Have you heard of chunking? It’s a mental technique that helps you turn your long runs into smaller, more manageable pieces. Dividing the run helps shift your focus from an intimidating number on your training plan to shorter distances you already know you can do. And these chunks can be anything: a subset of miles, a number of songs on your playlist, or, for example, time frames after which you reward yourself with a sip of water or a gel.
But what’s the best chunking method? An audiobook.
Audiobook chapters make for great chunks that you can plan ahead: Maybe today you’ll cover three chapters of approximately 30 minutes and that way break your run into three parts. Instead of dreading the hour and half you have to go, just focus on the 30 minutes of running until your next break to hydrate or take a quick bite.
More From Runner's World
Here are Runner’s World editors’ favorite books with short chapters or stories to help you split your next long run into some fun chunks.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
narrated by Alma Cuervo, Julia Whelan, Robin Miles
Audible Google Play Audiobook.com
Nearing old age, reclusive Hollywood movie star Evelyn Hugo chooses an unknown journalist, Monique Grant, to write the story of her glamorous and scandalous life. Monique couldn't be more astounded: Why her? How did Evelyn even find her? But also, who is Monique to question such an opportunity? She feels stuck in her personal and professional life, and this memoir could jumpstart her career.
“Fiction rarely keeps me engaged. I often end up mentally wandering off somewhere around the middle of a book, having a hard time finishing. Not so with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I could use all the clichés here—“page turner,” “gripping story,” “couldn’t put it down”—and they would all be true. The story brings big themes like gender, power, fame, sexuality, bi-erasure, and, ultimately, death down to a human level through the life story of the title character and the young journalist she seemingly plucks out of obscurity to write her life story. Highly recommend it!”
Senlin Ascends
by Josiah Bancroft
narrated by John Banks
Audible Google Play Audiobook.com
The Tower of Babel is a massive structure containing many different cities, known as Ringdoms, with unique characteristics and features. These Ringdoms are stacked on top of each other like layers of a cake. The Tower is home to advanced technologies, as well as geniuses and tyrants. Thomas Senlin, a school headmaster, has always been fascinated by the Tower and plans a honeymoon there with his wife. However, they become separated and Senlin must use his intelligence and knowledge of the Tower to ascend its levels in search of her.
“Senlin Ascends has a lot going for it. It’s a unique and mysterious setting. It has the characteristic of any great mystery where you want to keep reading (or listening) at the end of each chapter to find out how the protagonist gets out of each situation he’s in. John Banks does a great job narrating Senlin, and it just makes for a very pleasant listen. Senlin's journey is perfect for chunk running: Each chapter stays around 20 minutes and they’re pretty consistent in length. You can set yourself a goal of listening to three chapters for your run and you will pretty consistently hit about an hour per run/listen. Senlin Ascends is book one of a quartet, so if you enjoy your time in the Tower of Babel, there is much more to explore in Josiah Bancroft’s unique setting.”
Tiny Beautiful Things
by Cheryl Strayed
narrated by Cheryl Strayed
Audible Google Play Audiobook.com
The book lives up to its name: It’s a collection of questions sent to Cheryl Strayed, a columnist at Rumpus and the author of the memoir Wild, and her thoughtful answers to them. They are about life, heartbreak, family issues, and fear, but also love and hope—you know, all the tiny beautiful things.
“I’m not one to ask advice from a stranger, let alone follow answers to someone else’s life inquiries—or so I thought. I received so many recommendations to listen to this book that I gave in, and I’m so glad I did. Strayed’s thoughtful answers are not so much advice as they're a relatable reflection and projection of love and understanding. Running to the sound of Strayed’s soothing voice made my steps lighter.”
The Hike
by Drew Magary
narrated by Christopher Lane
Ben, a dad like any other in the suburbs, leads an uneventful life. It’s not been too good or full of too much ill. It’s just been. That is until he decides to take a little jaunt into the woods to kill time before a meeting and suddenly realizes he’s not really in the same realm of reality he lived in before his hike. On the path, his only goal is to get to his family, but the possibility of being killed by a giant lurks around every corner, and the realization that he can only go forward, not back, are getting in his way.
“This book is bananapants. Imagine a regular dad suddenly becomes a character in D&D or the hero of a video game. He’s facing obstacles for which he has no skills whatsoever. He is chased and has no stamina. He has never been in a fight and suddenly all he does is battle. Basically, he’s screwed, and it’s hilarious to listen to. The plot is so quickly-paced it flies by. Yes, there are deeper themes of the things most dads settling into middle age deal with—boredom, resentment, wanderlust—but mostly it’s a quest story. And a darned enjoyable one.”
Demon Copperhead
by Barbara Kingsolver
narrated by Charlie Thurston
Audible Google Play Audiobook.com
This book is a retelling of David Copperfield, Charles Dicken’s most autobiographical novel. Demon Copperhead is born to a teenage mother in a trailer, growing up poor and surrounded by adults who drink, do drugs, are abusive, and don’t make enough money. They live in beautiful Appalachia, bereft of opportunities and targeted by drug companies for exploitation with opioids. In this pretty but brutal place, Demon deals with the odds set against him to find his own way out. Trigger warning for child abuse, drug abuse, and pretty much any other terrible thing that can happen in life.
“I’m not one for superlatives or competition, but it’s possible that Barbara Kingsolver is the greatest American novelist and her latest book, Demon Copperhead, is evidence of that. This is a great book worth 21 hours of your running time. My inexact science of chunking long reads is to look at the overall listening length and roughly divide the total book time with my walk/run times. It's narrated brilliantly by Charlie Thurston, who sounds like a young Southern man with a lot of understanding, but very little hope.”
Four Hundred Souls
by Ibram X. Kendi, Keisha N. Blain
narrated by Angela Davis, Leslie Odom, Jr., Phylicia Rashad, and many others
Audible Google Play Audiobook.com
Four Hundred Souls begins with the arrival of twenty enslaved Ndongo people on the American shores in 1619, the year before the arrival of the Mayflower. Over the course of its pages, the book maps four-hundred-years of Black American experience. In a collection of essays with a chronological focus, it brings to life countless new facets to the drama of slavery and resistance, segregation and survival, migration and self-discovery, cultural oppression and world-changing artistic, literary and musical creativity.
“The book manages the improbable feat of covering 400 years of Black American history while remaining as approachable as it is enlightening and moving. The 80 chapters (averaging about 6 minutes at 1.5x) each feature a different writer and cover a five-year period, complementing and building on each other, taking different forms and perspectives: essays, slice-of-life vignettes, historic profiles. The frequent shifts in voice and pacing—amid a unified vision from editors Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain—keep this anthology as engaging as the best nonfiction you can put in your ears.”
If you’d like more audiobook recommendations, click here.
As newsletters editor, Pavlína Černá is the person behind all membership emails sent on behalf of Runner's World, Bicycling, and Popular Mechanics. When she doesn't edit, she writes; when she doesn't write, she reads or translates. In whatever time she has left, you can find her outside running, roller-skating, or riding to the beat of one of the many audiobooks on her TBL list.
