I’m so ‘appy with my App!

some motivation is required

Before I started the Couch to 5K program I was pretty much making it up as I went along. I would go for a walk and then run for about 1 minute and reward myself with walking for the next 20 minutes, to recover from the 1 minute run you understand. I tried this haphazard approach for about 3 weeks before realising I simultaneously congratulating myself on starting running and cheating myself by only actually running for maybe 5 minutes total in a 1 hour walk! I knew I probably needed something a little more structured! So I decided to research a few Apps for the C25K and eventually settled on this one:

c25k Active

Things I really like about this app:

* It’s a 9 week program – 3 days a week, 30 minutes each day – I pretty much can’t go wrong! I follow the program life is good!

* It automatically logs all results – walk distance, run distance, time, average pace – improvement, no matter how small, is still improvement – one of the greatest motivators ever!

* Tracks your run by GPS so you know exactly where you have been and how far you have run (and it shows on a little map in the log!) – more of a nice to know I suppose. But then again I wouldn’t mind one day logging some runs in Venice, Paris, New York … any other suggestions?

* I can create my playlist – Thank God for this! I honestly don’t think I would have continued running if I had to listen to my sad little whimpers when it gets difficult! Instead I have a lot of Gwen Stefani, selections from the Great Gatsby soundtrack, a little Franz Ferdinand, some Bad Religion…the playlist goes on! When I begin to struggle I turn up the volume and magically get a huge boost of energy!

* I can choose my ‘trainer’ … I’ll introduce you in a minute…;)

* There is a ‘free run’ option – sometimes it’s nice to freestyle it and break from the program but still run for fun!

* there is an option to join with other runners via facebook/twitter – I have tweeted my results to the twitterverse but I have no followers so that’s kinda pointless! haha!!

So! This is by no means a paid plug for the Active app but I am really enjoying using it…and if you are looking for an app to track your progress put this one on the list and try it out. (I think it was free, I can’t remember).

Oh, that’s right, who is my trainer? Well I went for …   Johnny Dead – the Zombie trainer! After a long-standing obsession with Resident Evil and then The Walking Dead and more recently World War Z, turns out I just like zombies!! haha!

ridiculous zombie collage

What App do you use for your C25K? How do you find it? (And on a non-running note…is anyone else completely caught up in the Walking Dead etc? What other television has completely caught your attention/imagination?)