The thing though is that they all seem to be priced around the €6 mark. While magazines like the Irish Runner may have Irish related content, the rest seem to have material that is freely available on the Internet. The news is usually 1-2 months old. They usually have advice or training schedules which can be found easily for free elsewhere. After that, it seems to be mostly adverts or info about UK races which are of no relevance.
When I was putting together the Running in Cork bookstore with approx 40 titles, I got a good idea of the general price of the books on offer and some are not that more expensive than a magazine. Some of the books, especially the training ones would have a lot more detailed info compared to what might be available on say 2 pages in a magazine. In terms of value for money, I would suggest that books...regardless of where you buy them...are much better value than running magazines.
Yet there are plenty of these magazines on the shelves so someone must be buying them.
Q. Do you buy some of these running magazines? Especially the UK based ones? and why?
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Athletics Weekly is probably the best of the lot. It offers a good balance of news, interviews and a comprehensive race results section, albeit UK results only but it's interesting to see how Irish athletes fare at BMC meets. Also it is a weekly publication so the news is pretty much up to date.
ReplyDeleteonly buy irish runner.. the rest are full of adverts and articles that have no real interest
ReplyDeleteHave started training for the marathon and had my attention caught by one of the magazines in Easons. Article was ok but rest of magazine wasn't up to much. Totally agree that much better value found from books.
ReplyDeletewaste of money, there are some great free resources available online (such as this site for example). All these mags do is recycle topics, just like Photography Mags, Football Mags etc. Save your money for running shoes!
ReplyDelete+1 for Athletics Weekly, it has some great training articles in it. As for Irish Runner, well, it's just rubbish, isn't it?!
ReplyDeleteI get an American Magazine called "Running Times" by far the best magazine. No crap like run less and run faster. Lots of good interviews with athletes.
ReplyDeleteharsh comment on irish runner-excellent mag. why is it rubbish or is that your own unconsidered opinion?
ReplyDeleteReally look forward to the irish runner coming out, i know alot of dublin based events get most coverage, but it covers some down south aswell which makes for interesting reading, plus i think it should be a monthly issue as to every 2 months like its now
ReplyDeleteRunner's. world, both the US and especially the UK editions are a waste of money; filled primarily with adverts, regularly regurgitated articles like 'running in the heat/cold' or vacuous nonsense like 'ten things not to say at the startline'. Running Fitness is much the same, marginally better perhaps. Running Times and Marathon & Beyond are easily the best magazines out there, aimed at the proper runner who wants to learn the latest thinking on training, racing news, opinion and product reviews.
ReplyDeleteTnx 4 article and comments. Must check out running times. I'd buy a running magazine once a year or so.
ReplyDeleteJohn
ReplyDeleteUsed to buy mags but too expensive and probably only had one or two articles worth reading..
Bought 2 books from your Amazon collection ,Arrived in the post 2 days after ordering..
Great reading at an exra 4e ..
Value for money
Monica
I used to buy nearly all of them when I started running first as I hadn't a clue what to be doing with my training (or my money apparently!) or even where to look for good information. And they were good in that they were not overwhelming with info at a time when I was trying to take everything in. Then I started to realise the magazine articles were repetitive and lacking in detail so I stopped buying them. Every now and then I feel the fear of missing out and esp if a headline catches my eye (usually about something I am currently struggling with) in which case I might be tempted to let myself be disappointed once again. I love to read up on things all the time (nerdy me) and as I still consider myself as learning to run I would love a thread on what are the best websites out there for running info and maybe a top 10 must read books for beginners, improvers, intermediates, etc.... Perhaps you have covered this previously but as I said, new(ish) to it all...I had an Irish Runner subscription but let it lapse as I would see it in shops ages before I would get mine and its not great for the amount of articles considering its a monthly. Nowadays, I only buy the one with the list of races for the year ahead to help plan my training, that's about it.
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