Sound vs Silence: Steven Seaton

The Challenge

Week Four: Day Three

It wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for. But then I could say much the same about most of this experiment. My final assignment for the Sound vs Silence debate was a race. A race accompanied by the music of my choice to see if I could finally achieve some performance benefit from my iPod.

Despite my pitiful performance to date with music pumping through my headphones, I really didn’t know how this was going to play out. Anything is possible with the adrenaline of competition. My race of choice was the Serpentine running club’s Last Friday Of The Month 5K, or in this case - due to Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebrations in Hyde Park on the following week- the Penultimate Friday Of The Month 5K.

The Serpie 5K is never a big race - usually just over 200 runners - but due to the narrow, tourist-laden paths in the park it starts in two waves: those aiming for sub-21:00 and those likely to be slower. In a normal month I’d be in the first wave hoping to run sub 19:30 if rarely managing it. With the potential handicap of the music and the risk that I rather the tourists would be the obstacle, I was targeting the back of the second wave.

It’s just over a mile to Hyde Park from the Runner’s World offices in Soho and since I was jogging with a group, for the first time in a month I had the strange experience of a music-free mile. It felt wonderful. No bad-boy rapper haranguing me, no thumping club anthems frying my brain and no string quartet washing over my body like lukewarm water. It was just a small group ambling along and chatting away. The race was going to put a stop to that.

Curiously I imagined that racing with music would be easier than training. After all races are hardly social experiences. I can’t remember ever striking up conversation with anyone mid-race. It’s all about you in your own little world and your own performance. So what’s the big deal with further distancing yourself from the rest of the field with an iPod?

I still felt self-conscious and guilty fiddling with my headphones at the back of the field. The first bars of Vivaldi’s La Primavera were just drifting into my head when there was a tap on my shoulder. "You are not allowed to use music players in this race," said an apologetic man with a marshal’s bib.

I’d be lying if I said I was disappointed, I didn’t need a second invitation. I tucked the earphones into the carrying case and chased after the frontrunners. It was a small burden to be carrying the iPod but nothing quite as bad as having to listen to the music.

It wasn’t my best race. Most of the runners at my pace were in the first wave so I spent most of the 5K running on my own and trundled in just a few seconds over 20 minutes. Ironically the music may have made it easier to race on my own and I wouldn’t have been a hazard with my iPod because there was no-one near me.

Still it’s a salutary lesson for committed music runners. Check that the race allows running with music. If I’d have bothered to check the tap on my shoulder wouldn’t have been a surprise. Banning music in races won’t make the debate go away but it certainly removes the 'should you shouldn’t you' decision much clearer.

Week Three: Day Three

Miserable, miserable, miserable! I realise that some of you think this whole project is a set up. I’m obviously going to have a musical epiphany and tell you how it changed my life and made my running so much more worthwhile. Well it hasn’t happened yet. I know I should be more positive and upbeat but now the shine has literally come off my iPod the whole thing is becoming a drag.

I can’t even blame the actual music any more. My issues are more fundamental. I’m into my third week and it’s clear that forcing music into my running regime has changed everything about my running. Sadly none of it seems to be positive. It’s changed how I run, who I run with, where I run and more basically why I run.

Now I run to listen to music. I have to, that’s my challenge for this month. After a few false starts with rap and dance music – neither selected by me I hasten to add - I’ve moved onto the lukewarm world of classical music. While I’m moderately content with Mozart things seemed to have turned upside down. The exercise has become about the music rather than the running. The two are not working together as they should and I’ve lost some of the simple joy of running for running’s sake.

It makes me wonder what other people’s rationale is for the music. Is it something you start with or something you graduate on to? I’d imagine the former rather than the latter. If so does it offer an opportunity to combine two passions in one time slot – the perfect win-win scenario for the time-pressed? Or more likely is it that the music is intended to mask the running to help you overcome what you believe will be a dreadful experience? That’s not the way it’s marketed and if it that was your motivation you’d have to question why you were running at all.

