Today’s run: 5.6 miles, 1:02 min. YT: 86.5 miles. Little energy to speak of until mile four. But that’s alright. I let my body and mind relax, and I saw a lot of exotic dogs. We can’t be a coked up David Bowie circa 1973 on every single run.
Dr. Drew runs to fire up his creativity, too. From Runner’s World:
I wrote almost an entire book while I was running. I can free associate while I run, so I wrote the book Cracked almost entirely while running. Judith Regan, who was the editor and publisher of the book, sort of challenged me to come up with stories. So I went on a run and brought a tape recorder with me. You get into a different mindset when you are running. I would just tell these stories that ended up being the foundation of the book I was writing. I have more spontaneous and interesting thoughts out there, so I would dictate them and then I would transcribe them at home. But the actual story, the things I was saying, I had to run to get my mind in the right place to be that creative and spontaneously trust what was coming out of my head. I’m better at it now because I have written a bit since then, but then I didn’t know what I was doing. I’ve never been in a spontaneously creative process before and the running really helped with that.
I like my method better: A series of mnemonic cues storied in a list in the back of my brain that I regurgitate onto a pad the moment I get home. It’s possible that if I carried a recorder I’d get much more written. But I really don’t like to verbalize my mental scribbles, until they’re written down. It tends to bring them down like a Jenga tower.
Note that Murakami, in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, says that he rarely gets anything on his runs that would be usable in a book. I think he’s a much more intuitive, gut-level writer. That’s probably because he is GENIUS.
Has anyone read the doc’s book, Cracked? And do you have useful, actionable thoughts, revelations, or insights while running, or do you prefer to zone out?
When I was in grad school, I’d go on a run and try to solve physics problems. Being totally immersed makes me sharper, but sometimes it makes me blind to a solution that’s already mostly there. Relaxing a little makes the whole thing crystallize. Sometimes.
I had already learned in undergrad that it’s useful to step back when you’ve struggled with a question too long. In grad school, I figured out that I could relax into that state sooner when I ran, less than 45 min. compared to 2 hours of mindless tv or video games. I was totally haphazard about the running itself though, a few times I found myself running outside at 3am!
Physics research uses a different mental muscle than writing, but both require that you trust where your ideas lead you.
Elodie, you’re a physicist? That’s amazing. They are the poets of science. It all makes sense now. :)
It’s a lie! I can’t remember now which physicist is responsible, but writing poetry is REALLY HARD. It’s even harder if you try after doing physics all day.
As we say in Boston, Elodie is wicked smaht!