Week 8: Own music vs. podcast?

[roadrunner_86]

I got W8R1 under my belt this morning but decided to use my own music to run to. It appears that my music is slightly faster than the regular podcast music as I managed to run much further than I normally run. However, I was very tired by the end of it and now my calf muscles are really feeling it.

So I'm wondering whether it's better to keep listening to my own music for the rest of week 8 and try and get my body to adjust to that newer pace or not cheat on the podcasts and follow the programme properly so that I don't feel so tired at the end. Doing the latter would mean being much further away from the 5k goal.

I figure that I'll have to switch to my own music anyway by the end of week 9 (I imagine listening to the week 9 podcast repeatedly post-graduation would [slowly?] get on your nerves).

Does anyone have any experience with this already?

[barrygarlow Graduate]

Interesting to see how people view running with music. I am a massive music fan, and so I couldn't wait to reach the later weeks when you can listen to your own music and time the runs with a stopwatch.

However, the last few runs I have done without music and really enjoyed them (and got a PB each time!). I find it is nice to get some peace and it also allows you to focus on breathing and yoru surroundings.

I did the parkrun yesterday at Strathclyde (Glasgow) which is round the loch. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful run - I just think that with music blaring it wouldn't have been as enjoyable (and I surprise myself to say that!).

So I would say to try it with music and then without and see which you enjoy more. I probably will go back to listening to music sometimes, but always my choice!

Good luck with the last couple of weeks...

[roadrunner_86 Graduate in reply to barrygarlow]

Thanks, running without music isn't a bad idea actually and I may try that for one of the runs this week. My breathing is still all over the place and I need to work on that more so perhaps not having the music will help me do that.

[Tiger79 Graduate]

My I phone died when I was on my run yesterday and I couldn't bare to run with just the sound of my breathing! Really put me off lol

The first time round doing this podcasts I'd switched to my own music by week 8

[xxcazaxx]

To be honest I zone out to the music. I like listening to the podcasts to know exactly when to run and when to walk.