Music: A Mental Bitch Slap

Yesterday, as I traveled to my favorite trail run location i.e. driving too fast and listening to my music too loud, I checked my iPod battery a little too far into my trip to turn around and charge it. A completely dead battery and instantly put out that I wouldn't have Audio Slave pushing my through my run, I ripped my arm band off and tossed my iPod into my trunk.

I set my watch and was off. Between humming a Madonna song I had been listening to in my car it's a quarter to two And I'm done I'm hanging up on you and thinking about the past week's events, I realized I was running a slightly slower pace than I run with my music. Namely the same trail that I pushed myself through in 27 minutes up hill and in intense heat, just this past Monday.

As I struggled up the same hill and in the same heat this time, I realized simply that my music listening is the "mental bitch slap" I need to get through these tough hill runs. I use to rely simply on my own mentality and started to scold myself for depending on music to distract me from my shin splints, loud breathing, and sweat stinging eyes, and then I thought, No! Music is so accessible and my iPod is so light, there is nothing wrong with listening to my music, making my trail runs more enjoyable therefore significantly more successful by relying on such technology.

Granted with anything, when you fail to charge the batteries or technology glitches as it does so often, you will have to grit your teeth and rely on older/more innovative options to get through whatever task it is technology would make more enjoyable or perceivably, more simple.

So, while I had to settle with walking about a half mile of trail to calm my burning lungs, I will still pleased with my end run time and congratulated myself that all my mental toughness isn't completely gone.

However, my iPod is charged, ready, and waiting for my run this evening. I plan on upping the pace tonight.