Today was W4R1, and to take my mind out of these scary 5 minutes I invested in sport earbuds and ran to music for the first time.
It did help.The weather was nice, the Alps were visible in the distance, and the first three minutes were all right - I told myself I'd done that six times already last week. Then the Robotic American Lady (an apparently poor substitute to your Laura) said "Begin running for 5 minutes", and I did. I tried to forget about my legs, to focus on the music and on my breathing (which sounded much louder with earbuds in than it did without them, weird), and the 5 minutes were over before I knew it. Great, I thought. I can do this. "You're halfway", RAL piped in almost cheerfully. I turned round and went for three minutes again. It felt good. Soft, bouncy wood path, fresh morning air, the rich scent of the forest, music. Then my left earbud slipped out slightly, I pushed it back in and hit a button in the process. Silence. I was beginning my next 5 minutes and tried very hard to remember the user's guide: what the heck was this button for ? No idea. I pushed the others randomly, not wanting to stop. No result. Ok, I thought. I'll finish that with just my breathing for company. We're used to each other now. And I ran on, and on, and on, until I began getting out of the forest and passing houses and coming really close to home, and telling myself that even running, covering that bit of road should take me more than five minutes. Then I realised that if I couldn't hear my music, I probably couldn't hear RAL either. I dug the phone out, and yes, of course, I was halfway through cool down.
Duh.