Saturday, June 24, 2006

How to run on the tread mill and experience God

I used to think that running on tread mills was one of the most excruciatingly boring and meangingless activities. Negatives- you running on the spot- running nowhere fast. A bit like a metaphor for a meaningless life.

I beg to differ.

If you are just concentrating on the act of running on the tread mill- and thinking solely about it- you are missing out. Its a bit like saying "Gosh, breathing is boring, or good grief, does my heart have to beat on time? Why can't it stop for awhile? Or beat to a different style?"

Seriously, running on the tread mill - helps you to get in touch with yourself. To be at one with yourself. To experience for a brief moment- God, eternity.

Yeah, yeah, I know that someone of you are going: "OMG, yes, running on the trendmill seems like an eternity... I hate it."

But really- This is how you should do it.

Get good running music. What I really like to do is to run to a good "running music" which I load up onto my MP3 player.

It has to have a good steady thump-thump beat. Slow music to begin the walk/run phase/ And faster music with a fast beat tempo- to help quicken my pace.

I love classical music- but most of them have a varied beat. Its hard to focus. So I can't really use them.

However, I've found classical music from the soundtracks of Master and Commander, Last of the Mohicans, truly GREAT songs to run to.

I also like running to music taken from the Matrix trilogy series, Run Lola Run, etc.. I'm not referring to all of the songs in the soundtrack of course. Just a select few.

Other great music to run to are the songs from Linkin Park- "A Place for my Head" and "Faint", Evanescence, "Bring Me To Life Remix version" with Paul McCoy, singer from another group, 12 Stones.

Once I get into a steady momentem- I feel like I can run forever... well, usually 30 minutes to an hour.

Once you get into the groove everything else seems to fall into place- breathing, a steady running pace, etc.. You still need to focus on your running style, listen to your heart beat, think about your posture, how your feet land- minor but still important details.

But after you run for awhile- and you get into that steady pace- your heart rate increases, you really enter into a special place. Call it bliss. Call it eternity. Call it a zen-like state. Call it experiencing God. Whatever. But for awhile- you totally forget about all your problems- and you just enter into this marvellous state of being and euphoria.

One other thing, to help me getting started on the run- I usually depend on some light fun music. Music like Abba's Super-trouper- although Evanescence "Bring Me To Life Remix version" really wakes me up and get me going.

I think at the heart of it- pardone the pun- is that you increase your heart rate to a good steady pace. There is nothing worse- than to run irregularly and cause the heart to beat irregularly.

No comments: