Sports tracking apps are nothing new and they have existed since we’ve had GPS built into phones. With iOS and Android, we finally could have great apps. As a fan of the great outdoors, I’ve tried a handful of these apps to track my bike rides. Endomondo is great for tracking runs but buggy when it comes to bikes. MapMyRide is great at mapping my rides but nothing else. Runtastic promises to do it all. Runtastic have added a bunch of features, streamlined their interface across different platforms in Version 5.
To get started, you need to make an account so all your data is synced to Runtastic.com. You can connect with Facebook, Twitter or sign up via email. Fill out the details like your age, weight, connect to social media apps for sharing workouts and you’re in. Just like in other similar apps, the main view of Runtastic is the workout view. Runtastic manages to put all the information you might need on one screen. The Duration, Distance, Calories and Average Pace take up the top half while the bottom is dedicated to the map (you can switch to your music playlist here as well). You can swipe down to bring up options to change the activity. There are a lot of activities available from Treadmill to Cycling and even Cross-country skiing. There’s also a choice of workout plans. You can go from a basic workout to a Workout goal which is always the best option because there’s nothing like a little challenge for yourself to get you going. Runtastic will also sell you training plans for specific purposes crafted by professionals and Olympic champions, which at $15-20 are on the expensive side. Lastly there’s the ever present Android sidebar serving as a quick way to get to any feature with just a swipe. After the workout is done, you can add a note, pictures and assign a emoticon to better remember the time you spent working out.
Runtastic 5 performed well on my bike ride. The results were accurate and it provided me with really good basic voice commands but that’s pretty much all you can do in the free version. That’s perfectly fine. Paying $5 for the pro version spares you from looking at the ads, adds interval training, routes, personalized voice coach and something called “power song”. But it still doesn’t get you everything. Training plans are extra in app purchases and so is the “story running” feature which creates stories with intricate details urging you to run away from zombies or a calamity. The best part is Runtastic does not hammer you with Pro plan popups or upgrade prompts every time you launch the app (like MapMyRide) so you can use the perfectly good free (or Pro) app without ever caring about “story run”. Runtastic 5 is available for Free on the Play Store and the Pro version costs $5.