Books on Tape SUCK!!!!! (Read 859 times)

So I had an 18 miler yesterday in my quest to do another marathon (after a 3 year hiatus). I did an 18 miler about 3 weeks ago and it went great. I felt good all the way though and even picked up the pace a notch or two for the last 7 miles. This one - not so much. I decided (for some stupid reason) that I would try listening to a book on tape while I ran it. I figured I am going to be out there for about 2 and a half hours, so might as well be doing something productive. So I jumped on itunes and downloaded "The Gingerbread Girl" by Stephen King. It said it was about a woman who used running to help cope with the problems in her life, so hey it's running related. I usually listen to music, and never really realized how much the music helped motivate me and keep me going. The montonous droning on of the book (which BTW was actually a pretty good story) just seemed to hurt my running for some reason. The run was miserable. My legs got stiff about half-way through and stayed that way. Even though ti was 5:00 AM it was still 75 degrees with 80% humidity so breathing was tough and I was completely drenched in sweat by 3 miles. The book ended around mile 15 and I switched over to music. Within two miles I felt my running stride start to come back a little and may have even gone sub-8:00 for the last mile. So I think I'll stick to music and actually READING books instead. In retrospect it was stupid because I now recall trying this before with a long run and that run was miserable as well. I just never attributed it to what I was listening to. Just venting a bit. Jeff

I find fiction especially hard to listen to when it's very detailed or has a bunch of characters and elements. One complaint I have heard is that books on tape are slow.... well you can speed them up depending on the format... or do some post processing on the files before loading them on a player. On my runs, I stick to longer podcasts (30-90 minutes) and non-fiction books.

I prefer to get mine in digital form.. I don't even own a working tape player anymore.

I tried the audio book thing last month. I started with a fiction book and then wanted to move on to the possiblity of learning a new language. I thought the same thing about being out for 2 hours, I might as well do something productive. So I went to Itunes and downloaded a book. The book ended up being so good! I found out that I slowed down by at least a minute!! I'm already a slow enough runner!! I even found myself walking a few times without even realizing it. I got so sucked into the book I wasn't concentrating on running anymore. If anyone was thinking of trying an audio book while running, don't even bother, stick with music!

I don't listen to music or podcasts/audio books/teleseminars when I'm running, so I can't say how they are for running. I much prefer listening to the audio books and recorded teleseminars and the occasional podcast over my car stereo when I'm driving, though. That works out a lot better for me than listening to music. Sometimes I'll listen to sports talk radio, but most of the guys on there get on my nerves.

I figured I am going to be out there for about 2 and a half hours, so might as well be doing something productive.

I have the exact opposite feeling when I'm reading. It feels like I'm wasting time that I could be working out with. I've never felt unproductive while working out.

Try learning a language. The Pimsleur (sp?) tapes are first-rate. You could learn Chinese in 3 long runs!