Silent Running

Since my phone died, my jogging outings have been sans audio distraction. Hasn't been as problematic as I'd expected.

It's not really silent, of course. Lots of stuff going on in the world, after all. But I'm used to having either music or podcasts going while I'm out exercising, so it feels very quiet. Except when I have to go along a busy road, when the traffic noise is pretty overwhelming. I avoid that as much as possible. Fortunately, the area around my place is pretty quiet, and I can range across a pretty wide area with minimal distance spent alongside heavy traffic.

Having something to listen to has always seemed like a requirement for exercise. Figured that I'd get too focused on being tired/sore/etc if I didn't have something to distract me. But it turns out that as long as I'm constantly busy, it doesn't bother me to be without something else to focus on. I think I'd have a bit more trouble if I was doing weight training or something else that requires downtime as part of the process. For the constant effort of jogging, though, I find that I do all right with the silence.

The thing I miss most about not having the phone while running isn't the audio, but the distance and time tracking. I've been trying to go about 10k on each outing, and I know it takes me around an hour. It's easy to lose track of your pace with no guide, though. I know more or less what routes to take, so I'm still somewhere in the neighborhood on distance. Time is harder to gauge, though I have some idea based on my pace. I'm certainly looking forward to having a GPS-capable device again for more accurate tracking.

About that dead phone...I actually ordered a new phone from Amazon, and got it in the mail. Opened it up only to discover that it wouldn't recognize a SIM card. A bit of online searching showed that other people had seen the same issue and had to get a replacement phone. So I'm doing that, at no cost to myself thanks for Amazon's easy return/replace policy, but it does delay the new phone timeline. Annoying, but I knew it was a possibility going in...the disadvantage to going cheap on technology. I still think it's the right move, since I really need very little from a phone and paying for features I won't use seems silly. Just going to take a bit longer to get set up.

I suspect things will be different when the weather turns colder, and I have to resort to running on the treadmill in the exercise room. Then I will definitely need something to listen to. I certainly plan to have the phone issue resolved before then, though.