When music hits you, you feel no pain

Some running luminaries' favorite albums from 2024, and some thoughts on the benefits of listening to music and podcasts while running.

I love music, but I don’t listen to music while I run. I’m in the minority there. At least 75% of runners run with music or podcasts flowing into their ears, but in my former life as a music journalist, my runs were the only hour of the day that I wasn’t listening to music.

There are many reasons to listen to music and podcasts while running. Music can be used to maintain a metronomic cadence, for instance, and can distract a runner from those moments when running truly sucks, of course, but did you know that you can also train your brain to do two things at once? Consider the benefits of using that cognitive space that you achieve while running to learn about Greek mythology while traversing a technical trail at the same time. That’s valuable work. Efficient!

On my earbud-free runs, I’ve slowly honed my moving meditation practice where I absorb and apprec…