Lobby: The trouble with music during a run

This is all very interesting - I have a somewhat different take on it because of a genetic abnormality called microtia.  That means I have just one ear and a corresponding inability to hear where sounds come from very well.  Those of you who are two-eared may not realize how much you use both of them to help you figure out where a sound is coming from.

The one ear I do have works fine, but when I'm running or riding, I've never used an mp3 player or the like because I don't want to interfere with my already not-so-good ability to locate the source of a sound, especially if its coming from a Greyhound bus or something else lots bigger than me.

I joined a large marathon training team a couple of years ago and most of the coaches were death on mp3 players from the safety angle.  They also wanted us to be able to talk to our teammates and get acquainted.  That really helped me get through the longest runs.  If I had been training on my own, I would have gotten pretty bored on some of those 15 mile plus outings, no doubt.

But still, no mp3 player for me.  I can't get those earplug thingys to stay in very well either, and of course, I've got an extra one that I don't know what to do with.

All,

 I am a huge fan of the ipod and my performance suffers tremendously without my shuffle or nano.  The key to making my music truly "work" for me is to spend quality time creating playlists(thank you iTunes), a variety of them, to compliment my choice of run for the day. I use the map my run site to create and name my runs and then plan my music with a warm-up, tempo and cool down and time the playlist according to my performance ability on my courses.  For a marathon I also use music (yes the entire time!).  Having completed several I know where my physical and emotional pick-me-up areas are and also plan my music well ahead of time and train with the playlist to make sure it works for me.  I run approx. 30 seconds per mile faster when I have my music and don't feel distracted by the patting of my feet or my breathing.

 Music is a huge part of my life and I enjoy a very eclectic variety, I use music to clean my house to enjoy leisure time out by our pool or for long commutes in my car just as a few examples.  The emotional tie to music is proven in study after study.

Talk radi works for me. Particularly NPR as they ussually speak softly and have soothing background music.

For those of you that have ear peices falling out of your ears, a small peice of gauzy type medical tape across the earbud works well to hold them in. It is also waterproof so your sweat shouldn't cause problems.

Jeff

Howdy all,

      Great discussion.  Congrats on the t-shirt Yoda9864.

      I have two main concerns with running to music.  

1. Safety.  Running on roads?  You really have to keep your head on a swivel, (not an easy thing to do when you're hurtin') traffic and/or shady characters ARE out to get you.  Trails?  Nature can beat you down in more ways than I care to get into.
2. Hearing loss.  I don't have any studies or articles to back me here, but it seems like it would be common sense.

     Those two points aside, I haven't run without music in years (aside from the odd race).  I haven't had a problem with motivation since.  Any issues I had prior about staying in tune with my run have been negated with that fact.  I don't use the music for pacing.  The music stays in the background, I use it purely for attitude (only metal on my pod).  The aggressiveness gets me out the door day after day and helps me turn around at the bottom of each flight of stairs.  My mp3 is my training partner whose only job is to motivate me.

               See you at the pub.    

-Dan

p.s.  Finding the right earpiece is tough.

Hello. I can relate to your problems of running with music. I am very much into the beat of music when I run and found it hard to run to different songs on my Ipod. I looked on Itunes for something to run to that would "help" me keep up a regular pace. I downloaded Podrunner. It is all techno music categorized by BPM.  About 175 BPM is a 10 minute mile.  I ran a relay last year with one that was 181 BPM and actually took 3 minutes time off my training time.  Try it...it's free on ITunes.

Ginny

Wow!  I read all of your posts and I'm amazed at all the different points of view! I guess there are a lot more than just with or without music.

 A quick update on my situation: Since I originally started this thread, I have purchased a treadmill and it has changed the way I run quite a bit.  

 The problem I had before was that I was the one that had to set my pace.  But with the steady pace set by a treadmill, I found that I could listen to any type of music I wanted.  I'm loving it!  I now cannot go running (on the treadmill) without music.  It's funny how that happened.  

 I think, however, that I'll be going back to no music once I start running outside again.  And I'm sad that that will probably be the case since I've gotten so used to it.  The snow is finally starting to melt here in Wisconsin, so I should be able to get outside again in a week or two.  We'll see when that time comes.

 I'm very intrigued by the Podrunner that some of you mentioned. I will definitely go check that out.

 Thank you all for your input!

I do both: run with and w/o MP3 player.

 with: in the gym to get pumped for long intervals, to listen to Steve Runner on the occassional long run on a rainy day, but mostly to overshadow the ambient noise in the gym of turning treadmills, grunts and the conversations between walkers/runners across four treadmills

without: outdoors always for safety and the beauty of nature

PLUS: best training for races - once raceday is around it's all guts and adrenaline no more Ipods (thanks to USATF for the recent crack down on mp3 players during races- keep it up!)

Hey there! I''ve been running consistently for only a year now and i've come to find my mp3 is a must have. I had the same issues as you did, i.e. beat of the song messing up your pace. I did some research online and found a beat per minute (BPM) counter and started counting beats per minute to songs i listened to while running that seemed to match my pace one i got into the run. Once i figured out what my average bpm was I started a playlist for running by looking at an online bpm catalogue and finding out which songs were around my personal bpm. I started off slower then gradually raised the bpm til I got to my confort zone. I added a few faster ones at the end to polish it off. That's been working great for me so I highly suggest that. Hope it helps!