Just finished post-production on the 1st episode of the Static Made Podcast. Any guesses who the first guest was?
This is an entry from Notebook: The Static Made Weblog. If you enjoy what you read, I encourage you to subscribe via RSS or Twitter.
Running in Silence
I am a runner. I can say that today with confidence, but it wasn’t always so.
When I started running just over a year ago, it was a struggle. I’ve always considered myself to be in relatively good health, but I wasn’t the most athletic person. I was active, but not an athlete. Plain and simple, in the beginning, each stride was painful. A fifteen minute light jog was nearly unbearable, torture even.
During those early days, when I was fighting hard to finish an exhausting three-mile run, my personal motivators were largely technology-based. I brought my phone along with me on those cold winter wars to fire music into my ears that powered my feet to keep moving, step after step, mile after mile. I tracked my progress with Runkeeper, a GPS-enabled application that measures mileage, pace, calories burned and a slew of additional metrics. Runkeeper’s sultry-voiced narrator would occasionally chirp distance and pace updates into my earbuds, letting me know just how far I had gone, and how much farther I had yet to go.
With consistency came comfort. As the runs became easier, I upped my distance to include one long run per week. This caused my outings to last longer, sometimes longer than 90 minutes. On these longer runs I listened to a regular rotation of technology podcasts from the 5×5 and 70 Decibels networks.
While the music, tech musings and automated metrics kept my mind from focussing on the discomfort my body was feeling, I also discovered that this constant connectivity (even while in the middle of the woods on a trail run) was keeping my mind from appreciating my surroundings in those moments, following an exploratory train-of-thought around professional ideas and concepts, or simply experiencing the silence and patterns in my breath.
The technology had created a barrier. I was distracted, no longer fully aware and I became more interested in outcomes, results and metrics, than process.
Realizing this, I made the decision several weeks ago to eliminate technology during my runs. No music, no podcasts and no Runkeeper updates. I would leave my phone at home and become one with my path and my thoughts.
On my first run without technology, I remember noticing the discomfort was gone. I was several miles into the run and feeling fine. I let my mind wander to any thought that entered it and I explored those thoughts without limits. I was aware of the nature surrounding me and I was in tune with my breathing.
Distance didn’t matter. Pacing didn’t matter. Alternatively, my experience during the journey mattered. Process mattered.
Since embracing the silence during my runs, I’ve had a lot of time to think about Static Made (as a whole) and specific client projects in a setting that’s completely removed from a display screen. Pondering technology in the absence of it is liberating. It’s been refreshing and has allowed me to develop creative ideas in a way not inherently tethered to technology.
The lesson for me here is this: technology should never be a tether, but rather the vehicle through which tethers are cut. Outcomes are definitely important, but the process of exploration should enjoy equal footing. The process is journey to the desired result and space in which you can create without limits.
8 Thoughts
What do you think?
Hello & Welcome
My name is Jeffrey Inscho and I'm the guy behind Static Made. I write about technology, design and new media, and help organizations embrace them in meaningful ways.
If you'd like more information about me, my work or Static Made's mission, check out the colophon.
Totally dig this and couldn’t agree more. It is a very rare occasion for me to take an iPod on a run. Don’t get me wrong, at times the technology will help motivate me (let’s say I just got some new music) to complete a training run. Running is a great outlet away, to think and explore thoughts. Heck, it’s were I wrote my best man speech for my brother and I had a blast thinking of all the great times we had together. Also good is a run with a good friend or a coworker. Carrying on a conversation or an hour and a half allows so much development in that relationship. Thanks fr sharing, maybe we should hit the trail some time soon?
Thanks for reading and commenting, Ryan. So far, running has been a solitary experience for me. I think I’m to the point now where it might be nice to run with a group or friend. Once you get settled with that new baby and the weather breaks, let’s hit the trails!
As a long time Cross Country runner, me and my father (Also a Cross coach at my highschool) advocate for this unswervingly. Almost all the great distance runners do this too. Forgetting even idol worship as a reason, we find that whether alone or together, dropping the technology makes things so much more enjoyable. While not everyone has access to a park, even running in an urban setting sans tech really exposes you to what you’re missing. The soundscape around you anywhere is quite complex. With regards to nature, this is by far the best way to run – having the peaceful forest around you (or in my case, the Cuyahoga river and a forest) lets you do some truly awesome thinking and relaxing. Being forced to be with your body and your mind, alone lets you wander down mental rabbit holes that you never would if you were distracted.
