New Thing #287: An iTunes Playlist

One of the least-utilized tools on my phone is the 'Playlist' feature for my music. I tend to listen to an entire album in one sitting, or, if I'm in the mood to switch between songs, I'm doing it manually.

Problem is, when I'm running, I'm limited to either listening to one album all the way through or an artist on random or something like that because I'm not taking my iPhone out of my pocket to play DJ.

So recently I tried mixing things up a bit.

I added a lot of new songs this year to my iPhone that I really enjoy, but that I haven't been able to listen to while I run because they're the only songs by those artists on my phone.

For example - recently I was going for a run and I was scrolling through my music to figure out what to listen to. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros' Home looked appealing, as did Jim James' A New Life. But I knew I wasn't going to have the time to switch songs while I was running...and an added complication is I run with my Nike Running app so I'm pretty much committed to whatever music I start a run with - it plays whatever album I'm currently playing, and I'd have to pause the app if I wanted to switch music. (I've toyed with the idea of putting one really good 3-minute song on loop and hearing it 10 times during a run...I wonder if that would work.)

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I finally took the time before my run to play around with my music. I found the Playlists button, created one (it was ridiculously easy - I can't believe I hadn't done it before - I'd only created one Playlist before, on my computer, which I then downloaded to my phone), and ran to the 10-song creation. It lasted for about 40 minutes. I suppose if I want to increase my distance I can just add some songs on any given day, but I'm thinking I'm probably going to want to switch up some of the music.

The music I used this time around has a definite '365 New Things In 2013' feel to it. Who knows what other new music the rest of the year will bring - I might have another playlist for another run before the end of the year.

New Thing #264: Running To Time

I've written a few times before about the running I did this summer. And there's kind of a lull in Trying New Things right now, so let me tell you about what I did with my running this summer that was new.

(You'll notice the dates from the screengrab I did of my Nike app there are from mid-August. As I suspected would happen, once September hit my running regimen was severely impacted.)

The best thing I did this summer was change the way I run - instead of running for distance, I ran for time.

I've been running for a while - but in the past couple of years it had become a little more of a struggle.

Not that it became any more difficult really (outside of one injury where I think for one summer I couldn't run at all) - it just became really, really boring.

I had a path that I ran over and over. At most it would take me 3 miles...but often I would decide to pull up short and cut it after a mile and a half or two miles or so.

I had nothing holding me accountable for anything longer than that.

I don't know why it took me so long to do it, but this summer I decided to start with a 30 minute run and then just keep adding time. I went from 30 to 35, then 40. (I run roughly a 10-minute mile, so we're talking up to 4 miles or so.)

I stuck at 40 for a bit, then started pushing myself to distances I'd never reached before - up to 5 miles, and then that 6-and-a-quarter-mile run you see in that picture above.

Unfortunately, that was the high-water mark. That was August 13. Shortly afterward, I went to Florida, then back to school, and I haven't had the time to run that much since. I was hoping to write about this as a New Thing when I was consistently up over 6-mile runs.

It's really hard to find an hour when it's not dark where I can get a good run in like that these days.

If I get out I'll go a couple of miles at a quicker pace to feel like I'm doing something...but I know what it felt like over the summer when I was doing these long runs and it's not really the same.

Fall into winter is always a tough time to keep up the good work I do running in the summer.

This year it feels like a particularly tough dropoff.

But you can bet that as soon as the weather is passable - or I get a few extra hours on the weekends - I'll work to build up my stamina again.

Because now I know how to do it.