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 diagno…