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Running app, measurement tools.

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  1. #1

    Join Date
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    Running app, measurement tools.

    Hi,

    what are the best running apps and measurement tools?

    Saw Fitbit and a wristband for 300 HKD.
    Is that a good option?

    Are there other apps and bands, which are cheaper (& accurate)?


  2. #2

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    What do you mean by "best", and what functions are you looking for?

    Best could mean cheapest, most feature/data laden, easiest to use, most accurate, longest runtimes, etc. With many of these being mutually exclusive. For example, I would have thought thatthe Fitbit would be a bloody useless device for running as AFAIK it just counts steps and doesn't have a GPS or data export function, but if you're looking for cheap and easy then it's probably not bad.

    One good and perhaps overly comprehensive review site is Product Comparison Calculator | DC Rainmaker.

    Or just download one of the many free phone-based apps, e.g. Strava, if you don't need heart rate info.

    imparanoic and smarti like this.

  3. #3

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    Thank you for your answer.
    I just would be interested to know how much km i run during a soccer game.
    Total km is fine. More infos are welcome, but not necessary.


  4. #4

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    Get the cheapest GPS enabled watch you can find then. I would be surprised if a pedometer like a Fitbit would be accurate enough for the kind of uneven running that you get in soccer.

    And a smartphone isn't going to be rugged enough.

    Garmin/Suunto/Polar are the usual brands, but you're talking more than $300 even for the cheapest models.

    I am personally dubious whether distances are relevant in a game of soccer, where most of the excercise comes from short and often anerobic sprints rather than constant pacing. I'd be surprised if soccer involved running more than a couple of kilometers in an entire game. IMO something with heart rate measurements would be far more useful than just distrance tracking.

    I just looked it up. World class games involve 8-9km, most of that at very slow speeds. Amateurs probably do far, far less than that.

    http://www.active.com/soccer/article...er-game-872900

    Last edited by jgl; 19-10-2014 at 02:26 PM.
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  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by smarti:
    Thank you for your answer.
    I just would be interested to know how much km i run during a soccer game.
    Total km is fine. More infos are welcome, but not necessary.
    Hi,

    I've had the fitbit Flex for about a month now and it works quite well. It will tell you how many steps, how many km you've done, how many calories you've burned and how many continuous minutes of activity you've done. Really good investment. If you get the flex it also tracks your sleep pattern and can tell you how many minutes per night you're restless and how long it actually took you to fall asleep.

    In my opinion given that you're wanting to find out how much running is done during soccer it would be the very best option. It's waterproof so you never have to take it off and it also syncs wirelessly with your phone.

    The other option that I use regularly is Runkeeper. This is good for running / walking as it uses your phone's GPS to keep track of your run / walk speed while logging and mapping your activities.
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  6. #6

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    But how does the fitbit calculate distance?

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  7. #7

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    The fitbit calculates your distance by multiplying your walking steps and walking stride length (when you first set it up it asks for a number of your details including height, weight etc). So by using the average stride length for someone of your height multiplied by the number of steps you take it can give you a distance reading. Unfortunately its not 100% accurate (gps is more accurate) but it gets pretty close to what my run keeper says.

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  8. #8

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    Thanks for all your answers.

    Will get one of a friend and guess it's enough just to satisfy my curiosity.
    Have the Polar heart rate monitors now such tools to measure distance etc in-built?


  9. #9

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    For running, I find that mapmyrun is more accurate and has better data analysis than runkeeper. Neither would be particularly useful in a football setting though.

    JGL, in a 90 minute game, I'd expect amateur footballers to still run at least 4-5 km. The lack of fitness compared to a pro is offset by the positional indiscipline amateurs all have, which makes them run more than they ought to.

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  10. #10

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    A stride based measurement device is going to be all over the place for soccer- strides vary between super-short dribbling, to longer walking, to much longer running steps. Estimating an 'average' stride is going to be guesswork.
    @turtles: Fair point. Though my memories of playing it as a teenager are mainly of slow jogging or even walking around the field. Stuff that happened at such slow speeds that I'd be surprised if it constituted any meaningful cardio workout. Hence the belief that a heart rate monitor would be much more useful than something that measured distance. Though most HRMs also involve using a strap, which would be a bit of a distraction during a soccer match.
    @smarti, Polar also do GPS watches. They are much more expensive than $300 Fitbit bands though.