Tim's Genius Hour Blog

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 With...

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.  Be...

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 pe...

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.