Why do I run with music? It’s fun. I run faster. And I can’t hear my laboured breathing. All good. Also, since I share a house with other people I don’t get that many chances to listen to loud music.
But there are a few issues.
First, there’s the contrast between the music I like and the music that makes me run faster. I like cheesy pop anthems, feel good tunes of all sorts.
But I read an article about music that makes you faster and gave it a try. Sadly it worked. But it didn’t make smile so I’m back to the dance tunes.
See 10 Songs Guaranteed to Help You R un Faster, 10 Songs That Are Scientifically Proven to Amp Up Your Workout, This Music May Help You Run Faster
Second, I’ve been running for years with an old iPod. It’s tiny. I hate iTunes but I tried it for awhile and loaded my iPod with running tunes. Rain, sun, sleet, or snow it’s been me and my little iPod. Until I left it in a hotel in Halifax. They said they had it. They offered to mail it to me. But no iPod appeared.
I’m not going to buy a new iPod. I tried running with my phone but I was unimpressed. I love love love Spotify for running but I hate running with my phone.
What’s a girl to do? David pointed out this device profiled here, Listen to Spotify without a phone using this tiny device.
It’s kickstarter campaign is here.
They outline the arguments for not running with a phone even if you love Spotify pretty well. Here goes:
“Every current option for streaming Spotify music on-the-go requires a smartphone. That makes no sense to us. Smartphones are heavy, hard to carry during exercise, have a short battery life, come with expensive data plans, and have fragile and expensive screens. Studies have shown that 24% of iPhone users have a cracked screen, many of which undoubtedly were broken during exercise. In addition, 25% of all smartphone owners in the US incur data overage charges and streaming music is the number one culprit. To make it even worse, streaming services are documented as the most battery hungry apps in the world and can quickly drain your battery in just a few hours. Save your smartphone data, memory, battery, and screens – Mighty is the solution. (Sources: 1, 2)
The iPod Shuffle is an alternative that provides a comfortable music+fitness experience, but it can’t play any streaming music (streaming music services do not work with the iPod Shuffle or Nano). Mighty is the first device ever to play Spotify music on-the-go without any need for a smartphone.”
So I kicked in to their kick starter campaign and I’m hoping the mighty solves my woes.
Oh, for those of you who think running with music is an abomination and that I need to listen to the world around me, to nature, to my own breathing, you can feel better that I don’t always run with music. When I’m running on trails, in the woods, I leave music at home. Ditto when I’m running with dogs.
And for those of you who don’t think running with music is an abomination, what sort of tunes do you like? How do you listen to them? Spotify on your phone, iTunes on an iPod, or something else altogether?
I run with an iPod shuffle, have been for about 8 years, and I love it! The music does get repetitive but all I really need is a fun beat and some lyrics to distract me/keep me company while I’m running. If I go for a walk or something, I usually take a larger device that I can listen to podcasts on. If it’s dark or there are many people around, I do try to be aware of my surroundings, but I would never go running if it weren’t for music!
That device seems no different from the Ipod nano or whatever its called. The one that clips on and is tiny. But I guess it doesn’t merge with spotify (there must be an app that lets you import from spotify to itunes for syncing). For those of us who are already owned by itunes (guilty as charged), the smaller ipod makes as much sense. I agree that running with a phone isn’t ideal. As for running music, I am so bad at updating my playlist that I have had the same one for over a year and I’m not even into all of the songs. And I’m sure they’re not “recommended” tunes. One song that will never make its way onto any of my playlists is “Eye of the Tiger.” I’ve always hated that song. One that is on every playlist: “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky. It works every time. I also like “Happy” and a song called “In Your Hands” by Charlie Winston. It makes me run faster and when I cared about running faster I updated my playlist so “In Your Hands” would come on periodically, not just once.
Yeah, no. It works with Spotify which the i-things don’t. What’s nice about Spotify is though it’s a streaming device so you don’t own the music you can download playlists and listen offline. Also there are a lot of fun playlists and you can listen to friends’ music etc.
I’m not big into spotify or phones but I love to listen to music while I run. I have a sansa mp3 player and am about to upgrade to the sansa sport clip plus. They are small and easy to use. When I started running again a few years ago I put a bunch of songs I already had on it and I bought myself one mp3 for every run I finished as a reward to help motivate myself. Now I have about 200 songs on my running list and I add to or delete from it when I feel like it.
I can totally relate to this. If I’m not running with friends I must have my nano and have set up playlists based on different run lengths. Sometimes the only thing that gets me across the finish line is my favourite song!
I go between running with music, running with podcasts and just running without anything at all. It helps me during a long long run to have a story or narrative, but whenever I need to crank up the pace I run without headphones- it’s great not to have to worry about anything else!