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Post # 6 - Final Blog Post

 My genius hour project taught me that I'm not the only one who feels passionately about the connections between music and running.  There are countless articles and online conversations on the topic, and the effect music has on running performance differs from one person to the next.  That said, it appears that the majority of people feel music has a positive influence on their running and on their running performance specifically.  What I enjoyed most was that doing a Genius Hour project allowed me to work on a topic that was interesting and meaningful to me.  Being able to go out for run, which is one of my favorite activities, and having it be a part of my research was a joy!  I also really like making the video component.  It was the most time consuming, but also a skill that I really wanted to begin to work at, and this forced me to do so. My most significant challenge came about in my running experiments.  For me to personally benefit from running, I need it to help me reach
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Post #5 - Another experiment, how about a good conversation?

 For my research this week, I considered a new question:  could I possibly use methods other than music to get a similar performance boost? Specifically, it occurred to me that running while engaged in a lively conversation might also proved the same benefits as music, by distracting me from perceived effort etc. Typically I almost always run alone, and I much prefer it this way.  I prefer to run on my own for many reasons:  I like to set my own pace and not be tied to others, I like to get lost in my thoughts, I want to be able to alter the distance of my run during the activity (go further if I'm feeling good, cut it short if I'm tired).  This also means I almost never talk while I'm running, and have very little experience with it. My wife on the other hand loves to run with people, and even helps lead a popular run group in Toronto.  I know that she feels she benefits from chatting with others while running, and that it helps pass the time and get her into a steady flow
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Post #4 - Trying a different approach to my Genius Hour research

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Since my personal experiment with running with music didn't yield many useful results, I decided to take a different approach this week. I used the Google Forms quiz skill that I learned in class last week to make a very quick survey about running and music, then shared it on my Facebook page, as I have lots of friends who are runners on there. I wanted to make the survey as quick as possible in hopes that more people would then take the time to complete it.  I asked two questions, and then provided a space to write any thoughts if they like: Do you find listening to music when you run boosts your performance? Might you consider listening to music during some competitive runs as cheating? (Optional space to share your thoughts) Would you like to elaborate on your thoughts in regard to music as a method of cheating in competitive races?  If so, feel free to add your thoughts here. Thank you again! Here's the link to my survey:  https://forms.gle/BAgnzxDGgvZMZA2h8 Within just a f
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Post #3 My Genius Hour Research continued...

For this week I went for a one hour run. During the first half of the run I listened to music, and during the second half of the run I had the music off. Here's a link to the activity and my pace:  https://www.strava.com/activities/5964395703 To be honest, I didn't fund my result were very conclusive. First, you'll notice from the splits that there appears to be little to no difference in the pacing when comparing the two halves of the run.  The last section is slightly downhill, and any small increase in pace there can be attributed to that. You might recall from my research last week that the articles I read said that music tends to help disassociative runners, which I very much am.  This means that when I run I like to enter a disassociative state, that might be described as meditative or semi-conscious. The act of performing this experiment actually hindered me from attaining that state, and I found myself much more consciously aware than I like to be.  Being in this
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Post #2 My Genius Hour Research

This week I spent my genius hour researching online about the effect music has on running performance. I was able to find several articles on the topic from major running magazines.  I was also able to find a video of an interview that became a hot-topic in the running community, where an athlete claimed listening to music while running is "cheating". Below I will copy and paste my research notes, which include links to the articles and the video. From the articles I found that several sport psychiatrists have opinions on the topic, and quite a few studies have been done on the topic.  Also, the running magazines have done their own polls from their readers to gauge personal opinions among runners.  The specific details of these findings can be found in my research notes below, and will be explained in more detail by me in future blog posts. I learned that it appears there is quite extensive and conclusive research on the specific question as to whether running affects perfor
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Post #1 Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone!  My name is Tim Smith and I'm a teacher candidate studying at Brock University. My goal for this blog is to familiarize myself with Blogger by coming up with a Genius Hour question, then measuring my weekly progress solving that question using blog posts. My Genius Hour question is:  How and why does listening to music affect athletic performance in runners? The reason I chose this question is that it marries two of my greatest passions: music and running.  I'm a career musician, and have been teaching guitar since 1996.  Meanwhile, purely as a hobby, I'm an avid runner, and have often found myself listening to music while I run.  I've certainly noticed the effect music has had on my performance, but I'm curious to explore any research and other opinions on the topic.
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