Couch to 5K: Soundtrack Changes

After entering our second week of being on the Couch to 5K, I noticed a distinct change in my attitude towards the whole running process. Me, I’m a creature of habit – I’m someone who likes routines. And when it comes to exercise, though I know it’s bad to get into “habits,” I find doing things repetitively helps me maintain focus.

I happened to see Matisyahu’s “Spark Seeker” album show up a while ago on Rdio, and I’ve kept the first 3 songs on loop during our morning runs. It’s incredibly poppy, and I realize what I’m listening to is the newer, beardless Matisyahu… but the upbeat poppiness seemed to lend itself well to what we were doing.

Here’s a sample:

The first week was fairly easy: 60 seconds running, 90 seconds walking, 20 minutes total. The second week, things got kicked up a notch: 90 seconds running, 2 minutes walking, 20 minutes total. After the running time got upped, I felt myself shifting a bit mentally. The upbeat songs I had going weren’t really cutting it, and so I started to view the running in a different light.

Instead of multiple songs, I switched to just one: The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, by Faith No More. This has pretty much been on repeat the whole time we’ve been doing our second week’s runs:

Funny enough, the timing works out pretty well to the 90 seconds running, 2 minutes walking. So by the time the song starts again, it’s time to run again.

The lines “And all you need is just one more excuse,” and “I want to hear your very best excuse” are perfect for me. Whenever I feel my energy flagging, I fixate on these two lines and dig in a little more.

As of this second week, I’m becoming more aggressive about our runs – treating them in a kind of combative way. I’m hoping this will change, as I can’t imagine maintaining this mindset for a super long time. But for now, it’s giving me a good kick in the ass, to ensure I keep at it.

I wonder if, as we progress through the steps and run for longer times, I’ll end up developing a playlist that goes up and down. Right now, the one song I repeat is all about aggression and pushing. Perhaps in a few more weeks, I’ll shift to songs that help me zone out and endure.

Related:
Couch To 5K (Without The 5K)