10 Best iPhone Training Apps For Runners

If you’ve felt like you’ve betrayed your New Year resolution to hit the gym and/or lose weight (again), take heart that you can easily redeem yourself by starting now. And what better way to hit the road than by running! It’s the simplest form of exercise, as there are no membership fees or extra equipment involved – all you need are a pair of running shoes and a willing heart.

To get you started, here are a few running apps for the iPhone which will turn the couch potato within you into a brand new road warrior. We’ll showcase 5 free running apps to start you off, and another 5 premium apps which may have more to offer.

From hooking you up with fellow runners, preparing you for a big marathon, or injecting some fun back into the simple exercise of a quick run, these apps will surely reinvent the way you view running apps.

Recommended Reading: 30 iPhone Apps To Help You Watch Your Health

1. C25K

C25K, or Couch to 5 Kilometres, is a popular training schedule for beginners unfamiliar with the running scene, particularly those who would like to learn how to sustain a run for longer than 5 minutes. It takes you on a very progressive running schedule which increases the intensity of running gradually to meet the needs of the self-proclaimed couch potato. The frequency of intensity involved is appropriately adjusted at each step of the programme – you will always feel as if you’re hitting your limit, but never like you’re pushing too far. [Free]

2. Strava Running

Strava Running utilizes the power of social networking to bring runners with the same interests together. On top of that it helps you log your running history and find running partners to run with in your area. Catered specifically towards the running community, it has all the bells and whistles you’d expect such as a timer, distance tracker and calorie manager. Definitely an app worth checking out. [Free]

3. Charity Miles

If you’ve always wanted to feel like you’re contributing to the society while you’re running, you can do more than just picking up stray garbage along your route or saving injured animals. Charity Miles is an app which donates money towards specific causes based on the miles you’ve logged in, so not only do you help yourself during your runs, you help others as well! Puts the saying, "Every Mile Matters" into perspective. [Free]

4. Mile Mapper

Mile Mapper is similar to WalkJogRun. It suggests alternative routes for you based on your destination, but what sets it apart is that it calculates an ideal route for you entirely based on its own mapping algorithm and Google Maps, instead of drawing from a catalogue of existing routes. It’s extremely fun for creating random routes on the fly if you’re bored of running the same routes over and over. [Free]

5. Fitocracy

Fitocracy is another social networking app for fitness buffs, and has a section dedicated specifically towards runners. What is special about this app is its unique scoring system, where you can rack up points based on your performance over the week then tally them against other runners. It puts a whole new spin on the concept of having a partner to run with, and helps immensely as a shot in the arm for motivation when you see yourself trailing. [Free]

6. Zombies, Run!

Ever wondered what it feels like to be running away from a zombie horde? Well wonder no more, as Zombies, Run! puts you in the middle of one. Using audio cues from the perspective of a radio operator trying to help you reach a human base alive, the app instructs you to run through a pretend apocalyptic settings, switching between brisk jogs and sudden sprints, putting the fun back in running. [$3.99]

7. WalkJogRun

WalkJogRun is a professionally running app which gathers the running routes of its many subscribers and stores it all in one central database. This can be useful if you ever find yourself in a new area you’re not familar with, but still want to bust up your miles. Even if you’re only using it from home, you can still use the app to switch up your running routes and keep your morning jog fresh. [$1.99]

8. Cruise Control

As the name suggests, Cruise Control learns from your running habits and tries to set up an ideal tempo based on your level of experience. It does this by analysing songs present in your media device and setting up a playlist of songs which are most suitable for a run, such as those with an upbeat tone or strong rhythmic beat. Best of all, it even adjusts the tempo of each individual song to coach you during your run, by speeding up when you’re slowing down and vice versa! [$4.99]

9. Battlesuit Runner Fitness

Do you like video games? Well then, we’ve got just the perfect app for you. Battlesuit Runner Fitness throws you deep into an exciting sci-fi adventure, running in a tactical mobilized battlesuit a la Halo or Iron Man. The action is fast-paced and the narrative, exciting, placing you in the heart of the action as a soldier in an alien war story. The story is interactive so you get to make choices along the way, and you do gain a sense of immersion while running with this app. [$0.99]

10. Hal Higdon Marathon Training Program

Much like C25K but on steroids, Hal Higdon Marathon Training Program trains you to prepare for a marathon from the get go. Its 18-week training program aims to turn you from a complete couch potato into a truly qualified marathon runner. Many novice runners have vouched for the effectiveness of this program, so if you’re aiming to do a full marathon but lack a personal coach or mentor, look no further than this app. [$9.99]

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PluralSight Buys Digital-Tutors For $45 Million To Add Media Software Training

PluralSight, a purveyor of online training tools for software professionals, is expected to announce the acquisition of creative software training services company Digital-Tutors in a $45 million deal.

With the Digital-Tutors purchase, PluralSight adds a suite of 1,500 courses focused on media and design to its already formidable array of online training tools for professional developers. The company now boasts over 3,000 training modules in its catalog.

It’s the latest shot in the battle for dominance in the market for software training content – a sector that is increasingly consolidating around larger, better-funded companies.

Tech professionals face a constant struggle to keep up with the latest and greatest in software, so it’s no wonder that training and education services for information tech have become big businesses. In fact, Global Industry Analysts projects that spending on professional training for software and information technology will hit $107 billion by 2015.

And PluralSight isn’t the only e-learning company cutting checks. Earlier in April, Lynda.com announced the acquisition of Compilr in a roughly $20 million deal to add the Halifax, Canada-based company’s services for in-browser learning, writing and testing code to its own education offerings.

