Slarty Bartfast says:

These long runs have basically made me sick of my favorite music. Sometimes I will throw a few Pandora podcasts into my playlist and once I listened to the MeFi podcast. There was a forum post further down that mentioned a couple of running podcasts. Are there any others I should check out? What other tricks do you use to keep your mind occupied during a three hour run?

 notsnot says:

"These long runs have basically made me sick of my favorite music" is an excellent way of putting it. (in other news, Ipod "random" shuffle, my ass.

I've actually found what would otherwise would be nap-inducing, folk music, to at least keep a good beat to move to.

 ph00dz says:

I don't really listen to music while I run, more for practical reasons than anything, though. On the weekends, I mostly do my long runs on the trails at South Mountain, a gigantic urban park on the outskirts of Phoenix. There are tons of mountain bikers up there, and I don't really wanna get run over. There's also all kinds of crazy nature out there like coyotes and snakes and wild pigs, so while none of it is a real threat to me, I've gotta be somewhat vigilant.

During the week, I run with a dog who loves just about every second of the adventures I take him on. That never gets boring... so many things to pee on!

Anyway... I guess I feel like when I run, that's one of the few times I'm not bored. I'm not a treadmill guy for a reason; I just love the fresh air, the scenery, seeing how the neighborhood is changing, saying "hi" to all the cute girls, etc...

I've been doing more street running just 'cuz it's been dark during the week before / after work and I don't dig it as much, but on the trails, I just find that I'm completely engaged dealing with different terrain and footing and whatnot.

 Slarty Bartfast says:

I think I just need to change my thinking about distance running. I used to need something to motivate me because running was hard for me. Now that I am struggling much less I think I could probably ditch the tunes, maybe even run with someone else and carry on a conversation.

I also forgot to mention This American Life. I put one of those on at the start of a long run and it killed an hour like it was nothing.

 liet says:

If you want to keep your mind on running, Pheddipidations is a good podcast (or was a few years ago, I haven't listened recently): www.steverunner.com

 ph00dz says:

Outta curiosity, where do you guys run?

One really good multi-sport podcast is enduranceplanet.com... they seem to have kicked it up a notch recently and really boosted the variety of content they cover.

 Slarty Bartfast says:

I'm in Seattle. With daylight savings time, I can finally do my midweek runs outside again, off the treadmill. (I will run in the cold. I will run in the dark. I will run in the rain. I will not run in the cold, dark, rain.)

So my long runs are usually a three or four mile loop that I keep going around, either Discover Park, a wooded area along Puget Sound or around Green Lake, an urban park with hundreds of runners. Since I am kind of a novice with distance runs, I want to be within a mile or two of the car in case of injury or if I bonk.

 Slarty Bartfast says:

um, "Discovery" Park

 brautigan says:

Stand-up comedy albums or good radio show podcasts. Always listen to www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/brand and it makes my, albeit short, runs fly by with a smile on my face. The weather here in Scotland is rain, snow, wind, dark and grim so anything that helps get me out and running is a godsend.

 soplerfo says:

Lately my running podcasts have been: This American Life, Car Talk, The Joystiq Podcast, This Week in Tech. Though, more and more, I've discovered I'm enjoying running without anything in my ears. Good thinking time...

 hb Leonard Cohen says:

Slarty,
Have you tried mining archive.org? www.archive.org/details/audio

Welcome to the Archive's audio and MP3 library. This library contains over a hundred thousand free digital recordings ranging from native news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users. Many of these audios and MP3s are available for free download.

I agree, getting stronger has made the music less mandatory, now I can listen to all sorts of stuff and don't have to ruin my favorite songs by using them for motivation. -L