Smartphones are a great bit of tech to help you keep up with your training.Whether it is the alarm that gets you up for your morning session, or the source of a much needed workout playlist, smartphones can house just about everything you need to maximise your training.Now, there is specific gear you can buy to monitor your progress during your runs, e.g. The Nike+ Sport Watch. But in most cases, your smartphone can be sufficient for your requirements, as a huge range of applications are readily available to download on your device's store. There's hundreds of potentially useful apps, but we've narrowed it down to 3 of our favourites from experience.
1. Runkeeper
Devices: iOS & Android
Cost: Free
Abilities: This app is a favourite due to the vast amount it offers. It allows the user to:
- Record pace, distance, total exercise time, calories burned
- Take and tag pictures on the go
- Freeform a route, or download other user's routes.
- Measure progress and workout history
- Sync with other applications
- Receive detailed reports of your tracked activity
2.Map My Run
Devices: iOS & Android
Cost: Free
Abilities: This app takes advantage of your device's GPS to track not only your route, but also the way in which you tackle this route. It gives you real-time statistics including:
- Mapping your course
- Time
- Speed
- Total distance travelled
A premium subscription provides voice coaching and location sharing with other users, and of course removes those pesky adverts.
3.Runtastic
Devices: iOS & Android
Cost: Free
Abilities: The application uses GPS, similarly to the other apps mentioned, but uses a more "Google Maps" style tracking system. The app allows the user to monitor and manage the following:
- Time
- Speed
- Distance
- Your route in real-time
- An exercise diary including your running metrics
- A google earth style map planner
- Detailed graphs of your exercise information
- Sharing of your progress over social networks
- Pre-made training plans for other users
We recommend downloading all three, giving them each a go! We're sure one of these three apps will be of great use to you during your run. Are you using any other applications that you would recommend?