Strava has become one of the biggest apps in running by combining robust fitness tracking with social media. You can check up on your friend’s latest run or marvel at the training habits of Olympic athletes while getting insights about your fitness. However, many of the best features are locked behind the cost of a subscription. Everyone can use Strava, regardless of which fitness tracker you own or whether you use iOS or Android.
You can’t be everything to everyone. Strava recently rankled more than a few power users by locking down user data, restricting third-party app access to their API, and breaking the functionality of other niche fitness apps. Even if that didn’t affect you, it’s not the only reason to consider closing your Strava account. It might not be the best app for your running goals. There are a ton of choices, no matter your goals or experience.
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4 First-party fitness tracker apps
For when you need to be anti-social for a while
One of the main draws of Strava is seeing others’ workouts and posting your workouts for others to see. That makes for fun competition between friends and a great way for friends and family to hold each other accountable. However, the social media feed can just as easily become counter-productive. You can get bogged down or have privacy concerns about your running routes being made public. If you’re looking for an app that doesn’t center on social media, look no further than your phone or smartwatch.
If you want a simple app that tracks basic fitness metrics and keeps you accountable for daily goals, Google Fit and Samsung Health track individual runs, daily steps taken, and calories burned. But, with a little more input, both shine as holistic health apps, tracking sleep, menstrual cycle, and nutrition. They’re great for tracking daily habits and prompting you to make healthy lifestyle changes. You can also link up with friends and family, but it’s not a core focus of either experience.
If you have a Fitbit tracker, use the Fitbit app to find training plans, although those come with the cost of a subscription. If you’re starting to explore advanced metrics in your training, trackers from companies like Garmin or Coros have companion apps that provide stats like VO2 max. These can give you a sense of your aerobic fitness and how ready you might be for a given race distance or goal finishing time.
While many of those advanced metrics are approximations, they tend to be close to measured values and consistent enough to give you a sense of improvement over time. You can also get suggested workouts based on your goals and progress without an additional subscription cost, which is a huge draw (especially when you’ve already dropped some serious coin on one of their trackers).
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3 Runna
Signed up for a race? A better training plan is a good investment
While the training plans on first-party apps aren’t bad, training for a race of any distance is an investment and can warrant a more robust training plan. Getting recommended workouts based on your goals and metrics is nice, but it’s important to add mileage and intensity in a safe, sustainable way.
Runna nails this concept in a user-friendly way. The app guides you to your ideal training plan by asking for your goal distance and specifying if you are coming back from an injury or need a post-natal training plan, so you can modify your training intensity accordingly. From there, setting up your plan involves indicating how many days you can run and which days of the week work with your schedule.
Runna is a bigger investment, at $20 per month or $120 per year. However, a personalized training plan is a great way to reduce the risk of injury by preventing overtraining. Building something that works with your schedule makes maintaining consistency as easy as possible. If you’re signing up for your first race, moving onto longer distances, or returning after a long layoff, Runna could be worth the price.
2 Future
For when the goals are getting bigger and more specific
There is no replacement for a training plan from a real human with expertise. Future matches you with a one-on-one coach, dating app-style. The setup for Future is similar to Runna’s. It asks for details about your goals, the number of days per week you can work out, and additional concerns like injury prevention.
Then, Future asks questions to determine your ideal coach, like how intense of a coach you prefer. You’re matched with a few coaches and can look at their professional history and qualifications before choosing one. Coaches are open to calls and texts, and the app also tracks your runs, which are shared with your coach.
It’s one-to-one training with a live coach, making Future one of the most expensive options at $150 monthly. While everyone’s situation is different, Future makes the most sense if you have a specific goal, such as meeting your time qualification standard for a race like the Boston Marathon. If you’re keen on beating a personal best that you set many years ago, or if you had a bad run of injuries and want to make all the investments you can to stay healthy without sacrificing your fitness goals, Future is one of the best options.
1 Zwift
One of the best choices for treadmill users
While Zwift is best known for indoor cycling, it’s become a great option for folks who primarily run on a treadmill. While some treadmills can be connected to Zwift, many shoe-worn pedometers or fitness trackers can be connected to the app to record treadmill workouts, making the app easily accessible to most indoor runners.
Recording treadmill runs isn’t special, but Zwift does the most to punch up the experience. Using the app turns the experience into a game, with virtual routes you can run with other people’s virtual avatars. There are virtual races you can enter, on top of recommended workouts to go with those virtual experiences.
If that sounds like a perfect fit for VR, it might be someday. Most headsets are too heavy and get too hot, which is a bigger problem when running makes you hot, never mind the potential for a treadmill mishap. If VR/AR (XR, if you will) sunglasses-style headsets start taking off, who knows what will happen.
When you need to clear your head, go with nothing at all
There’s a point where training becomes frustrating, especially when fitness tracking is involved. You feel like you put in the work and deserve progress, but the numbers on the app say otherwise. If you get bogged down in the numbers and feel stuck, you may be on the road to burnout.
Going for a run isn’t always fun. Still, some part of running has to be enjoyable (or at least tolerable) for it to be sustainable as a routine. If tracking takes away from the joy of running, do some uninstalls and take a few weeks or months to run at a pace that feels comfortable. Find somewhere pretty to roam around on the weekend.
