And while I can pick the apps I use, I can’t force them to use different ones. Even if I loved one app’s feature set, the desire to share my running experiences with other people would outweigh that. My main concern is spiking my heart rate, burning some calories, and slowly improving my speed on my route’s stair climbs.Īnother conundrum I have is that my fitness-oriented friends all seem to have picked different apps. Most of the time, I have a four-footed companion who dictates the pace.

Keep in mind that I don’t consider myself a very serious runner.

Cost: Do I need to pay anything to get useful features?.

Openness: Does it connect with other fitness apps to share data?.Sharing: Can I easily post my run on social networks?.Friends: Are a significant number of my friends also using the app?.Motivation: Does the app spur me to run faster, better, or more frequently?.When looking at running apps, I consider the following factors: And I’ve noticed that under iOS 7, they have an increased propensity to get shut down by the system for using too much memory, dumping some or all of my data for a run in the process.Ĭlockwise from top left: RunKeeper, Nike+ Running, Strava, Pear Sports, Runtastic and MapMyRun. It’s not unusual for me to lose half my battery charge on a single run. Using so many running apps simultaneously is a major drain on my iPhone’s battery. See also: I Need To Put My Fitness Apps On A Dietįirst, a word of advice: Don’t do this at home. I think I’ve run this test into the ground, though: While they’re all fine apps, none is a breakout.

I’ve been doing this for months, in the hopes that I’d figure out which one is superior. I use Nike+ Running, Runkeeper, MapMyRun, Runtastic and Strava, as well as Pear Sports, a heart-rate-focused tracker with some running features. ReadWriteBody is an ongoing series where ReadWrite covers networked fitness and the quantified self.Īlmost every morning, as I set out to run intervals on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill, I go through an absurd ritual: I pop open my overstuffed fitness-apps folder and laboriously launch six different apps to track my 30-minute run.

Runtastic app