What do/did you listen to while doing C25K? 🎧... - Couch to 5K
Please select all that apply:
I listened to music while doing C25k as I found the beat helpful. Several years later I now listen to audio books while running.
During races and parkrun I only listen to what's going on around me.
Blues music, the slow steady beat mirrored my running 😂😂
Music all the way for me. Mostly dance. Danny Howard’s Friday Night Dance Party on BBC sounds got me up a fair few hills!
I listened to the water tumbling over the rocks in the river, the dawn chorus, the sound of sheep bleating in the fields and the cows lowing on the moor.
If I want to run fast my go to is a playlist with copious amounts or Rancid and similar bands.
If I’m going slow and easy I’ve been trying podcasts lately
If I’m running with others - I love a chat!!
Julie! Truly!! 😜🤣🤣🤣
(Btw I understood this poll was about C25K listening, not post-C25K running. Not the same for me at all.)
The sounds around me… right now there’s lots of birdsong and also as the early lambs are not quite oven ready yet, the sheep are particularly noisy! Sometimes I run into the park, and the laughter of children is hard to beat. I’m also enjoying, rather strangely, the sound of the cars (preferably in the distance) which is going to be something that will dwindle over the next decade or two… meaning that I may really need rear facing radar on parts of some runs, those EV things are too quiet. I am about to order my first, but rest assured all runners local to me, you’ll hear me coming, the metal will be loud!
On the now rare occasions that my headphones leave the house, Coach Bennett is still teaching me to run the right way… we never stop learning! He’s good at getting me to slow down, and/or stick to the game plan… two things that will really help me next month, the 50k will not be fast 🤣
I’m currently coming towards the end of the C25K app which I’m redoing as I recover from injury. I normally listen to The Beautiful South, which is a favourite of mine. Once I’m back to running I’ll start using the NRC app and Coach Bennett, another favourite!I use Aeropex bone conducting headphones so I can hear what’s going on around me too.
Up until week 6 run 3 I was faithful to Laura 😁I started with the music (And Laura of course) from the first 25 Minute run when I used one of my all-time favourite pink Floyd tracks 'Echoes' this track is around 24 minutes long , so I knew I just needed to run until the music stopped!
A bit like musical chairs 😁
I now use a mixture of either music, podcasts , audio books , guided runs or just my surroundings.
It really depends on the mood and kind of run I'm doing 😁
Any of the euphoria disks, especially the Ibiza ones work for me or spotify music to run to
I put "the sounds around me" but if I was to rerun C25K I probably would vote radio or music.
I find the beat of music helpful to manage cadence, I'd love to be able to listen to the sounds around me but as a hearing aid user (I don't run with them in) I can't hear very much other than traffic. I also find audio books too much of a challenge for the same reason.
I need something with words to distract me from counting down the seconds. My go-to is the radio sketch comedy John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme!
I listened to the app, choosing Sarah Millican because she seemed the warmest and least intimidating. I now listen to music - current favourite being Taylor Swift's Folklore
I listened to a mix of Desert Island discs (I like the combination of chat and music) and podcasts. Bone conducting headphones have been a game changer for me, ordinary earphones just fall out of my ears, I love being able to hear both the music and the world around me.
When I was doing the training I just listened to Sarah Millican. Since graduating there was no longer any need for pauses during a run so I switched to music, and, more recently, I've moved on to audiobooks (free from from the library). My routine is the same as it always was - running Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, then walks or cycling in the evenings or in-between days. It doesn't take long to run through an audiobook (see what I did there?) by covering 15K most days. That is a combination of walking, gentle jogging or a slightly faster run, never an all-out sprint, I'm too old for that. 🙂
Being in Croatia now I love listening to 101.9 Gator Country from Ft. Myers / FL. Used to be there for vacation for over 20 years.
I listened to the breakfast programme from Irish classical music station RTE Lyric FM. I'm in the UK. The regular presenter doesn't take himself seriously at all and also plays easy listening type music. (A little bit like the late Terry Wogan's BBC Radio 2 breakfast programme.)
Sometimes I sang... but only when no-one else was around!🙂
I sing (once I'm out of the village), but sometimes wonder whether car drivers wonder about the dotty old bat running up the road singing 😂
Whilst I was using the C25K app with the trainer voices, I listened to music or music radio. Once I graduated I switched to spoken word podcasts or downloaded radio programmes. The only exception is organised events like parkrun, where I don't listen to anything but the sounds around me.
All of the above, at some time or another. Sometimes multiple at once. 🏃🏼😀👍🏽👏
I listened to the C25K podcast with Laura. Did listen to week 9 and 8 for about 3 more weeks before I put together an individual playlist.
I’m afraid I’m old enough to enjoy Sounds of the Sixties on BBC Sounds.
