Musical Motivation

Today's Workout: 5 mile run at 5K pace

So I know there's a lot of controversy about running with iPods, MP3 players, a stereo if that's what you want to run with for some strange reason, or anything else that plays music. Many races ban the use of them for safety reasons, and others highly discourage them but usually let you use them still. Personally, I've never been able to completely ween myself off of using my iPod unless its a big race with entertainment or cheering to keep me occupied (in which case I try to imagine everyone is cheering for me because I'm just so awesome or because I look so good while I'm running... even though my race photos beg to differ. Hello, one eye closed).

But I have been trying to stop relying so much on music to motivate me. I know the day will come when my little pink iPod nano dies in the middle of a run and I'll be like a little kid lost at the mall. Confused and totally lost. Possibly crying. Who knows? 

 Who wouldn't be sad if they couldn't use this cute little thing?

So I started unplugging my headphones for 1-2 minute intervals during my runs. This sounds like nothing but when you're used to depending on music those 1-2 minutes feel as if you were forced to watch C-Span for 4 hours straight. With no snacks. And no ability to pause.

So this process usually doesn't bother me at the beginning of my runs. But near the end it gets incredible difficult to run in silence. To distract myself from thinking about things like how much my legs hurt or how I wish I didn't wear two hair ties, sometimes I hum songs (can't escape the music.. don't judge, there's only so much actual important things I can think about at one time. Everyone has their limit). Problem is, I'm not such a great singer (ask anyone in my family) so trying to sing songs in my head usually is more torturous than anything else. I guess I'll have to come up with some strategies to help keep me entertained, or I suppose I'll get used to it if I keep trying with my interval system. What do you think about while running music-less?

I'm definitely going to keep using music though for most of my runs, but I want to be prepared for that dreadful, sad day when I don't have any music to keep me company. I certainly don't want to dive head first into that situation because it could be disaster. And I could be that little lost kid in the mall... crying in a corner somewhere with my dead iPod.

  

 Since I do use music more often than not, I definitely need to update my list quite often or I get very, very bored with the same songs on repeat. Here's a little taste of the current, totally random selection of songs on my running playlist:

Do you run with music?

If you do, what's on your playlist?