Music, muscle and mentality

[farranccc]

I have been getting into the running and tonight did w6r2 which, after doing 20 mins last Friday, thought was going to be a gentle stroll in the proverbial park.

Oh how wrong I was!!!

Within the first 5 mins I knew I was going to struggle as the muscles around the bottom of my legs began hurting...a lot!

Assessing what was going wrong I realised that I was listening to a random playlist as opposed to my running music that I have selected to keep in pace too which is incredibly helpful (try it if you haven’t already).

Secondly, I had a crazy busy 13 hour day at work and in the back of my mind it felt like I could use that as an excuse for not completing the run if I failed - mentality!

So once I had sorted my music and mentality I just had to relax a bit, find my pace and rhythm which in turn loosened up my leg muscles.

Now, by no stretch of the imagination was the next 15 mins of running easy but I completed it and learnt a few lessons along the way!

Wishing you all huge success and much respect to those of you who are making such a positive difference to your health - both physical and mental - by doing this running malarkey!

[Bluep Graduate]

What music do you have, out of interest? I tend to listen to music at the slower end of my scale.

[farranccc in reply to Bluep]

Blurry by Puddle of Mud is my PERFECT running song. Consistent tempo, good melody, starts relatively quiet and builds throughout. Listen to it on repeat sometimes for the duration of the run!

What about your favourite, Bluep? And everyone else?

[Bluep Graduate in reply to farranccc]

I usually like rock but, in an effort to make sure that I don't go too fast, I have been trying to listen to songs with a slower tempo.

Playlist includes Rolling Stones and slower Aerosmith songs. Also a bit of Bowie

[farranccc in reply to Bluep]

Sounds good to me, I’ll try some of these out - and definitely some iron maiden! Rock on runners!

[StewieNorts in reply to Bluep]

I listen to Iron maiden they have quite regular uptempo beats and the songs are powerful, also a lot of the songs are long I did a 28 minute run the other day and it was only 3 songs.. psychologically this helps me.

[AgingMetalHead Graduate in reply to StewieNorts]

That's why I listened to a lot of prog during those first long runs! Didn't get to the end of one song 😂😂. Back to metal now though.

[StewieNorts in reply to AgingMetalHead]

👌🤘

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Great job, it would have been so easy to stop, you’ll run far.

[Bandit14 Graduate]

Well done wk 6 is definitely a case of mind over matter so to speak. But it's also the last wk of stop n walk - you can run free from next wk😊

[mrrun Graduate]

That’s all fine, things like that happen and will happen. No run is the same, don’t compare, you’re not a hard driven pro. I had to switch off music because of mental fatigue at times. Muscles will go stiff because (unlike the the Olympians) we use them differently, so please don’t stress. Do your own thing, your body is your boss, stop if you have to (why not, you call the shots), and most importantly, enjoy yourself. You can do this thing in your own way!

[SANDI_runs Graduate]

Well done for completing your run, you've got this!

[Ibex Graduate]

So helpful to me - thanks for sharing

[Languid_Lil Graduate]

Have downloaded song - thanks!

[Languid_Lil Graduate in reply to Languid_Lil]

Listened to it while running - great! Can also recommend Fake ID (Riton ft Kah-Lo) & Summer of '69 (Bryan Adams) and So Weit Wie Noch Nie (Jürgen Paape).