Musical Motivation For Running

I'm not sure how I feel about listening to music when running.  I've seen people in races listening to music but it always surprises me.  In a group like that, I think the music would distract me more than help.  Even when I'm on the treadmill, I sometimes listen to music but other times I prefer to watch TV and other times I just run.

I usually don't take my music with me for outdoor runs.  When I used to run on the track, I started using it every now and then just to break up the boredom of those short circles.  Still,the benefit of being outside is all the sights and sounds and I find music just gets in the way.

Lately though my motivation has been lacking so this morning when I headed to the park, I decided to take my music with me.  My plan was just to run and not focus on my time or distance and thought the music would distract me from my watch.  Surprisingly, even though it was 8:30 on a Saturday morning and only 72 degrees when I got there, I was all alone.  There wasn't even anyone at the playground.  So I put my ear buds in and started my purposely slow run.

I felt really good even when I reached the 2 mile mark.  My lap times were consistent and a little slower than usual which is what I was going for.  At around 2.5 miles I started to get a little tired and I was thinking it was really starting to warm up but I still felt good (by the way, it wasn't warming up - it was still only 74 when I got to my car!).  Usually when I turn the corner and can see the 5K point, I sprint.  This time I chose to keep running steady and see how far I could go.  I did look down to see my 5K time though.  It was 36:43 which isn't too much slower than usual.

I decided at this point to run to my car which is about 1/3 mile away.  When I got there, I thought I should really run to the point where I started running to make it an even 5 laps.  Then I thought, I should run to the next corner, but then I was almost to the shade.  You get the picture.  I just kept moving the finish line down the road until I realized I was about to reach the 4 mile mark.  Hurray!  At that point I decided to drop to a walk but I finished the lap to get in 4.67 miles total in almost exactly 1 hour.

When I was about 3 minutes from my car, I came to the end of my music.  Who knows why I originally put almost an hour of music on my playlist when at the time I was only doing 30 minute workouts but I'm glad I did.  The music kept playing and that kept me going.