Running in Silence

Since my debacle with itunes and ipod revolts back in September, I have been going on my runs without music. I had thought that I somehow wouldn’t be able to run without music. I use it for inspiration and motivation. How can I run without that? Well, I did. For a little over 2 months I ran in silence. All I heard was my own breathing and footsteps. And of course the voice in my head yelling motivational speeches to keep me going. Yep, that’s right folks. I yelled at myself. Thankfully not out loud. And I will admit that punctuating swear words in there helped. Somehow it is more stimulating when I say, “You can climb that fucking mountain” as opposed to “keep going”.

I have had my new ipod nano for over a month now, but I hadn’t fixed my music problem. For some reason I was taking my sweet ass time doing it. I realized several times that I was missing listening to my music. I wanted to put the earbuds in and zone out. For some reason that didn’t motivate me to fix the problem. Anyway, I think I have finally fixed said problem. I have been listening to music on the new nano and on the laptop and haven’t yet heard the old problem rear its ugly head.

So I have now begun rebuilding my playlists and making new ones. First one I rebuilt was the one I used for running. The past week and this current week I have been listening on the runs. It’s nice. That voice in my head is much quieter now. She was getting annoying and quite the potty mouth! Someone should wash her mouth out with soap or something.

I have also been frustrated in that I have most likely plateaued because I have been loosing and gaining the same 1 pound for months! So I decided last week that I would extend the run to about 3 miles. I was doing 2.4 on a regular basis, and it wasn’t a big challenge. So, on the first day of the extended route... I should have kept it short. During the run I had almost burped up my breakfast of cherrios twice. Then when it was time to make the new turn to extend the run I had the feeling that I was going to need a bathroom soon. At the .4 mile to go, I REALLY needed to go... like NOW. My lungs were burning and I was squeezing those cheeks so hard it hurt. I ran all the way home, untied the house key from my shorts, up to the front door, and made it to the toilet just in time. Oh my, that was close. I was shaking.

So after vacating my bowels, I sat there for awhile on the toilet, drenched in sweat and beet red and realized I had just run 3 miles, and survived. I hadn’t done that before... ever. I was quite proud. Yes, I was sitting on a toilet being proud of myself! I’ll take whatever moment there is, no matter how embarrassing.

I’ll leave you with that image. And this will tie into the next post about my one regret about High School. (running, not vacating my bowels!) You’re disgusting!