...as time went on, I started to give up my headphones for training runs as well. I am typing this, obviously, staring at a screen. The computer is also playing music, which I enjoy as I write. When I finish writing in a little bit, I will go have myself some lunch, and of course I'll play some music or news, and maybe even look at another screen. After lunch, I'll go rake some leaves or do some other tasks, with headphones firmly in my ears; I'll enjoy music over dinner, and then finish my day by watching another, larger screen with some content that, I hope, can command my entire attention.
If I don't leave my headphones behind when I run, I wouldn't spend a single minute of my waking life free from input.
I have a friend who wears headphones on long solo runs because, he says, "I can't spend that much time alone in my head." I disagree. He can, and he should. Spending that much time inside one's head, alone with the voices and the bats hanging from the various dendrites and neurons, is one of the best things about running, or at least one of the most therapeutic. Your brain is like a duvet cover: every once in a while, it needs to be aired out.
From The Incomplete Book of Running (p. 65) by Peter Sagal
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