What do you do when it’s raining/cold/hot/(insert your least favorite weather condition) and you still need to go for your run?
Here are two quick and easy steps to get you out the door:
Step One – Find music that moves you. If you don’t run with music, that’s ok! Play your songs to help motivate you to get dressed and ready for your run.
The book, “Healing at the Speed of Sound: How What We Hear Transforms Our Brains and Lives,” by Don Campbell, points out that music can even cause people to workout harder. The speed of the music made a difference too. In the study, faster correlated with a more intense workout, even if the song was the same and just played at a faster tempo.
Scott Jurek in his book,”Eat and Run,” talks about music adding to endurance as it has the ability to ease pain equivalent to taking an extra-strength Tylenol.
Yesterday my go-to song was, “Numb,” by Usher. As the first lyrics started… “They say life is a battlefield, I say bring it on…” I ran out into the rain as if I had a built-in shield.
Today in drizzly conditions with strong winds I wove in, “Top of the World,” by the Imagine Dragons. More than the song, it reminded me of awaking to a sunny day in Phoenix, when I simply felt alive. I put myself there, and the mood remained for the duration.
This past weekend, I ran in the cold listening to hot salsa music, picturing myself in one of my favorite places, Miami!
Even for household tasks that may not be the most enjoyable, putting on motivating tunes can help the time pass faster. Campbell’s book also suggests using music you enjoy to help you wake up and start your day each morning.
Step two – Head out the door without overthinking it. There’s a saying that if you spent the same amount of time exercising as you did deciding if you were going to workout, you’d be done already.
“Don’t think just do,” is totally appropriate here. If you are healthy and uninjured, clear your mind, or focus on the song that is playing, and take off. I once read an elite athlete who said when they don’t feel like running, they tell themselves they will go 1 Km (just over half a mile). If at that point they want to go back home, then they will. 99.9% of the time though, you’ll just keep on truckin…
Does music give you energy? What else do you use for motivation ?
