That is the question. “Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer slings and arrows of the little angry voice in your head questioning the choice to punish your body, Or to take arms against pain, and confront it without the distraction of an over played power ballad. To run is to hurt, but to iPod is to escape.” To say that many people run with music would be a bit of an understatement. It’s a global exercise phenomenon and has been for a while now. Not wanting to bore you with the evolution of mobile tunes, I’ll skip past the boom box on wheels and cassette player armband era, and go straight to the MP3 player, which reared its musically compressed head in 1999. I purchased one from Nike that could hold a whopping 20 plus songs and decided my 4-year hiatus from running was over. This was just the incentive I needed. A few years later I upgraded to the iPod mini, and life was grand…for a while. With its 1000 song capacity, powder blue casing, and my name etched into the back, I figured no workout would ever get the better of me. With the mere push of a button, I could disappear into a cloudy world of subjectively motivating melodies. As someone who is perpetually stuck on 80’s music, I have assembled a few examples that much like David Hasselhoff, just get better with age. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns6p_8wGPXY If Asics sold a fluffy collared rocky inspired all weather jacket, I would buy it. If Nike made a white one-piece spandex Russian training suit, I wouldn’t. I don’t care how many pounds of pressure you can punch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Jwvi8mAF4 Gone but not forgotten, Huey and his Newsies single handedly made “flux capacitor” a household name. Thanks to Christian Bale for explaining it so vividly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxxOyGK1pMk That’s some timeless air keyboarding. I often think of this song when I am running down on the docks, after a hard day of sport fishin’. In all honesty, any Journey song is a good running song. Treat yourself this holiday season to Journey’s Greatest Hits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVf4_WglzWA You don’t just wear a mullet, you rock a mullet, and if you need a theme song for your film, call up John Parr, he’s been waiting 22 years for another hit. If you think I’m kidding about running with these songs, sadly I am not, and I didn’t even touch on 80’s songs that have been remade with a techno kick. That’s my secret stuff! Given the right day I’ll go sub 4 with a quality lineup, sure it may be in the 1200, but who’s counting. I have three problems with iPod running. First, I have become dependant upon the device and at times will refuse to run without my tunes or shorten my distance when I forget it or the battery dies. Second, as of late I realized the tendency for my form to change depending on how well the armband was fitting that day. Can you say shoulder pain? Third, my cadence was dictated by the music. Often times I would fall way back from the general 180 steps per minute I try and hit and I am way to lazy to chase down music that fits that standard. When I race, I choose loud and fast, but for the real runners, sadly they are not allowed to compete with headphones. This is due to the fact that it’s like flaxseed oil for the brain, a definite advantage. Who really wants to go head to head with the guy listening to Tony Robbins? Forget training, just will yourself to victory. “You’re fast, you have nice calves, and everybody likes you” Now say it out loud 10 times. It’s only a matter of time before iphone and Garmin come together to make a GPS/heart rate monitor with wireless headphones that will also be a 10,000 song Mp3/Video player and Blackberry. Hmmm, ok I would buy this. For now, I am going to upgrade to the iPod Shuffle and eliminate my shoulder/running form issue. It’s not too late to bring the many timeless sounds of the 80’s into your life. Live the dream; drive a Trans Am, (preferably with an airbrushed firebird on the hood) put on some leg warmers and download a few of these songs into your iPod. (I promise I have legally acquired all of mine) If your times don’t improve, your trivial pursuit 80’s edition knowledge will, and you may grow an awesome mullet in process, quicker than you can say “ Sometimes there are a few things that may be rotten in Denmark on any given day.” As a huge fan of music I would need to write a book to cover all the songs out there that I like to run to, each person out there could most likely do the same. This is just a little reminder. Never forget the glory of the 80’s! “The rest is silence” Act V, Hamlet, scene ii - Nate