ASICS Runkeeper—Run Tracker

Personally Runkeeper has been so helpful to me in my running life. When I first started running my Dad (who runs marathons) recommended the Runkeeper app. I downloaded it and used it... you hit start when you start your run, and stop when your run is over. It tracks you miles per minute, calories burned, an accurate count of how many miles you ran, and the time it took you to run your distance. There is so many helpful settings you can use to adjust the app. You can set goals of your target distance and time. Not only does Runkeeper support running it also can keep track of all these things through walking, cycling, mountain biking, hiking, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, skating, swimming, rowing, Nordic walking, and it also has a wheelchair mode, so people with disabilities can make use of this wonderful app too. I am 13, and for me this app was just so simple and easy to use. A couple weeks of non-stop running and my dad allowed me to update the app to Runkeeper Pro. Through Runkeeper Pro I could set up a training plan for a 5K 10K 10 mile run, half marathon, or marathon. I could pick the days of the week I wanted to take off the plan, and I was good to go. Every day (besides Sunday for me) I would get up in the morning and complete the pre-planned run with the distance time, and other types of runs that the app had set up. Now on August 7 I'm planning to do a 10K! This was the best app I've ever used in my life. I highly recommend this for anyone who is even slightly interested in running... it was a big help... all I had to do was make time in my day to go on 1 half an hour run... easy enough... and so rewarding!

I've used the free version of Runkeeper since 2010 - and in the early years gave the 3 or 4 most well known of the others a try but none come close to Runkeeper for reliability and dependability. No, it's not always perfect but 99.9 percent of the time it records my statistics perfectly. and when you add the fact that my data has been reliably accessible of the server a going back to 2010 - well anyone would be hard pressed to knock this app in any way. Now that said, I do not own an Apple watch so all of my comments are based only on iPhone use. There are only a couple of things keeping Runkeeper from being absolutely perfect as far as I am concerned. One is the very occasional and inexplicable cutoff of data tracking in mid-activity. However this is very rare and even when it does happen the activity can relatively easily be edited on the Runkeeper website after the fact (a feature I REALLY appreciate). The other issue - and I guess not such a valid complaint since funding for a free app does have to come from somewhere but nonetheless - I rue the day ASICS got their hands on the Runkeeper. At least the obnoxious time consuming logo display on startup has finally been reduced somewhat, but the app definitely remains noticeably slower and bloated with ASICS overhead apparently slowing it down. If only there were a way to kick ASICS and it's bloat to the curb and restore the instantaneous startup and faster syncing that we enjoyed in the pre-ASICS days, this would truly be a five - nay, SIX star app again.

This is a great app for runners looking to train for a specific race or goal. The training plans set you up to meet your specific goal by your specified date. I definitely see progress when I follow the plans closely. I must say however that you must be realistic about timelines, because the app doesn’t do it for you. For example if you are a beginner and you set an unrealistic goal for a beginner, the app will automatically assign workouts that are too difficult for a beginner and can be dangerous. I felt that some of my training plans might’ve been a tad too difficult for my level and I ended up having to start all over with a new plan. My suggestion is to please incorporate other factors like age, weight, gender, body type, years experience, etc to better customize the training plans to that person. Another thing that absolutely drives me crazy, is how within a training plan, you can’t push a run to the following week!!!! It can only be rescheduled if it’s in the same week. So if I ever need to skip one day (happens often), I don’t have the ability to push my Saturday run to Sunday because it falls under a different week. So frustrating!!! There are workarounds for this but it’s annoying to have to do that. Runkeeper, please fix this!!!! And one last thing I wish Runkeeper would do, is to please incorporate strength training into the training plans. Maybe during harder run days, tack on 20 min for strength workouts. It’s so important to do strength but so easy to forget about it. Every training plan must have strength, so in my opinion these plans are not complete. Please consider this Runkeeper!!!!