Running

Sunday, 31 July 2016

l've really been enjoying running lately.  And it's not because I'm feeling fit (as I'm not), or because I'm running well (cos I'm not)..

It's partly because I get to run in some really nice spots, really close to home ..

The pipeline track is one of my favourites..

although anywhere on the mountain is awesome.

It's partly because it's hard to bike-commute at the moment - it's been pretty wet and windy (not to mention dark).  So getting out and running has been the only way to get some exercise and feel good about things.

But it's mostly because I've been enjoying my podcasts so much.  I used to always listen to the radio, but since brother Paul put me on to a podcast series called Serial, I've been an addict.   These are my regular listens (in no particular order):

• Freakonomics
• This American Life
• Death, Sex, Money
  
• Planet Money
• Radio Lab
• Reply All
• Criminal
• Snap Judgement
  

I like them so much I've donated to the organisations which make them.  I've learnt so much and heard so many amazing stories and even though I often forget them as quickly as I hear them, while I'm running I'm completely immersed.  I often find I'm plodding along smiling like a fool, or I gasp out loud as a story takes a new twist. Sometimes they are great simply because they drown out the sound of me puffing and panting up a steep hill. 

I should say that I don't always listen to podcasts though - if I'm running with someone else, or running somewhere new and different, I just enjoy the company or the sounds of the environment. And sometimes I only listen during part of my run,  maybe just to get me through a particularly tough climb, or to get me started.  I used this technique when I lived in Lillehammer too - most of my runs started with a 20 minute climb up to a plateau, so I would allow myself to listen to my blue Phillips walkman as I ran up the hill. Once I got to the top I'd hide it behind a tree and do the rest of the run without it and pick it up on the way home.  My regular playlist back in those days (1991-2) was Roxette, Eurythmics, Jenny Morris, Talking Heads and Midnight Oil.  How times (and devices) have changed.