Next step of technology and running.

I just wrote a post on finding happiness and freedom while you run. In that post one of the comments I made was:

Here's a short list of things you might want to do in order to help facilitate this feeling yourself:

- leave all gadgets at home (hr monitor, gps, watch)

- run a route you know (getting lost is scary not freeing)

- every once in a while, say to yourself out loud how thankful you are that you can run

- do not get caught up in a single thought

- pay close attention to how your body feels (breathing, cadence, etc.)

The basic concept is to use your running session to associate with your body and your movement. This morning in my RSS reader, I had a link to a blog entry by Brad Feld. You should check the set up that he has created to help facilitate getting in some runs. You could say that what he has created is the exact opposite to the ideas I had. His "treadputer" (not sure if that is trademarked yet or not) helps the user remain completely interactive with the world while disassociating from the run.

Both can be good ideas, but I dislike treadmills so much that I can not imagine that I would be end up being productive doing either task - working or running. I must ongratulate him though in innovating something for himself that increases his productivity and incorporates something he enjoys doing.

The other aspect - besides associating vs. disassociating - to this story that comes from the first few comments, relates to mental capacity while running. I have always felt that I think incredibly clear while running. In fact, I have often wondered if I could somehow rig up a recorder to take notes on thoughts I have during runs. There seems to be so many good ideas, innovative ideas, that I have while running. Unfortunately, they are thoughts that I often can not get back once I'm done running.

I have no idea what causes this phenomena? Maybe it is due to some state-dependent consciousness that only occurs during a physiological state that results from running? A similar situation or line-of-thought to that presented by Candace Pert in Molecules of Emotion.

Whatever the case, I know that this clarity of thought rarily happens when on a treadmill. That could be the beauty of Feld's creation. On a treadmill, it may be better to disassociate yourself as much as you can from the run.

I can't wait until virtual reality treadmills are common place, because I want a treadmill that allows me to run in the moutains one day and on the beach the next. Until then, I'll get out of bed and run in the 20 degree temperatures.