Playlists and Running

When my blog started to showcase more about running, I started to come up with a lot of ideas and themes that I could share under the sun. I came out with Tuesday Playlists and I was hoping to do a weekly article on the music that I listen to for my runs. So what ever happened to this? Well, I basically stopped listening to music while running. It’s not that I don’t enjoy listening to music anymore. It’s just that I’ve keep purchasing new headsets each year or even less than that. So for the past few months I’ve been doing my walks and runs without music.

But that has not stopped me from listening to music. I have several playlists that keeps changing. But for my runs, I divide me playlists to the following. One, I have what I call my TEMPO Playlist. Songs that are included in this list naturally are the upbeat type and usually are the techno disco variety that has a steady pace and rhythm into it. Two, I have what I call REFLECT Playlist. These are songs that usually make me think about life. Three, I have a WORSHIP Playlist where the bulk of my praise and worship music is in. Four, I have my RACE Playlist. This particular playlist changes depending on the distance of the race event that I am joining and also the very name of the event is included as part of the Playlist. For instance, the recent MILO Marathon is called MILORace. I wonder how other runners categorize their music? These four are my basic playlists. Sometimes I have about ten different playlists. Other times I just have two or three.

Living alone has afforded me having a routine of waking up to listening to music, listening to music to end the day and listening to music all day long whenever I decide to work from the house. So what is it about playlists and running? Is it even important to have a playlist or just plug in those earphones and let the music play randomly? For me, developing a playlist helps me to put me “in the zone” of my training runs and long runs. There are just songs that makes one run faster and there are songs that just keeps one running at a steady pace. There are songs that makes one stand still and just listen to it. While there are songs that no matter where you are on the road you just want to make time stand still and cry. Just writing about this makes me miss listening to music while I run.

So for those listening to music on runs, make your playlists meaningful to you. Music ought to make you connect to the world and not just something to uplift your soul. May it liven your pace while you pound the roads one foot at a time, one leg at a time. But most of all, keep safe and keep the volumes down enough for you to hear the honking of vehicles. I would not want you to end up as a road kill. There’s just too many incidents involving people not noticing their surroundings simply by listening to their MP3s volume jacked up all the way up burning their ear drums. Control the playlist and the music in your mind and make it work for you and your runs.