For several weeks, both Runkeeper and Active have been
selling me the merits of a new (well, new to me) app called iSmoothRun. A couple of my friends who run have been
using it, too, and I decided last week to give it a try. Know what sold me on it? It records temperature and humidity. That’s right, I paid $4.99 for a running app
that’ll save for all time the weather conditions of my every run.
Best $4.99 I’ve ever spent with the iPhone App Store.
As anyone reading my blog posts knows, it’s bloody HOT down
here in west-central Florida. And hot,
humid conditions mean a slower pace. I
know all of that and I’ve even mostly accepted it… but it’s still
frustrating. But to be able to look back
at a run’s data and see, right there in black and white, that I managed a
12:14/mile average pace when the temp was 90° and humidity was 87%? To quote a ridiculously annoying commercial
we all know, it's “priceless.”
It turns out, though, that iSmoothRun came with a few more
nifty features I really like, so here’s my little review…
- Its readout is BIG – as in, I can see my time and distance
clearly through my armband without reading glasses. Yes, the little voice tells me those things
regularly, too, but I’m a visual learner; you can tell me something ‘til the
cows come home, but it won’t sink in until I see it in print. Really BIG print, now that I’m over 40.
- It allows me to track mileage on my shoes – no small feat,
given that I’m rotating between four different pairs. After each run, I need only scroll down in the
edit function and select which pair of shoes was on my feet. iSmoothRun keeps a total mileage tally going
on each pair.
- There are options at the end of each run to tell how it felt
via smilies. Trust me – after my last
9-miler, when the most complicated thought I could muster was, “Guh,” picking a
face that matched how I felt was a good thing.
At that I had a hard time choosing between an orange, slanty-mouthed “Blah”
and a pink, tongue-out “Tired.”
- I can elect to have iSmoothRun tell me the fastest song I
heard during each run. This does nothing
for my training, but is a nice little surprise to see while walking through a
cool-down.
- Auto-pause – each time I stop for a red light, to tie my
shoes, to refill a water bottle, to take a 2-minute mid-run swim in the pool
(for real – I was roasting!), the app
pauses and then resumes when it again feels motion. From what I can tell, it does so very, very
accurately, too.
- It tracks cadence! As
you know form my last post, I love counting my cadence. But after about 5 miles, my brain can’t seem
to count past 20 without losing track. iSmoothRun
tracks average cadence, though, so my
walk intervals kind of kill any attempt to reach a “perfect” cadence of
90. But, I’m pretty sure an average of
83 is pretty good, with walk breaks included.
- Aside from environmental conditions, though, my favorite
element of my new app is the vocal feedback.
My new pal “Smoothy”, as I’ve come to think of the female voice-over
used to report time, distance, etc., is very motivating. Smoothy doesn’t say much – just enough to get
her point across. But her inflections
are spot-on: in a perky, excited little voice that I just know belongs to a
pony-tailed, pert-nosed, wisp of a cheerleader, Smoothy tells me when it’s time
to “Run!” A few minutes later, she
informs me in a calm, relaxed tone to “Walk.”
Every so often, she lets me know how much time and distance have passed
and how I’m doing on pace; she always sounds so positive and proud of my hard
work. And I just love when Smoothy busts
in with an exuberant “You’re halfway to your goal!” Which may or may not have anything to do with
my final commendation for iSmoothRun…
- It makes me run faster!
Okay, maybe it just tracks differently than Runkeeper and only looks like I’m cranking out a faster
pace. Whatever. Lower numbers keep me motivated, so it’s all
good.
In every other way, iSmoothRun offers the same things I had
before using Runkeeper alone: the ability to set up customized intervals, data
tracking, synchronization with social media, mapping, etc. And it works with Runkeeper, so each
iSmoothRun is uploaded to my Runkeeper profile.
I’m looking forward to many more fun runs with Smoothy by my side!
