17 of the Best Running Podcasts Worth Checking Out
To be a committed runner takes a lot of motivation, inspiration, self-love, and endurance. The best way to get motivated, inspired and properly informed is by finding the advice that speaks to you the most. Listening to podcasts is a great way to stay upbeat, and updated, and to keep putting one foot in front of the other, day after day.
Being a runner means withstanding a roller coaster of pain and joy. Why do we keep coming back to it? What makes us enjoy it so much? How do we stay healthy? How do we get the most out of our running experiences? And how do others succeed at the goals I am also anxious to achieve?
Find time to listen to your favourite podcast hosts and their influential guests during your morning commute, morning workout, or during your long weekend.
17 of the Best Running Podcasts
1. The Running for Real Podcast
Aside from some special episodes, this podcast is typically divided into ten 10-minute segments, with each segment covering a different topic designed to carry you through about one mile of running at a time.
Topics run the gamut but are often on the lighter side, such as discussions about bathroom breaks, “pacer stories from hell,” or getting lost on the trail. So, if you’d like some friendly banter to help get you through your next long run, consider giving this podcast a try.
Muir believes running can be a vehicle for social change and is also passionate about dealing with climate issues. These matters are often woven through the episodes, resulting in the listener learning about more than just running.
2. Ultrarunnerpodcast.com
Ultrarunnerpodcast.com was created in 2011 for passionate mountain, ultra, and trail runners. This podcast caters to beginner runners or those runners who have seen many moons. Join host Eric Schranz and co-host Sarah Lavender Smith any time, any day!
The hosts provide sport-specific information and feature elite runners, veterans, wacky characters, and a variety of qualified experts. They discuss all the topics that lead to successful adventures and races out on the trails, beer, hear reviews, and light bantering. URP is about an hour long, but packed full!
3. The Morning Shakeout
If you’re looking to hear from the biggest names in the running world, this podcast, hosted by Mario Fraioli, is for you. Fraioli gets top athletes and coaches to open up about their lives in this entertaining running podcast.
The episodes, which come out once a week and typically run an hour or more, provide in-depth, inspiring conversations that are the perfect accompaniment to a morning run.
Additionally, the show notes are quite detailed, so if you’re looking for a particular topic or wondering what a specific episode covers, it’s a simple matter of browsing through the notes.
4. Talk Ultra Podcast
Talk Ultra is a podcast bringing its listeners news, reviews, and interviews from around the ultra-running community. Ian Corless, a British photographer and writer, hosts ultra-marathon interviews, insights, and advice. Corless reports on worldwide endurance seasons with commentary and discussions about events and with race participants.
Talk Ultra is for runners and running enthusiasts. Every two weeks he releases a new episode covering the world of ultra-running. Listeners deem this podcast motivating and inspiring.
5. Marathon Training Academy
This long-running podcast is hosted by running coach Angie Spencer and her husband Trevor and, as the name implies, is geared toward runners training for marathons.
Episodes are jam-packed with information and advice (and an occasional high-profile guest) and are presented in a straightforward, but not too serious, manner.
The topics are sometimes quite marathon-specific, but often involve general advice about training, nutrition, and injury prevention useful to runners focusing on any distance.
6. Another Mother Runner Podcast
Another Mother Runner is a one-stop resource for all female runners, but specifically, for mothers who seek to have it all – running, family, jobs, and sanity. Dimity McDowell and Sara Bowen Shea, founders, create a space for like-minded women with high goals and challenges. The best part, is they even talk on the uphill – your best running friends who are always ready to run and entertain.
Mothers talk about the personal stuff from training, nutrition, motivation, and mental toughness to TMI issues and how to reach their big race goals. Be inspired by this witty, funny, and conversational podcast.
With episodes devoted to how to run after breast reduction or augmentation, who are the best running friends, running with depression and anxiety, weight loss, mindfulness, time management, and nutrition.
Post your burning questions on their AMR Answers website page and they will answer your questions on their Another Mother Runner Podcast feed biweekly.
7. LetsRun.Com’s Track Talk
If you’re interested in knowing what’s going on behind the scenes of professional running, including marathoning and the world of track and field, this is the podcast for you.
Hosted by Jonathan Gault and Robert Johnson, this running podcast, like the LetsRun website, is not always politically correct and sometimes feels a bit thrown together. The hosts, however, do know what’s going on in the running world and manage to convey a great deal of information that might be difficult to find otherwise.
This podcast is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re curious about what’s going on at the highest levels of the running world, you may find it worth a listen.
8. Running Rogue Podcast
Running Rogue Podcast, from Austin, Texas, discusses everything from training principles to the ethics of doping to dominating the mental strategy. Gain experience through listening to Running Rogue founders Carolyn Mangold, Ruth England, Steve Sisson and coach Chris McClung.
Rogue Running is an organization that was created to train amateur and professional runners. They had the vision to create training programs for runners that want to go beyond the “show and go” models.
Running Rogue takes the advanced training methods of the best professional athletes and applies those same principles to the everyday runner. Even while everyone’s running pace is different, the principles could still be applied to help each runner meet their maximum potential.
The podcast, an offshoot of the organization, is an educational and informative source about all topics connected to running. The podcast covers topics about mental training, marathon pace setting, race planning, and reports on doping scandals. Rogue Running is the weekly dose of technical running insights.
