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Are you a geeky fitness freak???
[Raising my hand and jumping up and down!] I am! I do running mostly, but I hop on a mountain bike every once in a while.
If you are always asking:
“How far did I run/bike/walk today?”…or “How long have I been running/biking/hiking?”…or “How many seconds can I trim off my overall run/ride/hike time if I take 10 seconds off my pace for the last mile?”…then this app is for you!
I will start by saying that I’ve had the iMapMyFitness iPhone app for almost a year already. I had a hard time with it last spring, losing time when I had to stop to fiddle with my iPod, which then crashed the app. When I restarted the app, my workout data was lost. I was Tweeting a dozen “Workout Started” posts in a row, irritating my Twitter friends to no end.
So I stopped using the app in May 2010.
Then I virtually stopped running altogether…no, I don’t think iMapMyFitness caused my workout drought. All my fault!
This year I picked up a Nike+ sensor with a new pair of shoes, and I like it a lot! But it’s not without limitations.
When I was invited to review the new, improved iMapMyFitness app, I jumped on it! I feel that many improvements were made and if one couples the iPhone app with the full fledged website, you can have a complete workout tracking experience. Above all, their mapping function is the best I’ve seen.
You can choose a free or a premium download (such as iMapMyRun+), this review is for the free “iMapMyFitness” app, available at the iTunes App Store, which can be used for several different workouts, but if you exclusively run or bike, you can download “iMapMyRun” or “iMapMyRide” instead.
iMapMyFitness products are also available for the Blackberry.
Pros:
– Search for Existing Routes. In a new location? Need to find some pre-measured running/bike routes? Bring up MapMyFitness.com and find a route near you!
– GPS-Based Routing. This app takes advantage of your GPS function in the iPhone to plot out accurate routes for you. It’s pretty cut and dry: measurement of distance + measurement of time to complete that distance. The basic Nike+ sensor doesn’t use GPS, but rather a pacing-type measurement based on a calibrated run. (See “Cons” below for limitations of any GPS-enabled devices).
– Statistics, Statistics, Statistics! The statistics this program keeps are incredible! It keeps the basics for you — number of workouts, total mileage, total time, total calories (based on your weight kept in your profile). And if you migrate to the website itself, there are even more statistics at your disposal, along with customized reporting based on date or type of workout. See the last two pictures in the gallery below to sample the website’s statistics.
– Social Networking. While I personally don’t do this (I’m a loner when it comes to my running), there is a robust fitness social networking capability here. You can pick friends, see who else is working out (i.e., if they’re recording a workout when you log on), and you can set up goals and challenges with your friends. Twitter and Facebook keep my busy enough.
– Making New Routes. The perfect app for mapping out unknown routes. You can use the audio feedback to set a distance and just run for that distance. When you’re finished, you can name, save and put in details about the route on MapMyFitness.com.
– Import from Other Sensors. MapMyFitness.com will import workouts saved through your Nike+, Polar or Garmin sensors. For now this is still on the Classic site.
– Connect to Local Races. I think this is still a work in progress, but if an event organizer wants to, he can add a race and based on location you can search for upcoming races, and click a link to sign up and then add an “upcoming workout” for that race to your calendar.
Cons:
– Audio Feedback vs. My iPod. Audio feedback is nice, but it has to compete with whatever’s playing on your iPod. I can barely hear the talking lady over my B-52s and Lady Gaga. The Nike+ audio feedback integrates better with the iPod by turning down the volume before speaking.
– iPod Controls. Similarly, using your iPod is more difficult with iMapMyFitness. Nike+ puts the iPod controls right on their app page while recording the workout. This would be nice for iMapMyFitness, since the iPod is the most-used app in the middle of a workout. You need to be super-skilled at the double-clicking of the home button to bring up the iPod controls along the very bottom. Otherwise, you risk closing the iMapMyFitness app altogether. In the iPhone 3G and newer versions, the current iPhone OS should keep the app running and so far that hasn’t been a problem. I still get nervous when I have to exit the app for any reason in the middle of a workout.
– Advertising. If you’re downloading the free version, beware of the advertising throughout the app. It was pretty easy to click on an ad and totally divert from what you’re doing. If the advertising annoys you enough, invest the $4.99 in the iMapMyRun+.
– GPS Doesn’t Work Everywhere. Like any GPS-enabled app, it only works as well as the GPS reception in your location. This won’t work indoors or in heavily wooded areas. So forget about this app working well on a treadmill or in a rainforest….
I will now go through the app with a 3 mile run I did last week. I was able to just start the app and run for 3 miles. The audio feedback told me when I reached 3 miles, and in the end I had a map of my 3-mile route. Click on each thumbnail to see the full iPhone screen capture.
