Nike+ Review (Ep. #146 Fat 2 Fit Radio)

Running App Review for Nike + App

Episode #145 of Fat 2 Fit Radio (3.18.13)

by Helana Brigman

PROS:

1 – Interactive GPS Map —shows your run with speed, levels of ascent and descent, and the terrain from a Google Maps-like view

2 – Determine Terrain Feature (road, beach, trail, track) — something that’s not always an option in other apps (and does make a difference)

3 – Similarly, different “kinds” of runs: Basic Run, Distance Run, Time Run, and Speed Run (fastest 1k, 5k, 1 mile options)

Encouraging “Fastest 5-K to date!” announcements when you finish logging the workout

4 – Calories burned, time, average mile / pace on final screen (BUT, not nearly as detailed as Endomondo which gives you 4 screens to switch between when looking at this final output data)

5 – Add friends to your “leaderboard” so you can check to see how your weekly (or monthly) runs are comparing with theirs

6 – COUNTDOWN FEATURE! I love this! It’s auto-set to 3-seconds, but I bump it up to 9-seconds to give me time to start the app and put my armband back on

7 – All sorts of settings for “auto voice feedback”: male, female, time, distance, pace, and frequency (I really like the .5-mile mark for some reason)

8 – Not nearly as many ads as Endomondo (no ads, in fact by comparison)

CONS:

1 – My pace is a little messed up on the last one – although it’s logged as “running,” I forgot to turn off the timer when I went for a walk between miles 1.5 and 2.0 during my April 2^nd run (before I picked back up and started running again). Thus, my mileage is inaccurate because it assumes I was running the entire time when I walked for at least 10 minutes.

2 – You can’t switch between walk and run, and a Facebook friend commented the other day she couldn’t figure out how to turn on the “treadmill” feature. It took me a while too as it’s sort of hidden under the start features (indoors / outdoors)

3 – I’m not so sure the Nike+ App works for the treadmill feature? I did a run on April 5^th for a little over 25-minutes…BUT, the tracker said I only ran 1.60 miles when I actually ran 2.15 (I counted the laps). So, the data is a bit inaccurate both in distance and in burn. Fortunately, there’s a way to go in and adjust your distance (gage in upper-right corner), but I don’t like having to double-check the app. Shouldn’t it just do what it says it will do? And as far as I could tell, it was really accurate until about 1.25 – 1.50 miles, then it stopped tracking correctly.

Pictured (left to right): Individual Run Screen with mood, run type, and the option to share your run or tag your shoes. Right: home screen with overview of key details. Notice the three run types – treadmill, trail, and road.

4 – Thus, I have to switch to another fitness app if I want to track my walk as well as my run. So, Nike+ is only good for one thing—RUNNING. But it does the running really well.

Here’s the cons of the lack of “walk” feature here—the website is funny it just says to “pause run” and watch yourself on the map while you walk (no lie):

http://support-en-us.nikeplus.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29201/p/3169,3575

Next show: MapMyRun

–Helana

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Nike+ Review (Ep. #146 Fat 2 Fit Radio), 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating Google+