9. Trail Runner Nation
Hosts Don Freeman and Scott Warr cover a wide range of topics, primarily related to trail running, but talk about many issues, such as mental focus, nutrition, and pacing strategy, that are likely to be of interest to all runners.
The hosts, and their guests, are clearly quite knowledgeable, but they manage to present information in a fun manner and genuinely seem to want to help others find joy in running.
They are also very good at distilling general information into specific, actionable advice.
10. Running Stupid
Running Stupid recognizes the unsung heroes of the race – those at the back of the pack. Runners who know true endurance talk about their experiences in clever and entertaining ways. Your host, Ken Michal, is hilarious and unique, an authentic ambassador to ultrarunning.
A heavy smoker for 20 years (2.5 packs a day) to an ultra-runner who does not take for granted his loyal podcast community, the ‘Stupid heads.’ Disclaimer: these podcasts are meander, Ken goes off course and requires your patience, but the experience will turn out great rewards with infectious laughter. “I think a positive attitude and a smile are the most effective tricks an ultrarunner can have in their arsenal!”
11. Koopcast
Ultramarathon coach Jason Koop hosts this running podcast, which focuses on trail and ultrarunning with an emphasis on the science behind various running topics.
Koop covers everything from mental skills to strength training, from breathing techniques to polarized training to the effect cannabis has on training and performance. He also talks about current topics in the ultramarathon world, including the problem with doping in this sport.
Koop is extremely knowledgeable on a range of topics and also has guests who are experts in their fields, but he manages to keep the conversations clear and entertaining. You will definitely feel more well-informed after listening to this running podcast.
12. The 300 Pounds and Running Podcast Network
The 300 Pounds and Running Podcast reminds us all that no matter who we are and where we are coming from or headed running is for us. Host Martinus Evans is an RRCA-run coach, author and award-winning speaker. Evans is on a journey for better health and a better self.
He is passionate about helping others be the best they can be. Evans covers weight loss, running, CrossFit, healthy lifestyle changes, recipes, meal plans, positive thinking, overcoming barriers, self-love, forgiveness, chasing values, achieving goals, and more. This is the show for non-athletes looking for the push and the hold to become the best athletic self they can be.
13. Not Your Average Runner
This podcast, directed by legit running and life trainer Jill Angie, was created mostly for middle-aged, plus-size women who are trying running for the first time, but it actually offers plenty of guidance that everybody can benefit from.
Angie disposes of the casual banter typical of so many running podcasts and instead dives right into her topic, which is usually well thought out and presented clearly with specific points to consider and simple, often itemized, recommendations regarding actions you can take. She is funny and regularly uses some spicy language, but cuts to the chase and provides solid information and advice on a wide range of topics.
14. Training for Ultra
Training for Ultra is a weekly podcast to help get listeners out the door and hit the road or trail. The host, Rob Steger, shares interviews with elite runners to mid and back-of-the-pack athletes, all amazing and inspiring individuals out there to achieve their individual goals.
Rob started running in 2015 after his father experienced a major health scare. After losing weight, Rob set the goal of running an ultramarathon. His journey from day one – being unable to run a single mile – until now – finishing more than 18 ultramarathons shows how inspiring his personal story is.
Rob is a self-proclaimed “middle-of-the-pack crusher” and loves the running community. Training for Ultra encourages you to set your sights on a goal that motivates you to the core.
15. Ten Junk Miles
Main host Scotty Kummer – described in the show notes as “possibly the most painstakingly average runner known to man” – does not necessarily cover any running topic or conduct interviews better than any other podcast host, but the unique format of this podcast makes it worth including on this list.
Aside from some special episodes, this podcast is typically divided into ten 10-minute segments, with each segment covering a different topic designed to carry you through about one mile of running at a time.
Topics run the gamut but are often on the lighter side, such as discussions about bathroom breaks, “pacer stories from hell,” or getting lost on the trail. So, if you’d like some friendly banter to help get you through your next long run, consider giving this podcast a try.
16. Marathon Talk Podcast
Marathon Talk Podcast is the United Kingdom’s number-one running podcast. Marathon Talk hosts Martin Yelling and Tom Williams have raised to the top of the running podcast charts. They release a free weekly show, which receives 5 million downloads from listeners across the world for a reason.
Martin runs for the physical and mental health benefits of running. Martin is a former international runner and an elite athlete. He has a PhD in physical activity promotion and is an experienced endurance coach, writer, and presenter.
Tom experienced his first endurance sport in his late twenties and since then has completed over 20 marathons, an Iron-distance triathlon, and the Comrades Ultra.
What better pair than these two for opposites attract in the marathon running community.
17. LetsRun.Com’s Track Talk
If you’re interested in knowing what’s going on behind the scenes of professional running, including marathoning and the world of track and field, this is the podcast for you.
Hosted by Jonathan Gault and Robert Johnson, this running podcast, like the LetsRun website, is not always politically correct and sometimes feels a bit thrown together. The hosts, however, do know what’s going on in the running world and manage to convey a great deal of information that might be difficult to find otherwise.
This podcast is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re curious about what’s going on at the highest levels of the running world, you may find it worth a listen.
