Runtastic App Review: Also Useful for Paddle Boarding?

There’s hardly a Facebook user who hasn’t had the Runtastic evaluation of a friend’s morning jog displayed on their timeline.

No wonder, because by now more than 170 million people worldwide have already used the app from Adidas and shared their successes here and there in the social network. You should not be confused by the name, because Runtastic is designed for far more sports than just running.

Namely, more than 120 in total, some of which you don’t even know what exactly it is supposed to be. So everyone should find what they are looking for here.

In our opinion, the app is worthwhile for all those who are interested in sports and have analyzed their workouts according to time, duration, calories burned, and heart rate and want to retrieve all of this neatly in one tool.

From walking the dog to meditation to sledding, you can let Runtastic accompany you every step of the way and know what you’re doing for your health with just about any activity. Or even whether you’re too lazy, if you want to know that too.

Features of the App at a Glance

Structure and Functions of the Adidas Runtastic App

The Adidas Runtastic app is available for iOS and Android-based devices and can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store. You can choose from over 120 sports on Runtastic to track your workout via smartphone or smartwatch from Apple, Polar or Garmin.

From A for aerobics to Z for Zumba, no one should miss their sport here. Even pole dancing and frisbee throwing can be evaluated – that sums up the app’s flexibility well.

You have to register first and, of course, grant a few permissions, otherwise the app cannot exploit its full potential. Initially, the distance, duration and calories are tracked.

The respective weather is also added from the weather app. After the session is over, you can add photos, notes and the average heart rate, which you enter manually in the free version.

You can also add an emoji to your tour rating so that you know later whether the workout was fun, frustrating, or whether you arrived home damaged.

You can view your training statistics not only in the form of boring numbers, there is of course also a map view.

In addition, Runtastic includes a news feed with interesting articles, announcements of virtual sports events and challenges that you can participate in, as well as a community where you can network with other sports fans and create your own groups.

You can also connect your own Facebook account to the Runtastic profile so that your friends on the social network can view, like and comment on your success as a post.

If you have 49.99 euros (~£42) a year to spare, Runtastic in the Pro version also reveals maximum altitude meters (which is of course more interesting for hiking than for paddling), the fluid requirement and independently tracks the average and maximum heart rate.

In addition, you can still create an individual training plan and own workouts in the paid version, reach next levels with advanced statistics and goals and display his records.

Great is the selection of a preferred accompaniment music during the workout. It is not a must to be motivated by power sounds, you can of course ignore the option.

Otherwise, you simply select your desired playlist from your smartphone and Runtastic makes sure that your favorite album is played during the session.

And because we are dealing with a sporting goods manufacturer at Runtastic, you can also enter your favorite shoe by brand, model, size and color in the settings, with which you implement your workouts.

Adidas recommends that the sports shoe be replaced after 500 km. The use can be documented so cleanly. But you don’t have to own an Adidas shoe to use this function, you can also choose from competitor manufacturers in the dropdown menu.

Design and Usability

If you want to use Runtastic for the first time, you first have to register with your first and last name, gender and e-mail address and assign your own password.

This is done more than quickly with just a few clicks. After that, things get more specific and the app asks for further information under four points to record the fitness data.

This includes height and weight, the permissions you give the app in terms of exact location, and access to movement and fitness data. All fair, after all, we want the most accurate evaluation of our workouts.

To do this, one can allow Runtastic to send messages to stay motivated. For example, if you have set daily goals in the app, Runtastic will kindly remind the user via push notification if you haven’t made it off the couch and into your gym clothes yet today. Setting personal goals is done in the penultimate step.

You simply select the desired sport and the distance you want to reach over a certain period of time. Finally, you can connect your smartwatch to the app. Models from Apple, Garmin and Polar are supported here.

If you open the app in the future to record the planned workout, you are already where you should be: in the tracking function with map view. The sport that you entered last time is preset here, but you can of course also change it.

Especially motivated athletes are often interested in many different things. The start button is pleasantly large, which is easy to hit even when the smartphone is stored in the waterproof case.

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Meanwhile, the duration record is displayed more than prominently at the top of the screen, and the distance, calories burned and distance covered are displayed underneath and next to each other.

Below that, the Google Maps view shows the classic location. In some functions, Runtastic also speaks to the user in a pleasantly peppy female voice, for example, when the workout is started.

The other available items at the bottom of the screen are the newsfeed, the community, the user’s progress and the profile. So not too complex and cluttered, and thus nice and clear.

Within these other options, you do have to click a bit more and more precisely, but these are basically not essential functions that you need to access during the paddle tour. The most important thing, namely tracking, is really user-friendly and kept simple.

However, what we think could be optimized here is the retrieval to stop or pause the tracking. This is not possible via a simple click, but only via a sliding gesture at the bottom of the screen, and unfortunately it is also quite small.

After that, you are asked if you are done or if you want to take a break. This could have been made a bit easier with the click function. Because that is actually a bit more tedious due to the waterproof cell phone case.

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Otherwise, the design and usability are very appealing and user-friendly. Adidas has opted for white backgrounds with black fonts and green highlights for optimal visibility of the essential retrieval functions.

One actually likes to stay longer on Runtastic than one has to for pure tracking and analyzing. Because the nice additional features, such as the news articles, the retrievable Runtastic blog and the next challenges give a lot of voluntary reading material.

User Ratings

A total of 4.8 of possible rating points in the Apple App Store speak for themselves and an extremely enthusiastic worldwide user community. Minor weaknesses that cause users to deduct points are technical shortcomings, such as measurement that is too imprecise.

Of course, users notice this when they regularly cover the same training distance and duration, but the analyses still fluctuate. In addition, Runtastic sometimes freezes via the smartwatch, and the slide mode for stopping or pausing, which we rated as a shortcoming, is also criticized. The selection of both options is simply too small.

Otherwise, Runtastic enjoys great enthusiasm, which we also agree with. Especially for fans of several sports, the app is a tool that stores everything optimally in one place.

Of course, as with any app, there are little technical difficulties here and there. However, the software is updated almost monthly, or sometimes even several times a month.

You can clearly see that Runtastic is constantly tinkering and not just trying to make money. User critiques are almost always answered by the development team.

Alternatives to the Runtastic App

The versatility for tracking over 120 different sports for both iOS and Adroid-based devices already makes Runtastic quite unique. The compatibility with various smartwatches has an added appeal to add Runtastic to its app family.

Those who are not so versatile and are more into water sports, for example, will find the same tracking and analysis functions in the free apps GoSUP or Paddle Logger, just more specialized and thus especially interesting for paddlers.

We have summarized which options are generally suitable for recording paddle tours in this article.

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