I recently listened to a few episodes of Extramilest, a podcast about marathon running hosted by Floris Gierman, featuring Scott Johnston, a climber, skier, and mountain runner who has coached many elite athletes. Johnston is also the co-author of Training for the Uphill Athlete, with Kilian Jornet, one of the greatest ultra runners in the world. Across two episodes (here and here), Johnston offered one of the clearest explanations I’ve heard of two critical markers of endura

Runners have all kinds of habits when it comes to music and podcasts. One person I know has run the New York City Marathon the past two years and, both times, listened to the same Taylor Swift song on repeat for the entire race. And no, it wasn’t “Welcome To New York.” More commonly, though, the question isn’t what to listen to, but whether to listen at all. My usual answer is that it’s a personal choice. If running with music or a podcast makes the experience more enjoyable,