In the beginning of October, I started walking every day. I decided that this was time to tackle my issues for once and all. I spent the first month walking while listening to a book on tape. I listened to several books and I felt that the book was keeping my attention focused elsewhere and helping me exercise. For the month of October, I averaged 15 minutes per mile. That’s not so bad for someone who hasn’t exercised a day in the last five years. (Actually, probably longer than that.)
This past Saturday, the book I was listening to was really boring so I decided to put some music on my iPod instead. I wasn’t sure if this would keep my attention in the same way but I didn’t want to waste time thinking about it so I put some of the loudest songs I had on my computer on the ipod and I got down to the business of exercising.
And let me tell you…..music makes a BIG difference.
While the book might be more interesting, the music is definitely more inspiring and gets me going in just the right way so that I can push myself harder and more without trying. I was so amazed at the results on Saturday that I have moved to using only music on my runs now.
Today’s average was: 11.16 minutes/mile.
That’s almost 4 minutes per mile faster. And the only change has been listening to music instead of audio books.
Talk about the inspirational power of music.
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