Running without music

During the summer, my friends and I crank up our workout routine and go up the high school to run the stadium stairs a few days a week.  I love running the stairs!  Especially the part where you stop and gasp for breath at the top!  And the spiritual experience of praying that you don’t die at the top and make the paramedics have to come up the 36 stairs to get you!  NOT!!!   But truthfully, even though it kills me, I love how I feel when I’m finished, so I do it anyway.

I always take my ipod with me, and I notice that I run faster when the music is faster, and I slow down to a crawl when the music is slow.  So, I’ve packed my ipod with work out songs that make me go faster.  I absolutely 100% count on the music to ease the pain of the workout. 

But today… my ipod was DEAD!  I got to the bottom of the stairs, turned it on, and there was absolute silence!  OMG!  I ran up the first time and thought, ’OK, I can do this.  I’ll just sing.’  But, how in the world do you sing when you can’t even catch your breath?  

I can honestly tell you that 36 stairs seem like 1000 when you count them.  And without music, I counted every step.  I found myself counting up to 36 the first time up and that was HORRIBLE.  So the next time, I counted up to 18 two times. Then I decided to count backwards to see if it was easier.  Then, I thought that I would just break it down into 3 sets of 12.  Then I was bored to tears and decided that I would count 10, 10, 8, 8.  OMG… I could not NOT count!   The more I tried not to count the stairs, the worse it became.  So… I moved over to the other side of the stadium with the stairs that are further apart.  THERE ARE 24 STAIRS THERE!  Yes, 2 sets of 12, 3 sets of 8, 4 sets of 6… UGGGHHH!!!!   

Needless to say, my workout today was one big boring mess of numbers!  I walked in the door and plugged in my ipod to charge before I even fixed a cup of coffee.  I used to run without music all the time. I loved having the time to think.   But as I’ve gotten older, I realized that when I run, all I think about is when it will be OVER!!!  So, I guess that my days of running without music are over too!   

Yes… my ipod is charging as we speak. And, while my physical workout today was boring, I officially gave myself a refresher math lesson on the many different combinations of numbers that add up to  24 and 36.  So, all in all, I had an educational experience instead of a good workout.   But, trust me… next time, my ipod will be working, because I’ve realized that if I want to work out my heart and my body, I can NOT allow my brain to have any input AT ALL!    Just saying…