Clearly research suggests that the music is a performance enhancement: a rhythm to set your pace to, a motivator for the difficult times or a mental distraction that tricks you into running longer than you intended. None of it is working for me.

I don’t need the music nor did I seek it out and its affect on my performance has been more negative than positive. Although the 'Sound versus Silence 5K' is still to come I’m not running quicker or longer and my daily runs have felt more burden than escape. Add to that I’ve had one twisted ankle from a curb I wasn’t paying attention to, a run-in with a cyclist who was equally distracted by her iPod and various near misses with cars and buses. I admit I could have managed all of that without music as well but I am not as tuned in to my environment as I should be.

As a consequence for the past week I’ve taken to early morning runs around my local park. It’s understandably not a popular option with any of my regular running partners, particularly with the addition of my music and earphones so I’m out there on my own. Even I’m a bit bored with my company, I’m certainly not as much fun to be with as I thought I was.

Week Two: Day Three

I had a terrible dream last night. I was in North London running round and round the new Wembley Stadium. Inside Westlife were playing to a sell-out crowd and I, tired of my headphones constantly falling out of my ears, was inextricably drawn to the stadium to listen to some decent music while I ran. I’m not sure what’s worse: that I thought Westlife was decent music or that this experiment has now started to permeate my sleep.

The only part of the dream rooted in reality was that my headphones do keep falling out. For a time it crossed my mind that perhaps I was born with anti-headphone ears, but a helpful man in the shop assured me that wasn’t the case and a more sport-specific pair solved that problem.

I wish the music was as easily resolved. I’m afraid that my experiment with the Ultimate Bikini Body Workout has been a brief one. It took me a couple of runs to realise that the selection was picked on the basis of the beats per minute on each song, which is sadly completely out of step with the traffic lights between Soho and Battersea.

The music was racing while I was standing still and just when I was ready to move off the tempo dropped to give me time to recover. On a free stretch of open parkland I can see that the rhythm of the music might work but while dodging in and out of pavement traffic, it’s just annoying. That’s one more CD to lose.

For the time being I’ve now moved on to Mozart in the belief that something that sits more happily in the background might be more in tune with my attitude to the run itself. I’m wondering whether it’s an attitude problem that is curtailing my enjoyment of the experience.

I’m used to my daily run being either a social activity or a chance to relax with my thoughts. At the moment I’m not running with anyone else and I’m not finding it particularly relaxing.

I’m thinking about the process too much. Am I giving the music a chance, am I actually listening to it or just hearing it? It doesn’t really matter because so far everything seems to interfere with rather than enhance the rhythm of my running, particularly on the longer runs. To date the music hasn’t helped me run longer but I’d be very happy if it did. I’d love to look down at my watch and discover to my surprise that I’d been out there for two hours rather the one I thought.

In reality it feels a bit like the last miles of a marathon, my watch seems to have slowed down and ten minutes feels like 20 and unfortunately my iPod also tells me the precise distance I’ve covered and how quickly I’ve covered it. The depressing answer is usually not very far and not very quick. But I’m optimistic that Mr Mozart’s going to help me turn the corner.

Week One: Day Four

Music is a bigger problem than I imagined. This is supposed to be a running to music challenge, not a 'finding something I can listen to' challenge. But walking into HMV on Oxford Street with not a clue what I was looking for confused rather than simplified the situation. I was reluctant to seek advice from my 15-year-old daughter for fear of looking like an even sadder middle-aged man than I seem to have become. Then a small miracle happened, well of a sort.

A random package arrived on my desk yesterday. Inside was a CD and a sheet of paper promoting, 'The Ultimate Bikini Body Workout Mix'. No, I’m not interested in finding 'the bikini body within me' (honestly) but I was attracted to the "90-minute seamless blend of pumping hits specially created for running, cycling or the gym".

