Nike+ vs. Runkeeper
Okay, I have been a loyal Nike+ user for probably close to 3 years, that is until recently. The sensor for my shoe went dead, which is fine, it happens. I shelled out another 14 dollars and purchased a new one. No big deal. When it arrived I swapped out the old one and went out for a run.
The first thing you must do is calibrate your new sensor so that is can return the correct mileage as you run. My first sensor I calibrated for a quarter mile and it was pretty spot on for every run for almost 3 years. This one…not so much. I have calibrated it at least 10 times and even tried running with it uncalibrated; which the manual said will work for most runners. Lies all lies. I have calibrated from a quarter mile all the way up to a mile and every time I use it, it’s off by at least a half mile.
I can understand some margin of error but a half mile is a lot. I also noticed the longer I ran, the more it was off. A 5K was a half a mile off and a 5 miler was 3/4 of a mile off. This is unacceptable. I started to look for alternatives, where to look? My iPhone. I have an iPhone 3G no S so I can’t use the Nike+ that comes standard in the new 3GS. No biggie. I tried a few apps and settled on RunKeeper.
They have a free version and a paid version. The free version does not give feedback while you run which is important to me for motivation so I paid for the pro app, a measly $9.99 dollars. Also the free app is ad supported and the pro version is not.
The best 10 bucks I’ve spent. It has a good web site, great app and runs off GPS so it is pretty spot on. If you do not have good GPS reception in your area, I wouldn’t look at using this but for me, it was perfect. I took it out for a spin and the mileage was exact.
Initial Investment
Here are the price points between the two applications. This is assuming that you either already have an iPod Nano, iPod Touch, iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS.
- Nike+: About $40 on Amazon. This does not include the pouch for the sensor or the Nike+ shoes. – Purchase
- RunKeeper: Free or $9.99 for pro version which includes real-time feedback and iPod integration. – Purchase
Auto-Mapping
RunKeeper - Auto Mapped
After my run it uploads my data to the website which I can log into and actually see my route already mapped out for me on Google Maps. This is a really nice feature that was not available with Nike+, at least for non-3GS users. I had to map out my runs man
ually with Nike+, which I was doing so I could apply routes to them for tracking purposes. I no longer need to do that, RunKeeper does it for me.
It highlights your exact run and shows you a few different markers on the map:
- Green Pin – Start
- Red Pin – End
- Gray Pin – Pause
- Mile Markers – Self-Explanatory
Elevation Charts
One of the coolest things I liked was the elevation chart. It actually shows you when you are running up or down hill and your speed in MPH. I could see my lowest speed was 4.5 miles per hour and my top speed was 10 miles per hour. As far as I remember Nike+ does not do this. A huge plus for me. As you can see from the graph below, I don’t live in a flat running area. Hopefully this pays off for me; running up hills that is.
RunKeeper - Elevation / MPH Graph
The blue graph is your MPH and the green graph is the elevation. It’s nice because they overlay each other so you can see where you are running up or down hills and see your speed at the same time. As you can see the first hill slowed me down half way thru but the second hill I kept a pace of about 8 MPH uphill, I can live with that.
This was a really nice add-on that I didn’t even know existed until I logged into the web site. I always feel like I am running uphill and my wife makes fun of me because of it. At least now I either have proof that I am indeed correct, or proof that I am a slacker who always feels like he is running uphill.
Goals, Challenges and a Coach
I will miss these moving to RunKeeper. Challenges were by far the most motivational part of Nike+. You could sync up and invite people to run a challenge. A challenge could be anything from most miles in a month to the fastest mile in a 5K. The nice thing about them was that if you had any competitive spirit, you wanted to win. You got your butt off your couch at night because you wanted to stay as close to the top as possible and not get razzed on by the other competitors.
RunKeeper has ‘Street Team’ which seems as if you can add other users to your team to track progress amongst each other. This is a nice feature but no replacement for challenges.
Goals were nice as well, you could set that you wanted to run 50 miles in March and Nike+ would do all the work for you so when you logged in you could see your progress and how much you still had to go.
