Running Outdoors? Leave Your iPod Home

So long, Black Eyed Peas. Goodbye Pitbull. I have to leave you and my iPod home when I go on my next run around the neighborhood.

You’re just not good for me.

I’ve always known subconsciously that running around the streets in my subdivision with the music turned up as loud as comfortably possible, is not the smartest thing. I can’t hear anything but music when I run. It actually helps me tune out how hard I’m pushing myself and panting to reach the next block.

It really is no surprise that apparently I’m also oblivious to the moving vehicles around me.

A sobering study published this week tells it like it is.

The number of pedestrians injured while wearing headphones has tripled in the last six years. Seventy percent of the victims died.

Now, two-thirds of them were male and under 30 – which doesn’t apply to me – but here’s the scary part: in one-third of the cases, the victim didn’t hear a warning sound from the car or train.

Sigh. I really can’t ignore these statistics. And neither should you.

Looks like I’ll need to save the music for the treadmill or get used to the sound of my own labored breathing.

Alice Warchol is a freelance writer and fitness instructor.

Sources: University of Maryland Medical Center news release; the peer-reviewed journal Injury Prevention

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