In almost all races I’ve joined this year, I saw a great deal of runners listen to their ipods and music players while running. While I understand that they probably don’t want to get bored during the run, I also spoke with some people and told me convincingly that listening to music does improve their performance by helping them defocus on pains they feel during the race.
I personally can not verify this as almost all my races, I ran without music player. Although I did try to carry one during my first 21k race , I removed it only after three kilometers because adjusting the wire from time to time was such a distraction and having no playlist during that time, I found myself switching to different songs most of the time, hence I decided to run the rest of the distance without one.
After doing some research on the internet, here’s my conclusion:
Newbie runners like me MIGHT benefit from listening to music, helping you keep a good pace and takes your mind off some of the things that can slow you down. Just a warning for my readers, as most road races here in Philippines are being conducted on the same road where jeepneys are travelling, you may have to listen with just one ear or keep the volume very low so that you can still hear cars,jeepneys,motors etc coming your way.
However as you gain more experience and wanting to “level-up” your performance, its better to focus, concentrate better on your running form and listen to your body sans the music. That’s probably the reason why you never see elite runners or those who always bag the podium finish carrying music players during their races. Additionally, I personally believe that true motivation should come from within us. It’s much better to be comfortable with ourselves with no music and learn what really works. Also I do enjoy talking and listening to other runners during the race itself, plugging in my earpiece seems to take away the joy of communicating with people sharing the same passion as yours.
As I do not consider myself yet “experienced” I might bring my player this coming Sunday for Earth Run to help me improve my terrible pace. My plan is to play all Maroon 5 songs (minus one song that has a line “…is there anyone out there coz its getting HARDER AND HARDER TO BREATHE) to jack up my pace, followed by slow comfy music for my recovery then back to Maroon 5 songs again!
Do you listen to music when you run? Does it have any effect on your performance? I would like to know.