Coach was fantastic. If you needed a training plan for a 5K or a marathon, Nike+ could make one for you. You could just let it know what level of runner you are and a detailed planned came prepared for you. A very nice feature indeed. RunKeeper has none of these features, at least from what I’ve seen. They are not essential, but they were a very nice-to-have.
Reports
Nike+ has RunKeeper beat here too for one small reason; RunKeeper requires me to spend $5/month or $20/year to even get my detailed reports. Not sure about this and why I would have to pay extra just to see ‘my’ data computed. Nike+ gave you a nice breakdown when you logged in about total calories, total miles, averages, etc. I am still looking to see if they have an API for my own data, I can easily do the computation myself. Maybe twenty dollars is worth the computing, not sure about that one yet.
In RunKeeper’s defense, I think they are showing more details in their reports than even Nike+ shows. Maybe I will have to give it a shot for a month and see if I like it. They have sample reports but it’s hard to tell if it would be worth using or not by a static sample. They should take 30 days of data and customize a sample report for you and allow you to use and play with the reports using that sample data. I think that would actually increase upsell into their reporting feature; or at the very least get some feedback on what users like and don’t like.
Other Activities
Another nice feature of RunKeeper is you can track more than just running and walking. Since RunKeeper goes of GPS and not your basic pedometer, you can track your progressing cycling, rowing, swimming (not sure how that works), etc. Nike+ only allows you to use it for running and walking. This is a nice feature, even though I only use it for running at the moment.
Cons
- Can’t pause workout using iPhone headphones
- iPhone can’t run two apps at once so if you want to open your iPod you must close RunKeeper. RunKeeper says you can double click your home button to bring up your iPod and this is true, but if you want to do more than press next or previous, this option stinks.
- Detailed reports cost extra money
- No challenges
- No coaching
- No goals
Pros
- Runs off of GPS for near perfect distances. This was my number one pain point with Nike+
- Cheap entry point if you own an iPhone 3G or 3Gs. Free or $9.99
- Nice clean UI
- Can put iPhone in sleep mode and still have the application run and calculate your distances
- Tells you your GPS signal (red, yellow, green)
- Live feedback (only in pro version)
- You have your phone with you in case of emergency
- Don’t have to sync your device with iTunes to send workout data
Conclusion
All-in-all I am happy with my decision to leave Nike+. RunKeeper is a nice alternative and my biggest deterent in using Nike+ was the mileage count. This is very frustrating for me, especially on unplanned routes and long distances. If you are on a 10 mile run and you think you are at mile 8 and Nike+ tells you five, you feel like dying at times. You start to believe you are running 9:30 minute miles instead of 8 minutes and it just starts to wear on you.
Is RunKeeper the perfect solution? Not yet. I think it needs to get better integrated with the iPod, using the headphones to pause and possibly charge less for reports (I have not tested this so that opinion is slanted). I would also like to see the ability to enable coaching and challenges. I think these would all be nice features to have.
As for now, I am excited to have my distances, calories and sanity back. Nike+ was driving me nuts. Thanks RunKeeper.
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May I also suggest mapmyrun. You can get the app for your iphone and it works through gps. It actually keeps track of where you’ve run street by street… The only problem I had with it was that the data for T-mobile wasn’t 3G w/ my iphone so it didn’t work as well as I would have liked it to.. I was a big fan though. I am especially upset with my Nike+ today.. It was working much better before today. I don’t know if it was he different treadmill or what but .4 miles off… That’s too much for me.
P.S. I should have read through this more..
Reading about molecules and DNA at the same time- I didn’t wanna read too much and muddy up the waters that are my brain. After looking back through it I see that the app you suggested and the one that I did are the same.
Yeah mapmyrun was on my list of apps that I tried. I actually just liked this one better. The user interface worked better for me and the web site seemed a bit better. I am happy with it so far. I don’t think these GPS based systems would work on a treadmill, since technically you don’t go anywhere
I refuse to run on a treadmill though, I get shin-splits every time. Nike+ just all the sudden starting to stink. Not sure why.