!! Imagine your iPhone or iTouch scaled down to just over 1 sq inch, add your favorite tunes and with less than a few ounces you are jamming down the road!
The question is always out there: Does running with music add to your running experience or does it take something away? As much as I love my new toy, I've always been mixed about running with music. I never race with it, but love cranking out some hard fast miles with Green Day, Eninem and even Neil Diamond pushing me faster and faster. I started thinking about this again during my morning run today. It was dark, cold, foggy and very little traffic. The sky looked like a light-brite without a single cloud. It was a beautiful run. But would I have appreciated my surroundings more if Bruno Mars wasn't serenading me to "Just the Way You Are" or does that add to the experience?
I decided to go tuneless on my out and back run just to mix it up. At the end of the run, the only difference I saw was that my ears were much colder without my headphone plugged into them! I think there are times and places to run with music and there are others when you just want to unplug, listen to your surroundings and just run. Wearing headphones and being pushed by music has gotten me through some long runs recently and I truly few the music selections I am listening to at this point only add to the memories of these runs. I can not hear "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, without thinking about training and traveling to the Big Sur marathon in 2007!
My advice, mix it up... lose the tunes on group runs, add it in on solo runs but at the same time get out there occasionally and just listen to your body, listen to your breathing listen to nature!!
What is currently on my "Running" play list: (in ABC order)
Ain't No Rest for the Wicked, Cage the Elephant
American Idiot, Green Day
Animal, Neon Trees
Bicycle Race, Queen
Boom Boom Pow, Black Eyed Peas
Born to Run, Bruce Sprinsteen
Bottoms Up, Trey Songz
Break Your Heart, Taio Cruz
Bust a Move, Young MC
Club Can't Handle Me, Flo Rida
Crazy Train, Ozzy Osbourne
The Distance, Cake
DJ Got Us Falling in Love, Usher
Dynamite, Taio Cruz
F**k You, Cee Lo Green
Free Fallin, Tom Petty
Handlebars, Flobots
Im Gonna Be, The proclaimers
I Gotta Feeling, Black Eyed Peas
I Like it, Enrique Iglesias
If Your Wondering If I Want You Too, Weezer
Just the Way You Are, Bruno Mars
Ladies & Gentlemen, Saliva
Like a G6, Far East Movement
Live Like We're Dying, Kris Allen
Meet Me Halfway, Black Eyed Peas
Mr. Jones, Counting Crows
No Rain, Blind Melon
Not Afraid, Eminem
The Race is On, Sawyer Brown
Shake, Jesse McCartney
Stop and Stare, One Republic
Sweet Caroline, Neil Diamond
Sweet Tea, Cravin' Melon
Walk this Way, Run DMC
We No Speak Americano, Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup
When I Come Around, Green Day
You Learn, Alanis Morissette
I'd love to hear what your current "power song" is and why!!!

3 comments:

  1. I have always liked running with music because it takes my mind off of it. One of the reasons military units sing cadence while running is to keep soldiers' mind off of the running. The music helps me free my mind to think about other things as I run. This is a personal thing I am sure. Each side will have their own opinions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I saw one of the new ipods in Target a few days ago, and darn, that's a sweet little unit! I seem to devour ipods to the tune of about 2 per year, so I am on the hook for the new nano -

    I also run my ultra's in the Ascend's...my favorite trail shoe to date...

    Great blog; catching up on the previous posts -

    ReplyDelete