October 26th, 2009

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Sports
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RunKeeper, Yet Another Way to Quantify My Life

A while back I wrote about Couch to 5K, an iPhone app that helped me run–you guessed it–five kilometers. I’ve graduated to a new app, RunKeeper, and recorded a quick screencast about it (apologies for the mumbling):

One additional point I should have made in the video: this app really bleeds your iPhone battery. I’m told it’s because the GPS is making a query every second or two to determine your location, and that requires a lot of power.

On a related note, Jen recently wrote about her favourite running songs. The three songs that, uh, bring me home are:

  • Seven Nation Army - White Stripes
  • Crossroads - Cream
  • Voodoo Chile / Slight Return - Jimi Hendrix Experience

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Comments: 6 Responses so far

Jason Jacobs
October 26th, 2009
2:20 pm

Thanks for the great review! For the battery, a few tips:
1) Try using the top lock to sleep the screen (button on top of iPhone), should get 5 hours+ of battery life on a full charge
2) Make ure you exit the app before sleeping the screen when you are done, or the battery will continue to drain
3) Look into battery extenders like the Mophie Juicepack Air if you need longer than 5ish hours of juice

We appreciate the support!

Jason

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Kennymatic
October 26th, 2009
2:20 pm

Runkeeper can run for a really long time provided that you:
1. Lock the screen once you’ve started your activity - you don’t need to have the screen on when you’re supposed to be exercising.
2. Reduce the # of voice cues, or even turn them off if you don’t need them.
3. Turn of “Send location data” in the Settings.

The third is the most important as it actually sends updates of your activity to the RunKeeper site as you’re moving. Not exactly the most productive use of the battery but fun for someone to watch your progress. Clearly if you have 3G on and its sending updates every 2 minutes its going to drain your battery quickly.

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GregEh
October 26th, 2009
2:41 pm

I’ve quite enjoyed using Runkeeper while bicycling, and used it earlier this year to record Critical Mass’ route.

Dave Shea did up an interesting visualization of Runkeeper tracks plotted in 3D space: http://exnihilo.mezzoblue.com/2009/09/manual-geodata/ and app you can do it yourself: http://exnihilo.mezzoblue.com/2009/10/new-project-elevation/

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stagen
October 26th, 2009
2:48 pm

Hey, I’d also check out Cadence app, it works with your itunes library and plays music that matches the speed of motion you are in. Its great for running and pacing yourself.

been using it and enjoying it.

ahh… i believe http://www.cadenceapp.com

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Derek K. Miller
October 26th, 2009
5:58 pm

White Stripes? Clapton? Hendrix? I guess all those gentle girl singers you’ve mentioned over the years here on the blog just don’t do it for the rockin’ end of the run when you need some gee-tar.

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darren Reply:
October 26th, 2009 at 6:38 pm

That’s totally true. Few of those female singer-songwriters seem to play fast enough, I guess. I should look at the BPM for those songs, to see if they fall into a similar range.

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