Do you like to Zone Out or Lock In?

Are you an Insider or are you an Outsider? They're both cool. It's just interesting to *think* about these things. This is also about community, society, and run clubs.

Big Q: Do you like to Zone Out or Lock In?

A central tenet to Running Sucks is thinking more deeply about this activity that we do. I spend hours every week running, so it makes sense that I spend even more time thinking about it.

Last week, I wrote about listening to music while running, and today’s question is linked to that. It’s the next layer of the onion, if you will.

Because I don’t listen to music while running, and I like to think (and write) about running, I consider myself to be someone who is Locked In. I know that many people expressly listen to music to Zone Out. That is a goal for them. I don’t think it’s that cut and dried, though. I practice moving meditations while I run, for instance. I focus in on something in the distance, a niggling tight spot in my hamstring, the sound of the birds to while away the time on a long run.

Is listening to music the antithesis to locking in? Can you zone out while listening out for absent-minded drivers? Is giving your body a full diagnostics check locking in or zoning out? How many different things can you focus upon? Is mindfulness zoning out or locking in? How about reaching a zen-like flow state?

What do you think? Tell me in a comment!

This Week on Running Sucks

I announced the final panelist for Run Club Culture: a conversation by publishing an interview with her. Victoria Lo of Chinatown Runners is flying into London from New York to speak at Knees Up. How cool is that??

The often-jarring juxtaposition of people in urban areas is a fascinating sociological phenomenon. How they live and work side-by-side, but might otherwise never join together socially… I think it’s fun, anyway.

Read about how Victoria is harnessing the power of other run clubs to help integrate different cultures within one city.

Good things happen in Chinatown

Statistically, I know that only 250 of you live in the UK, and an even smaller number in London, so this event is mainly here to show the other 87% of you that many, many more fun Running Sucks-related things are coming, and they’ll be things that you can participate in.

I know a lot of you in London have already bought a ticket, but if you haven’t yet…

If you love *thinking* about running, you’ll love reading

Breakfast Club

.

One of my must-reads every week is Breakfast Club by

Sam Robinson

. Today he published a wickedly contemporaneous piece of writing about community and democracy. Those necessary things in being a conscious human who is integrated into the world in which we live. The alternative is disconnecting from reality, and that is simply impossible. Read this. It’s about run clubs. It’s about saving us from the perils of Project 2025.

Save democracy. Join a (running) club.

Sam interviewed me earlier this year after he read some of my musings on why the third spaces of run clubs are an integral part of society. He posted the piece on April 1st, but I promise you that it wasn’t a prank.

Running Sucks

Last year on Running Sucks

Most runners you hear about don’t have to worry about air quality unless there’s a worrisome event like a nearby wildfire. A year ago I wrote about a runner who you might not normally hear from.

He lives in a place that you might not normally hear about. Lahore, Pakistan has the worst air quality in the world. It also has a vibrant, and growing running scene. How do you do this healthy thing (running), when you have to suck huge amounts of automotive-related smog into your lungs? What’s your VO2 Max going to be like? Is it safe?? Take a read.

Running in Bad Air Quality with the Lahore Runners

I even graphic designed this cool little chart to help guide you when there’s a forest fire, or fireworks, or you simply live in the smog capital of the USA, like I do.

Around the internet

While I do focus on the gentler side of running, thinking about making it a pleasurable, sustainable act of health - for both body and mind - the USATF coach in me loves drilling down on the biomechanical possibilities of what the human body can do.

I started off this running thing doing 400m sprints as a teenager. It was terrifying, and made my body hurt, but I saw progress, and at track meets, I had exposure to Olympic champions firing the starting gun for me. Me! Those experiences stay with a person.

With the Olympic Games coming up fast, this very, very nerdy piece on Big Think about how fast a human can run the 100m race is so fun.

Running Sucks Haiku of the Week

Mornings: the only time
My runs are nurtured by shade
Summer training sucks

I take great care to run when the UV index is under 2. I still wear sunscreen in the mornings, but later on, when the sun is at its most intense, it’s not only hot, it’s searing.

As someone who spends extra time outdoors, I do worry about skin. Maybe it’s the time of life I’m in (old), but I’ve seen more and more runners getting new skin tags dealt with, and having a minor melanoma removed, plus the associated skin grafts.

With so many new runners running (over 25% started in the past five years), this is something we need to talk about.

Housekeeping

WIN - I give away a $50 Janji gift card every single week. Why? Because Janji gave me 52 $50 gift cards. Go to the Competition page and fill in the form. I promise you that’s it.

$$$ - If you would like to help me hire a stage for the Run Club Culture event, buy some Running Sucks stickers or a HAT (THANKS, VIKTOR) or upgrade your subscription for $50 ($1 A WEEK!) OR tip a one-off $5 OR etc etc.

RUN CLUB CULTURE: a conversation - GET YOUR TICKETS for the Aug 8 event in London. I’m back to thinking it’s very awesome because I’m not going to lose over $300 on it any more.

CONNECT - Instagram / Strava / Discord / LinkedIn

Thanks for reading
- Raz