A few months ago I joined a local marathon training group, and every Saturday the group meets to do a long run. Due to other plans I had to miss the last long run, so I made up for it by running 10.5 miles by myself. Now, running that kind of distance with a group is fun, but doing it alone can be reeaallly boring. So, the night before the run I configured FeedDemon to download several podcasts and synch them with my iPod while I slept.
During the run I listened to snippets from these podcasts, which included Chris Pirillo’s interviews with Tim Bray and Steve Gillmor, followed by the interview with Stewart Copeland and audio of the Web 2.0: Music is a Platform panel from IT Conversations.
Being able to listen to new podcasts helped me survive the run without dropping from boredom. I was even tempted to continue running so I could keep listening – but the next day’s soreness made me thankful that I stopped when I did :)
Great idea. This might finally be an excuse to start running. Of course, I won an iPod back and December, so I haven’t gone out to buy one. Unfortunately, the iPod seems to be stuck in the mail (for 3 months really!). I don’t think God wants me to exercise.
You’d better slap a little Iron Maiden on there using a title like that for this posting :)
This is one of the reasons I love podcasting so much. I walk to work every day, so it gives me something to think about / listen to. It’s also great for doing any mundane chores around the house (as long as nobody is trying to talk to you!)
I haven’t really gotten into podcasting, yet. I haven’t really found anything interesting enough to listen to!
But there’s a show on NPR (This American Life – http://www.thisamericanlife.com) that I like quite a bit, and I’ve been considering downloading the shows. Of course it’s all manual, since they don’t have a feed, but the end result is the same, right? :)
It turned out to be a little harder than I initially planned, though, becuase they don’t offer any offline recordings, just streamed RealAudio and Audible.com. But I found an app which can convert the show to .mp3 so I can take it to the gym with me. I recommend it highly. dBpowerAmp – http://www.dbpoweramp.com with the RA codec. Works a charm.
I sync a few podcasts (3 in total) which I listen to on the way to work (15 mins each way). Podcasting is a great way to listen to something random, and best of all if I don’t like it I just fast forward it :)
For those interested I have a Zen Micro not an iPod. The ZM does me good but I would have preferred an iPod mini in all honesty esp. now the new iPod mini 2g is out!