The whole mentality to running with music I’ve found is ‘it’s a chore, so I’m going to distract myself’. I just can’t understand it, running is such a joyous and freeing experience. Sharing that with another person, enjoying lazy runs and good conversation is also such a unique experience, and it’s sad that people miss out on it. Lastly, on purely a safety level, I see a lot of younger women running with earphones in both ears – many times alone. This means they can’t even hear if someone were approaching them. As a male, it’s unfortunate that we’re much safer in this regard, but the fact still stands that it’s inherently more dangerous for them to do this.
In regards to your plans on running with a group, definitely do this if you want to get in better shape. They’ll push you to work harder purely because of the semi-competitive nature of running.
my two cents,
-Mike
Great insights, Mike. Thanks so much for taking the time to read and share your experiences!
Running is one way, but there are many others. Our brains are not wired to be 24/7 plugged in. We are on information overload and the pace of things are moving way too fast for our lizard brains to deal with it. This is why when you step away from the tech and just run, your brain calms and then you can get creative. Exercise is great for this, running, swimming, climbing, etc.
Other things work as well. Just sitting quietly, while clearing your mind (simple meditation, no chanting, etc.) can have a big impact. Doing mundane chores can also help. My wife loves to iron when most people hate it. She says it’s the one time she can unplug! Her mind is at rest and she can hum or sing to herself and feel mentally refreshed. I even know someone who does traditional woodworking with zero power tools, just chisels, etc.
What’s really strange is when you perform mundane tasks or otherwise let your brain stop the mad scramble, it actually makes you a lot more creative. Try it next time you are struggling with something, like a nasty software bug. Just stop and go take a quiet nature walk, don’t bring any gadgets. I bet when you return, you will spot that bug rather quickly and squash it!
Our brains need time to absorb thoughts, ideas and information then make connections. Sometimes the flow of data is such that is just pushes things off the short term memory stack so to speak. So all those tweets, podcasts, RSS Feeds, etc. are stuffing your buffers and stalling the creative process.
Take something like practicing guitar, there is a lot of muscle memory, so you need to move extremely slow at first and repeat the movements many many times. Then you need to put down the guitar and go do something else relaxing. Then you pick it back up the next day and miraculously you are better at it so long as you relax and let yourself flow.
Multi-tasking and pushing yourself harder and harder is actually making you go slower and slower and you will forget stuff and end up overwhelmed.
Wonderful comment, James. I agree on all fronts, especially the sitting meditation and muscle memory points. I appreciate you taking the time to write such thoughtful ideas.
I completely understand your decision. I’ve always done a reasonable amount of gym work and running because I am regularly tested in my job (military). Running, however, was a chore until about 3 years ago. I read Dean Karnazes’ book and he made running sound enjoyable, so I was determined to enjoy it. I would set time and distance goals as motivation.
I used to listen to music but, as an amateur musician, I found I would run in time. I then got Tangerine for iTunes to make sure the tunes I used would be in time with my ideal pace. Eventually I just stopped taking the iPod. I am now quite happy and running, outside or on a treadmill in the gym, is my thinking time. I now cannot run with music, it stops my getting in a groove. I even ran home from work (20 miles) without music, just enjoying the scenery. Normally I’ll do 4-7 miles as a regular run, although I have to confess that I have a Garmin gps watch. I only use this to get a time at the end and also because when I go out I usually have a notion for how far I’d like to run that day and the Garmin means that I don’t need pre-defined routes where I know the distance – rather it frees me to take spontaneous detours but I’ll still know when I’ve achieved my distance goal.
Embrace the Garmin, enjoy the route. BTW, I live in Scotland so the scenery is particularly awesome, even if I do say so myself. Wh would you want to miss it listening to an iPod?
Great post! A caveat, though. I fell while running the other night, and was glad I had my iPhone.
Granted, I tripped because I was advancing to the next song in my playlist, but it was good to be able to call for help. I cut my hand pretty good and (I found out later) bruised my ribs in the process. I was two miles from home and bleeding. Help arrived in five minutes.
So, run in silence but do me a favor–carry your phone.