Get Running

We review Get Running (Couch to 5K), an iPhone app that helps you build up your fitness level gradually so you won’t even know you’re getting fit

It’s much easier to be unfit in winter. The days are so much shorter, so heading out onto the dark streets is often unwise, and even if the long nights don’t discourage you the bad weather will. It’s colder, so a stodgy diet seems more appropriate, and all that healthy fruit and veg isn’t really clogging up the shop shelves anyway. Might as well get a take away and sit in front of the telly, instead.

Yep, winter is full of excuses for being unfit. Unfortunately summer is almost upon us again, so those excuses are beginning to wear thin. Chances are your thoughts are rapidly turning toward a new fitness craze you can jump on board for a few months, until the Christmas crash once again nears. But the Get Running (Couch to 5K) iPhone app might offer a good middle-ground solution to ease your health conscience.

This app is geared toward the fitness beginner, which is us, at least once a year. Its notion is to build you up to fitness very gradually, and does so without taking up loads of your time or requiring any additional equipment beyond a decent pair of trainers.

The app asks you to set aside three workouts each week, and after nine weeks will have you running continuously for 30-minutes; the equivalent of a 5-kilometer run. Not too shabby, particularly for the career unfit, such as ourselves.

Week 1 asks you to walk briskly for five minutes to warm up, and then instructs you to run for one minute, walk again for a minute and a half, and then repeat this sequence eight times. Another five minute walk to cool down, and your exercise is done until the day after tomorrow. Next week the runs are increased to a minute and a half and the walks to two minutes. Week three adds some three minute runs, and so forth until, by week nine, you’ve built up to running for a solid 30-minutes.

It’s a surprisingly effective method. It’s hard to inform yourself about the benefits of building up an exercise regime, with most of us either jumping in too deep or failing to push ourselves appropriately. This steady incline is very attainable, and the app proves itself to be an invaluable coach.

The interface is absolutely stunning, for one thing. It walks you through your weekly regimes, while still allowing you to pick and choose any of the exercises from a beautiful pseudo-3D menu. The tap of a button sets you off on today’s run, which is accompanied by a full voiceover so you can put on your headphones and still know what’s required.

This voiceover is customisable, too. If you don’t want the motivational comments, you can set it to only speak the activity’s changes. It also offers an essential access to your iPhone’s music, allowing you to set a playlist going in the background and either dampening the volume when the app has something to say, or pausing the audio and resuming when it’s finished (good for audio books, the app informs us).

Multiple users can even share the same iPhone, as the Get Running (Couch to 5K) app allows you to add different profiles for different runners, and keeps track of each person’s progress throughout their training.

Combine this with the social networking integrations, which allows you to clap and cheer for yourself publically when you hit a benchmark in your training, and the option to chat with other fitness gurus through the forums, and running becomes quite a social and enjoyable experience.