Introvert or Extrovert and Musical Motivation

A few weeks Dean Karnazes blogged about whether runners are as a rule introverts or extroverts. He commented that his assumption was that most runners are introverts and  enjoy running to escape the noisiness and stimulus of everyday life. However he is questionning his assumption due to the fact of the popularity of running groups and new runners (and many veteran runners) enjoying the social element of training with partners.

Those who know me know that I am an extrovert. I chose a career that allowed me to be surrounded by others all day. I love the feeling of feeding off of the energy of those around me as well as sharing my energy with them. And when it comes to running and doing hard workouts, I prefer to train in a group (I even enjoy doing classes at the local gym instead of working out alone). There have been many training runs that  I would not have completed (or even tried) alone, but because I was training with a group (SRRA Monday night workouts), I pushed through. The energy, comraderie and feedback all aid in getting through the difficult parts.

This is not to say that I do not enjoy taking some time for myself. I do enjoy completing my long runs alone. For some reason, I prefer to do this part of my training without fellow runners. It could be that the solitude allows me to  comtemplate life or write my next paper or prepare my next presentation or plan my next lesson or... well you get the  picture. It allows me to organize my thoughts and put my life (somewhat) in order! That is not to say I will decline an offer for accompaniment during a long run, but for the most part long runs are a solitary activity.

Now when running alone, I do occasionally run with music. I enjoy providing a soundtrack to my movement. Again, if I am doing a hard workout, I find that the right musical background (usually 90s dance music; I like to move it, move it. I like to MOVE IT!) can help me push through the difficult parts. The right beat can provide the perfect cadence to push through those 400m repeats, 60sec intervals or those nasty but necessary hill runs.

What do you think? Are you an introvert, extrovert or a mix of the two when it comes to running? Do you get motivated by a music selection or do you prefer to run without a soundtrack?

A la prochaine...