Starting from scratch is not easy. The body resists and puts all kinds of mental and physical barriers on us, but probably the most complex part is gaining enough physical shape that we feel everything is progressing and can encourage ourselves to keep doing it. For this reason, as in any other sport, we have to learn how to do it and there a mobile phone application can help us.
We have all kinds of accessories that help us in sports, such as watches, bracelets and others clothes, and we can complete them with an app that makes us a personal trainer. In the event of becoming a runner, “Starting to run” can be very useful to us, and we can pay the creator what we consider right for it.
Let this app teach you to run
In my particular case, I started July with the Adidas Training app to check if I had enough willpower to follow strict programs, and at the end of July I decided: it was time to run. After evaluating different options for my Android, I opted for ‘Start running’. I use it since this week and I am more than happy.
In “Start running” we find programs so that we can get up from the couch and, after four months, run 60 minutes at a stretch. Here nobody talks about distance, pace or speed, it just helps us to be able to run during the chosen time and that by slightly increasing the running time between sessions. To do this, it uses visual signals on the mobile but also the voice to set the tone through headphones.
The app offers four programs to go step by step and records our activity and progress
The program is divided into four phases of four weeks each, I am currently in the first. So far I have gone from 6 minutes in 1 minute blocks to 8 in the third session. The program begins each day with a 5-minute walk and then begins to get in tune and, if desired, there are also pre-warm-ups before going out or getting on a treadmill. We choose.
Each four-week block has a progressive goal: 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, and 60 minutes
At the end of each session, the app analyzes our route based on GPS measurements, which also helps you know our maximum walking and running speed, and gives us the calories consumed (always an estimate based on physical data that we give it) and the length traveled. If we want, we can sync the app directly with Google Fit to unify our sporting records. In my particular case, for example, I decided not to synchronize the application with Fit to respect the measurements of my connected watch and that the two registers are not trampled. Again, let each user choose what they think is most appropriate.
You can use the app without paying or unlocking the rest of the features for whatever price you think is fair
In addition to these guided ‘learning’ racing programs, the app has a free run mode which simply uses GPS to save our recordings but that it does not carry out any type of supervision on the race. As we said at the beginning, we also choose what we pay for. We can use the app for free with some blocked functions or choose to pay, and there we find three different rates to suit each user. Everyone pays what they consider fair, or simply chooses not to pay.
In my case, I run errands on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays while the rest of the weekdays (and Saturdays) I dedicate them to a strength training program through another app from the same developer. But this application, I will tell you another day. If you are looking for a running guide, ‘Start Running’ is very inexpensive and, for now, convenient. I’ll tell you if at the end of the fourth month I run what he says I’m going to run. So far the only thing I can assure you is that I didn’t think I could run 8 minutes, even in part, and I do.