“The trends in the space are starting to really develop more clearly for investors as well as for customers in the market,” said PluralSight chief executive Aaron Skonnard. “The [massive open online courses]  have gotten a lot of attention but people are struggling to see how a lot of them make money. The companies that have a very solid financial grounding and good ideas are starting to group together.”

At PluralSight, the deal for Oklahoma City-based Digital-Tutors represents the company’s fourth acquisition in eight months. Digital-Tutors already counts some of the largest entertainment tech companies like Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, and Rockstar Games among its clientele of corporations, universities, and professionals.

In all, the company has spent under $100 million on acquisitions including PeepCode, which offers open-source developer courses; the screencast publisher for developers, Tekpub; and TrainSignal, an information technology training company PluralSight acquired in a $23.6 million deal.

Based in Salt Lake City, PluralSight began as a classroom-based training company in 2004 before establishing its online presence in 2008. Since then the company grew its user base and took a single, $27.5 million round from Insight Venture Partners in December 2012.

That round was the starting gun for PluralSight’s acquisition tear, and it also helped boost the company’s revenues from $16 million in 2012 to over $32 million in 2013, and the company is heading for another year of triple-digit growth.

As a result of the acquisition, customers of both Digital-Tutors and PluralSight will have access to both companies’ libraries at no additional charge, and the 30 employees on Digital-Tutors staff will join the PluralSight team. Additionally, Digital-Tutors chief executive and founder Piyush Patel will join PluralSight as senior vice president of creative operations.

“The whole online e-learning space is going to go through quite a period of consolidation over the next several years,” said Skonnard. “We can raise debt financing and we can pay for a lot of these deals with cash on the books. That’s why you’re seeing [consolidation] happen sooner in the skills oriented training before you’re seeing it happen elsewhere.”

Noora Health’s Training Program For Patients And Caregivers Improves Recovery And Reduces Readmission Rates

If you’ve ever had a major surgery or medical event, you know that the education around recovery leaves much to be desired. When I had a C-section with the birth of my daughter, the hospital gave me a piece of paper that listed some of the medical issues that could take place if my recovery wasn’t going well. But I really had no idea how to handle the recovery–in fact, I made several calls to my physician (and had an untimely ER visit) because of complications.

Noora Health wants to change this. The nonprofit graduating from Y Combinator is building hospital education platforms for patients and their family members to teach them the skills needed to recover from a major medical event (like a surgery) or manage chronic conditions like diabetes and palliative care. Using an iPad app, Noora Health works with hospitals to offer patients and their families combination of videos, quizzes and interactive content to teach skills to aid in their recovery at home.

The problem Noora is tackling is real. In the United States, patient 30 day readmission rates for hospitals are at 20-30%. Medicare alone spends roughly $17 billion per year on return visits that are preventable with proper education and training.

Noora Health will actually supply iPads to be put on patient’s bedside tables post surgery. Patents then self identify themselves by entering basic information related to their condition and an interactive education program is presented to them based on their condition and circumstances.

Part of the program involves giving family members 24-hour access while the patient is in the hospital so they can actually practice some of the skills (i.e. changing a dressing of a bandage) before they go home. Doctors and nurses get reports on the patient’s progress and can see which skills patients are succeeding and struggling with and follow-up with the patient accordingly. Each program has a different focus, and for now extend to heart failure patients (vascular, surgery), new mothers, Alzheimer’s patients, diabetes and pneumonia.

Eventually the organization’s technology will become more customizable to each patient’s specific condition, we’re told. So the program will start taking into account certain medical history data points like whether the patient is a smoker.

The non-profit was founded by Edith Elliott and Katy Ashe, who met while developing a program in India at Stanford’s d.school. Once they thought of the idea for Noora Health, Ashe and Elliot thought India would be a good start to bring better health education to a developing country. Specifically, the healthcare infrastructure in India can’t keep up with the growing demand for health services, and there is a need for more doctors and healthcare professionals in general.

Through a partnership with a chain of low-cost hospitals in India, Narayana Health, Noora provided their training program to over 6,000 patients and family members. Results were impressive–there was a 23% reduction in readmission for open heart surgery patients. As a side note, Noora’s name derives meaning from the Arabic word for light and was the name of one of the first family members Elliot and Ashe interacted with in the early stages of their nonprofit’s development.

With this program in place, Noora Health is now extending this to US Hospitals. Currently, coordinating content and programs with 8 institutions including Stanford Hospital, and with Santa Clara Valley Hospital (a program for new mothers). Early data shows that the program is reducing readmission rates, increase knowledge retention, and boost patient satisfaction rates.

What Noora Health is offering is compelling for hospitals considering the recent changes in reimbursement with The Affordable Care Act. Patient satisfaction and readmission rates are now calculated into the costs for Medicare, Medicaid and MediCal patients. So hospitals are looking to increase satisfaction and reduce readmission rates.

As Elliot and Ashe explain to me, Noora Health’s simple goal is to empower patients with the information they need to truly take care of themselves through design and technology. “Patients and caregivers don’t ever go through a training course like CPR yet are being put in these very scary situations post surgery,” explains Elliot. Ashe adds that especially in small villages in developing countries, there is no education. But even in the Western world, she says, patients are confronted with critical decisions and changes following surgery that impact their health for the remainder of their lives. Education and skill training is the best way to help empower patients and families.

As someone who did go through a major surgery recently, I would most certainly have benefitted from a better education around recovery.

Care In Action from Noora Health on Vimeo.