Runkeeper (Runkeeper.com) on my iPhone was my training companion for many years until just recently. It's easy to use, and plots a map of where you run, together with graphs showing climb/descent and pace, as well as a table with your splits. It keeps a log of your runs and tells you when you've broken a new personal record based any on of a dozen metrics. It also allows you to create a Street Team of other runners you know using Runkeeper and to share and comment on each others' activities. There are a few other similar products out there - Strava is another popular one - that do more or less the same thing.
The main advantage of logging everything on Runkeeper was that it keeps a permanent record of everything. I usually run alone, so there is no one to keep me going. But I find the knowledge that my run will be recorded for posterity and visible to others to be hugely motivating. It's a personal challenge to keep my Runkeeper training log looking full and strong.
But I've also had a number of problems with Runkeeper on my iPhone. I don't know whether the problem is with Runkeeper or with my phone, but it can mis-read the GPS co-ordinates making it seem like I ran a lot further and faster than I did.
Feeling slightly frustrated by this I recently upgraded to a Garmin watch with a heart rate monitor. This adds heart rate, cadence, ground contact time and vertical movement measurements to my running log in addition to the measures I was getting from Runkeeper. (To be fair, Runkeeper would probably have done that if I'd hooked a heart rate monitor to that too.)
So now I am logging all my runs on GarminConnect.com. I am also experimenting with propagating the data from GarminConnect to Runkeeper and Strava, giving me a total of three web services to map, monitor and share my training.
I know not everyone is a gadget junky like I am, but for those of us who are, gadgets add an additional element of personal satisfaction to running.
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