Fitnio, LLC

by Runner’s World magazine today announced the release of its SmartCoach iPhone app, which creates customized training guides for race distances between a 5-K and a marathon. Users can input their most recent race time, weekly and long-term distance goals, training level (maintenance, moderate, hard or very hard), the day they’d like to schedule their long runs and the amount of time they’d like to train for (up to 16 weeks) to receive their customized plan. The app suggests a running distance and pace that varies each day, increasing in distance and speed and then tapering off shortly before race day. The plans are based upon the work of exercise physiologist Jack Daniels PhD, who co-published two equations that relate oxygen consumption to the speed and length of various running performances. These equations, the app’s Background section explains, have helped shape nearly every training program since developed for runners. The app is available in two versions: one for $0.99 [iTunes link], and a second for free [iTunes link], courtesy of New Balance. The paid version is ad-free and allows users to e-mail and print their training plans, as well as receive special discounts and other offers. While the app offers a much more convenient alternative to planning my own training guide (which I’ve somewhat inefficiently been doing in iCal for the past two years), it doesn’t offer enough functionality to be truly useful. I can’t, for instance, switch my long run to a Saturday because of a scheduling conflict, or adjust my Wednesday run to eight miles because I only had time to do four on Monday. Nor can I record my runs to track my progress. The app would also benefit with the addition of iCal and Google Calendar integration, as well as a timer and GPS-based distance meter which could automatically be saved in the app and on my calendars. Several other running apps already offer these features, like Fitnio [iTunes link], a $1.99 app that tracks your speed, distance and caloric burn, and keeps an ongoing log of your workouts in the app and on its website. The app that offers the best value, I believe, is Revolver’s $0.99 Run Coach Pro [iTunes link]. It offers flexible scheduling, the ability to track runs (both distance and location) and graph your progress, eight-32 weeks of personalized training schedules reportedly designed by a team of Olympic and professional runners, and Read More

For people who enjoy running, there’s nothing like lacing up the Nikes, heading out the door and hitting that stride. But every runner hits a wall at one point or another and day after day, run after run can soon become monotonous. Sometimes a little jolt to the routine is welcomed. Whether you want to try out new routes, strive to be faster, have better endurance or even lose a little weight, runners (and want-to-be runners) can turn to the following 10 iPhone apps for a little more variety in their training regimens: RunKeeper Pro is probably the most well-known of the running apps on this list. This is a feature-rich app that enables GPS tracking, distance, speed monitoring, caloric output and activity history for any number of activities you partake in including sports such as running, cycling, hiking, skiing and swimming. You can also sync all the data to RunKeeper’s website to monitor progress and share publicly. RunKeeper also offers a simplified version of the app for free. Cost: $9.99 Sometimes, the best motivation is competition and who better to compete with than yourself? Ghost Race enables you to track your times on various routes and compare your performance from day to day. The app’s audio function also keeps you updated on your progress against your ‘Ghost’ in real-time. Cost: $0.99 Assuming most people who run regularly are also health conscious, the Livestrong Calorie Tracker boasts more than 625,000 foods in its database and is a great app to have to monitor caloric/fat/carbohydrate/protein intake. You can also monitor your progress based on daily caloric goals that you establish and track your weight loss goals. Cost: $2.99 Targeted more for beginner runners, Get Running provides users with a specific training regimen over the course of nine weeks, with the end goal of being able to run for 30 minutes. Audio prompts guide users through each workout and even provide encouragement along the way. Cost: $1.99 iRace is a comprehensive app for locating road races near you or in any city that you choose to search. The app also enables you to preview the race route (if available) and send “challenges” to contacts, inviting them to run the race with you. Cost: $0.99 Fitnio is another GPS-based tracking and monitoring app for walking, running and cycling. The app records your activity and then displays distance, pace, caloric burn and also keeps an Read More

Since the debut of the App Store last summer, my iPhone has become an indispensable part of my workout routine. The phone makes it easy to track your workout progress both in the gym and outdoors, where applications like RunKeeper allow you to use the phone’s integrated GPS to plot your bike or running course on a map. But there’s been one annoyance that’s aggravated me (and many others) to no end: the limited control you have over your music once you’ve launched one of these fitness apps. Fortunately the iPhone 3.0 software update finally fixes this, and a RunKeeper-like application called Fitnio(iTunes Link) has managed to beat some of its more well-known competitors to the punch. Until the release of the iPhone 3.0 software update, developers were unable to access the phone’s music library. In order to play music as you ran, you’d have to first open up the phone’s iPod application, pick a playlist, then switch over to the excercise app. Once there, you could use your headphone’s multifunction button to execute some basic commands (next song, pause, and previous song), but if you wanted to switch playlists you were out of luck. Fitnio breaks down this barrier, allowing you to browse through your iTunes playlists and queue one up for the next time you begin a jog. It may not sound like a big deal, but it’s certainly a very welcome change. Unfortunately there’s still no way to jump to a specific album or artist’s songs, but developer Robby Walker says that those will be coming in the future. Fitnio is a pretty barebones app, without the nice visualizations you’ll see on RunKeeper (it also doesn’t have voice overs announcing your progress, which some people may miss). But it gets the job done, tracking your movements while biking or running using the phone’s integrated GPS, and it’s only a fifth of the price of RunKeeper’s Pro app, coming in at $1.99. Of course, Fitnio’s musical advantage over the competition will likely be short-lived. Given that all developers have access to the new features in the iPhone 3.0 software update, you can expect similar apps to include this feature very soon. That said, if you’re looking for a fix right now, Fitnio is worth checking out. Read More