It’s far from perfect but at this point I’ll take anything that frees me from the nightmare of Dizzee Rascal. Sunblock, Azzidio Da Bass, Out Of Office et al are not names I imagine I’m going to seek out further but it’s relatively innocuous stuff. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m enjoying the music but I don’t hate it either.

It’s only been a few days but already I miss the peace and quiet of running on my own with my own thoughts. I like running and I don’t need to mask it with something else. To date all my music-assisted runs have been solo efforts. I haven’t done any group runs while listening to my iPod and I’m struggling to think I’ll have the nerve to be that rude. Surely it curtails one of the main reasons to run with other people: conversation.

But as a solo runner for the first time there’s a small chink in my hard shell of cynicism about running with tunes. I can see that music and running are not always a negative combination, although to date it has not particularly helped the running part. Far from it.

The low level thumping in my ears has the effect of making me move much slower. Cocooned in this unfamiliar world of club anthems, I feel like I’ve lost my usual bearings. Even as a die-hard urban runner the absence of my peripheral hearing had made me wary and things that were intuitive aren’t any more. I’m wary of other people, wary of traffic and wary even of where I put my feet on the pavements.Everything feels so unnatural. I’m trying to listen to the music but at the same time I’m trying not to in order to avoid a collision with a couple of tons of fast moving metal or an irate pedestrian.

Other than my indifference to the music itself my biggest issue with iPpods and walkmans has always been safety. I’ve always felt that they make you vulnerable and everything I’ve experienced so far just seems to reaffirm that view. I realise that not all routes are the same but I can’t think that any urban environment would be safer with headphones than without.

Well possibly a treadmill... but I’d rather listen to Dizzee Rascal again than run on a treadmill.

Week One: Day One

Music has never played any part in my life. I don’t go to concerts or buy CDs, I’d never choose music over news on the radio and I’ve never willingly watched any form of music television. The idea of sitting at home listening to a new CD is complete anathema to me. I just don’t understand its appeal. I don’t dislike music I just have no active interest in it. To me music is just background noise you have to talk over in the pub or something that makes silence among strangers less uncomfortable in lifts.

As for running, to my mind it’s not something that should ever be mixed with music. In fact I think there’s something sad and mildly anti-social about mixing the two experiences. I love the purity of running and its simple natural appeal. If you pick your routes carefully it’s a chance to see, hear and breathe nature at ground level, it’s a chance to clear your mind and relax. If you’re out with a group it’s an equal opportunity to chat, gossip or catch up. Why would I want to pollute any of these experiences with Coldplay, Madonna or some woman who impressed Simon Cowell?

Still I’m nothing if not open minded, well at least open to a challenge. So I’ve decided to put my ears where my mouth is, so to speak, and for the next month I’m going to see if I can be converted to the ‘joy’ of running with music.

My ambition for the experiment is a modest one. I just want to complete at least one run believing I ran it faster or carried on further because of the music. In truth I’ll be happy if I finish the month without hurting myself or someone else.

Strangely both those eventualities seemed like real possibilities inside the first five minutes of my inaugural music-assisted run. It was far, far worse that I could have imagined.

Since I could offer no musical preferences, either individual of genre, it was left to Nike to pick my tunes for that first run. The choice surprised me. I think if you met me for the first time, you might guess Mozart or Chopin if you were being generous, Elton John or Phil Collins if you weren’t. I can’t think for one moment you’d ever match me up with Dizzee Rascal.

I’d never heard of Mr Rascal before I found him on my iPod, so I looked him up on the Internet. It claims that, "He’s an English rapper and record producer whose music is a blend of garage MCing, conventional rap, grime and ragga."

No it isn’t. It’s rubbish. This wasn’t music it was just a man shouting at you and a man with a really bad glottal stop for heavens sake. After ten minutes of this I was ready to kill someone or myself. The only upside was that the ear plugs kept falling out so at least I had some temporary respite from the white noise during my 45-minute run. Do people really do this for pleasure?

It turned out to be a quicker run than I’d planned but only because I was so desperate for it to be over. I don’t consider that a positive, however. I need some new music before my next run.