Although running can be quite boring especially on long easy runs I've almost never listened to music since the few times I've tried it I can't seem to enjoy it very much what with all the distractions around and poor sound quality. How do you keep the earphones in your ears anyway?

Thanks Helen. I'm working up to a marathon so doing a lot more long slow/steady running, so I've put those Sennheiser PMX80 on my chistmas list! You also make a good point about hearing whats going on around you. Its not so impotant when on your own as you simply be very careful at roads and cycle tracks but in races it can be very dangerous. I've done a lot of marshalling over the years and only recently have I had to scream at the top of my voice as headphones wearers veerinto the path of traffic, cycles and pedestrians and on two amazing accasions actually start running the wrong way down the course!

Helen for me the ultimate running track is The Killers Mr Brightside, it is just the perfect beat. Also like a bit of Muse but my ipod is very varied, have some good cheesy 80's stuff like Don't Stop Believing and Electric Dreams and the track that makes me laugh is the Rocky Theme tune it's perfect when you feel like you can't carry on! MGMT Time to pretend is good too

I'm only a relative beginner at running but I do enjoy having some music when I'm running on my own.

Here are a few of my favourites: the 'Underbelly' soundtrack (did anyone else watch this great Australian gangster series?), Costello Music by The Fratellis and(corny I know) 'Fit but you know it' by The Streets.

I've also just got the '101 Running Songs' album and started to listen to it on shuffle and this certainly makes a change.

I'm goona show my age here, I do like quite a variety of music to run, some of the better ones are Def Leppard, Queen, The Beatles, early Led Zep, T Rex, Bachman Turner Overdrive, ELO even some Wham and Showaddywaddy and some 70's hits by other various artists. I am a bit picky on the newer stuff such as Oasis :-)

I was dragged to a SugaBabes concert once and I must admit it wasn't too bad, nor was the music, oops going off track here.

A big thankyou to Trevor Meadway for recommending PODRUNNER. I'd never heard of this before.
After downloading a few of these over the weekend, I've just blasted more than a whole minute off my 5k personal best whilst running to a 175 bpm podcast.
Highly recommended !!

Craig

Hi Jo,
Yesterday I downloaded the 'sample session' from Audio Fuel and today I've just tried it out on a run. Gotta agree with you, its good and its very helpful.

I checked out their website and got the sample session from there, and then saved it to my i-tunes library. Then I did a search on the i-tunes store for 'Audio Fuel' and it returned about half a dozen of their sessions...and surprisingly enough they were all a couple of quid cheaper via i-tunes than what Audio Fuel themselves are chargeing.

Thanks for letting us know about Audio Fuel. Its definately a good training tool.

The thing is Martin, Audiofuel and the likes, have a consistent beat. It helps with the training if you can run in time with the beat. It helps with maintaining a specific time/pace rate etc etc.
Give it a go for a full run, you'll see what I mean.
You might just be converted ;)

pmsl Martin,
Oxymoron is a good descriptive if you hate it that much.

Hi everyone. I've returned to running after about 20 years so to all intents and purposes I'm a beginner. I thoughts I'd share my current 60 minute playlist which works well for me. 

1. Starlight - Muse 
2. Moonage Daydream - David Bowie
3. Mr. Brightside - The Killers
4. Uprising - Muse
5. Loaded - Primal Scream (for a great steady run, just put this on repeat)
6. Muscle Museum - Muse
7. Virginia Plain - Roxy Music
8. Cailifornication - Red Hot Chile Peppers
9. Optimistic - Radiohead
10. Movin' on up - Primal Scream
11. Shock the Monkey - Peter Gabriel
12. Some Velvet Morning - Primal Scream
13. Smile Like you mean it - The Killers

I must admit, I'm not currently running long enough to get to the end of this list, but getting there thanks in no small way to this site. No clubs near me so I run alone. GRG has really helped my motivation.

Cheers everyone.