Thursday, August 05, 2010

Dailymile vs. Runtastic

I'm an online tool junkie. I needed to get that out of the way right away. I'm also a gadget junkie. I'm working on the second. I run with either a Garmin Forerunner that I got for Christmas or with an application on my Android from Verizon. I love both. The thing is. I need one that works easily with an online running log/journal. In a perfect world it'd update easily from either one as I will run with both or either.

The Garmin Forerunner is accurate, easy to use, and uploads through a usb connection on the laptop to dailymile relatively easily. I have to have the laptop up and have an internet connection to update it though. I'm a fan of dailymile and I've got lots of my runs on there already, over 300 miles! I like how clean the site is. I like how easy it is to use and I like the graphs. Really clean, easy to use site. I don't like that I have to manually enter my run information from my Android though. Why is there no application that syncs with my android or uses my Android GPS to let me sync my runs as soon as I've done them? Then I don't have to hook any cables or cords up to anything. I hit send and BAM! It's out there on the web.

Turns out there's an application called Runtastic that runs on the Android just fine. It's also go graphs, and nice maps. It'll update either my Facebook status with my run information or my twitter feed with the run information. It will grab data from the Android just fine and post it to the internet running log for me. It doesn't yet import data from my Garmin Forerunner though. I like the accuracy on that one better than the Android. I typically run with both going. If I run a race you can bet I'll defer to the Garmin over the Android. The Android's had me running 70 miles in half an hour before when I ran through some trees. The Garmin didn't do that.

So the two sites have their good and bad points. Neither is perfect. One thing the dailymile has going for it is it's got a mobile site that works really well on the Android if I need to manually enter a run in for some reason. I haven't found an easy way to do that on Runtastic. Until dailymile gets an Android app I'll probably use both. As soon as one of the site does everything I want, and right now both only input readily from one source and only one (dailymile) lets me manually input runs, I'll wind up switching to just one of the sites and drop the other. My preference is for dailymile to add an android app. While I love Runtastic I don't want to move all my data.

If you've not started with either yet, but you're considering using one give me a shout. Let me know which you're using and we can "friend" each other on it and shout encouragement in the general direction of each other as we make progress.

Disclaimer: All those amazon.com links are affiliate links. Feel free to click on through and shop until you can't shop no more! I'll make money if you do. Not much. But I thought you should know I had an interest in your following those amazon links. The other links are to my two online running profiles/logs.

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