Music, but through on ear headphones that are in a headband, so I can also hear sounds around me. I download Don Letts' from BBC sounds. Usually uplifting, rarely too frenetic.
If I want specific cadence music (I haven't run all my music through a BPM analyser yet) I go mainly for 90bpm rather than 180, quite a bit of Jurassic 5 is the right BPM although I've found some of The Hives is 180.
Started with the podcast music but that got fed up with it and switched to my own music. Mostly a relaxation music album which helped me go slow and appreciate nature. Husband recommended dance music with fast beat but not for me!
The lovely Laura
I started off without music then quickly moved to my own music to distract me!
During C25K I listened to Jo Whiley & my own music in between her coaching.
I would like to know what music people listen too, I never seem to get one to match my steps.
Is there a song that you know that is quite close to your pace?
Apart from my own music I’m a big Radio Tay fan too for the music and I get to hear the local news which I miss with being out here in Qatar.
Audio book and podcasts in the early weeks, then music. Now love my 80s playlist (augmented by CBDB), also my edgier 80s playlist - Mudhoney, Faith No More and Fugazi get me going, amongst others!
I listened to the nice, friendly voice of the trainer on the wonderful Get Running app!
I listened to Laura and the accompanying groovy music whilst doing C25K. Now I listen to my own playlists using Aftershokz so can hear better what's going on around me.
I listened to the app which had music in the parts where the trainer want speaking. I use music now. Maybe I should try to do without it - maybe I’ll give it a try 😊
I started off with the podcast with Laura and her not so great music, but once I found the app it was the lovely Jo Whiley and my own playlist.
I could never go on a run without something to listen to. I have had my headphones fail on me before and all I had to listen to was my heavy breathing! Urgh! Cheesy 90s pop is usual go to! 😁
Just the trainer when I was doing C25K, but ever since then it's been dance and heavy rock / metal. Quite the mix 😁
Music, but very rarely music with a run tempo beat or 'motivational' upbeat music. Very often very chilled out music. Sometimes I run just with the sounds around me, depending on where I am. I like the sound of my footsteps too.
As well as music, podcasts and audio books I often use a NRC guided run and have done the odd Zombie run. Mostly I chat to my running buddy.
I thought I would miss Laura after graduating but I don't. I usually listen to Radio X live - Chris Moyles on Saturday or Johnny Vaughan in the week, if not I listen to my Spotify.
If I’m on my own usually an audio book or radio 2.
Hi @roseabi hope you're well. My favourite was Michael Johnson - I found him so motivating and then I switched to Laura, (who was also very good), when Michael was no longer on the app. In addition to which I always listened to music during my c25k runs - mostly R&B dance tracks and power anthems from the 2000s onwards- something either with a good beat or uplifting. Sometime after graduating I switched to bone conduction headphones which means I could hear the traffic more easily as well as people around me which is great from a safety perspective. 🤗
Ed Sheerans latest album got me through C25K, since graduating I’ve moved on to the soundtrack of “The greatest show”, it’s amazing to run to.
Mostly listen to the voices in my head. Sorting out things and filing things away. Occasionally quiet music accompanies these thoughts, ( usually ABBA). Absorbing Nature plays the biggest part in my running... soaking up the sights, sounds, scents and feeling of the world around me as I run. Tucking those feelings away to ramble about in my log when I get home
Podcasts for me, I don't think I'd have got this far on C25K without them. The usual is Josh Widdicombe and Rob Becketts Parenting Hell, which makes me laugh through the pain and sweat.
Given how short those runs were I went with various muaic styles - from upbeat to slow, from frenetic to lethargic, rock to classical. The key is to listen to music that you would normally listen to at home. If you listen to something that you like/love, you will enjoy yourself more, the hard run may become a much easier and enjoyable run as a result.
However, if you go with what somebody else recommended you may end up in the middle of a horror show. Put it this way. If I listened to contemporary pop music I would run towards the high cliff (Thelma & Louise style) and simply launch myself off the edge, legs and arms akimbo, head on first. Now, that's a very bad outcome. The morale is, always listen to your own stuff, whatever that may be.
Laura again
I listen to the cattle mooing, the magpies and kookaburras calling. Cockatoo’s and galahs screeching. My dog running around and the odd bark. The water in the creek.
I listen to mostly dance music and had Sarah Millican as the C25k coach, as I liked her reassuring and yet encouraging voice!
Showing my age now but it's Sounds of the Sixties with Tony Blackburn for me....
I listen to the BBC Sounds Pacesetter music podcast. Its a great mix of music and the occasional comments of encouragement. Its a great mix to have that as well as the C25K app on which cuts in whenever the coach wants to tell you something.
