Run Tracking

One of the most important parts of running is tracking your runs - how else do you know if you're on target for your goals, burning enough calories, or having enough fun?

Monica has always been completely old-school about this, keeping detailed notes in a journal like the 12-year-old girl she is at heart. I, being the tremendous geek I am, have always been looking for a techy, geeky way.

We both tried the Nike+ SportBand. For me, it has worked flawlessly for the past two months, and I've managed to track almost every out-door run I've done with it. However, it was a complete non-starter for Monica - never tracking accurately, stopping tracking in the middle of runs, and such. So I'd say, at best, it's hit-or-miss. The other downside of the service is that, whilst the user website is pretty, it's pretty-damn useless unless you want to do the 5 things they prescribe you to do. Your data is locked up inside it - you can't export it to another format (excel, xml) you can't get RSS feeds of activity to load into other website; basically you can't touch YOUR data outside of THEIR site.

Thus, I've been on the look-out, for a while, for something a little better. Today, after forgetting my sportband at home, I decided to try RunKeeper - an iPhone app. In a word, it is incredible. It was far more accurate than the sportband (as long as you get good GPS signal) allows you to own, extract and share your own data; and spiffily shows all of your runs automatically overlaid on Google Maps like such:



And the really great thing - they're currently testing a feature to give live updating of your runs on the web, so whilst you're out doing that marathon, your friends can check in on your progress.

Currently the only downside I can see is that having GPS on REALLY drains your battery, so it's probably no good for runs over an hour long, unless you've got a Mophie JuicePack.

If you already have an iPhone, this is a no-brainer. It's the best $10 I've spent all week - aside from my first  St. Patty's day pitcher tonight, of course!