serenity

One day, I sent my dad a picture from my phone of me waving. This kind of picture sending was a common occurrence when I was living in London, since I couldn't actually wave to people from home in person. His response: "are your headphones surgically attached to your head?"

I listen to music whenever I can. Even if I'm just walking around the corner, I typically have my headphones in. I may even dance a little. I definitely dance a little. Without my music, I feel lost.

Today, I ran without music.

pause for effect

The Rockville 5k, which I'm running in just over 2 weeks, has a no-headphone policy (apparently this is an increasingly common rule). I decided that if I want to get a good feel for how running will be at the race, I should probably go for runs without my music. So today, I laced up and headed out the door while my iPod shuffle silently cried in my room because it missed me. The verdict? It actually wasn't so bad. I found that just watching the cars pass me and looking around at my surroundings kept me pretty occupied. That and the music playing in my head did a pretty good job of keeping me going. I think I'm going to continue running without music until race day to see how I do. Today I didn't do much actual running (just over 15 of the 52 minutes I was out) since it was my first run in 2 weeks, so we'll see what happens when I increase the actual running time.

Also, be on the lookout for a picture of my Nike+ watch on the sides of your milk cartons. Not only did I not have music, but I actually had to manually keep track of my distance. WTF, mate? Here's hoping the thing turns up in my stuff. Somewhere, some way, somehow.