A day without earbuds.

@postaday 303; #postaday2011.

I like to talk to my daughters using my earbuds for my iPhone, and I also have a little green Bluetooth device that I use, and if all fails, I use the speaker, and turn it down as much as I can. Fortunately, not many are around when their daily morning call comes. The girls are on their way to school in John’s car, and they take turns saying hi and we discuss their day and our plans for the evening. It’s nice. When they are on break and everyone sleeps in, I don’t get the calls. Kinda lonely…

I have some other loopy headphones that I can use, but not with the phone component. That’s OK. I might not even bother listening to music today while I’m working. I’ve gotten through the morning without them, I’ve been very busy, and here I am writing the blog at lunch time.

Week five of #5kin100days has a suggestion that we not run to music. I haven’t been, because I’ve been running/walking with my daughters. I enjoy listening to them talk or huff and puff behind me. I like being aware of what’s around me, an oncoming dog, a speeding car. The bicycles that go by us are soundless, but I recognize the glow of light that shows up from behind me. Brad Gansberg of the #5kin100days program suggests that instead of listening to music we listen to our foot falls, our breathing, our own personal rhythm, and let those pull us into the zone. My husband John had suggested I not run with music, too. Reluctantly, I gave it up, and now I don’t mind.

I never ride my bicycle with earbuds or tunes, because bicycling requires complete awareness. I dare say it requires more than complete awareness, because that limits you to yourself. You need to be aware of what others are up to,  as well. I watch drivers and I see them not see me and I anticipate that they’ll pull in front of me, so I linger at a light longer than another bicyclist would. I cannot imagine wearing earbuds while riding. I can hear my breathing, I can hear my bicycle as it rolls around and hits the bumps in the asphalt. I can hear the cars and trucks, the motorcycles, the scooters, and the Bible buggies with scripture written on the sides to protect the tourists who probably thought it would be fun riding around Oahu in something about as safe as a bushel of tomatoes that fell off the truck on its way to the Campbell’s Soup factory in Camden, N.J.

I need to hear all that. And I also need to hear the thoughts — and sometimes the snippets of songs — that bounce around in my brain while my legs pump for miles and miles in the morning sun.

I’ll get through today without my earbuds. But don’t ask me to give them up at 24-Hour Fitness Hawaii Kai. If there is one place I need to escape my pain and suffering, the sweat and stink, the fake boobs and the massive egos, it’s while doing my workout on the helliptical!