Nike+ Running App

With everyone running their mouths about the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon, fitness envy is even more of a thing. And whether you’re planning on joining the ranks of the marathoners or just aiming to get up off your *rse until you can run a mile without coughing up a lung, chances are you could do with a coach. Preferably a free one.

Enter the Nike+ running app.

A nifty little coaching app available for both Android and iOS phones that tracks your route, distance, pace and time while helping you reach your goals with a few cunning motivational tools.

Like ‘Hear the Cheer’ which allows you to share the start of your run on Facebook and hear real time cheers as friend like and comment on your post and PowerSongs where you integrate that jam that always gets you through the most.

Operating somewhat like a social media site, from the homepage, the app has a drop down menu that lists activity, friends, challenges and coach where you can see your run history, share, compare and compete with your friends on Nike+, set a challenge run distance and duration that will have you racing to the finish line or browse training programmes and set run reminders.

A great app for both beginners and the advanced, the app encourages you within your league allowing you to graduate from beginner and urging you to beat and then smash your personal record before levelling up.

For example, at the 5km beginner level, the coaching programme encourages you to mix walking and running with cross-training and rest while the eight-week intermediate 5km programme focuses on improving strength, speed and endurance.

Of course, as with everything, there are levels and Nike+ makes sure you know this by updating your profile colour depending on the total distance you have run.

Ranging from yellow to black, colour levels help motivate runners to run longer distances and run more regularly so they can move up the rainbow which begins at yellow which means you have run 0 to 49km and ends in black for the beasts who have run more than 5 000km.

“I like the Nike app, and would recommend it for those wanting to keep track of their runs and see how you’re improving after each run,” says local runner Javaneh Mahmoudi-Azadeh who recently used a combination of her Garmin watch and Nike+ to train for the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon.

And while some users complain bitterly about the app working better on iPhone than it does on Samsung particularly with regard to sharing on Instagram, Google Play clocks downloads at over 10 million with an average rating of 4.4 out five stars so it must be doing plenty right.

Easy, fun and free, the Nike+ running app blends a little social media with a lot of running for both the beast and the beginner.

Try it out, don’t forget to allow the app to use your location and, who knows, maybe next year you’ll be the local marathoner giving us the skinny on terrific run tech.