Running a half marathon plan from your phone
Every ranked answer to this question sells hardware. How to execute a published half marathon plan with a phone in your pocket and your splits read aloud.
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Running, explained
Practical answers about training, pace, and tracking, written for runners who train alone with the phone already in their pocket.
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Not losing a runWhy runs disappear, what each app documents about recovery, and how iOS and Android decide whether your recording survives to the end of the run.4 articlesAudio cues and what apps sayWhat running apps speak out loud, why the wording matters more than the feature list, and how to fix cues that go silent halfway through a run.4 articlesRunning without a watchWhat a phone can record on its own, which apps quietly need hardware you may not own, and why heart rate stays out of any leaderboard worth entering.5 articlesCurated city routesRunning routes published with measured distance, surface and corner count, plus how a route shape becomes spoken corners and why that is not navigation.8 articlesHow phone GPS behavesWhy two apps disagree about the same run, what happens under bridges and between towers, what a gap in the track does, and how a phone measures indoors.4 articlesChoosing an app you can trustWhat free means in four incompatible senses, how free running apps are funded, what leaves your phone during a run, and what Runflake is, with dates attached.5 articles
Latest articles
What leaves your phone when you track a run
Local first does not mean nothing is uploaded. The categories that leave a running app, who receives them, and how to read a privacy label for yourself.
Running apps that work without an account
Signing in is a separate decision from tracking. What actually needs an account, what still leaves your phone while signed out, and how to check in three minutes.
How a phone measures a treadmill run
GPS is useless indoors, so a phone counts steps and multiplies by an estimated stride. What that gets right, what it cannot, and why the number says estimate.
Picking a running route in a city you do not know
Arriving tonight, running tomorrow. How to judge a route before you have seen it, and why corner count matters more than scenery when you cannot read the signs.
Waterfront running routes for travellers
Promenade and riverside routes across several cities, measured the same way, with distance, surface and corner count so you can choose before you land.
The Imperial Palace loop, measured for runners
Tokyo's default running loop is a little over five kilometres with four corners. What the route data says, which way round runners go, and how to use it.
Three running routes in San Francisco, measured
Crissy Field, the Embarcadero waterfront and the Lake Merced loop, with distance, surface and corner count for each, plus what the downtown grid does to a track.
Measuring running cadence with a phone
Cadence comes from a step sensor, not from GPS, so a phone in your pocket can count it. How the number is produced, how often it updates, and what it hides.
Central Park loop or the Hudson River Greenway
Two long Manhattan runs, measured: a park loop that closes on itself with almost no corners, and a riverside line. Which suits the run you actually planned.
Two almost corner free routes in central Seoul
The Cheonggyecheon stream path and the Gyeongui Line Forest Park, measured. Two paved routes with almost no corners, each reachable from a subway exit.
Three measured running routes in London
Hyde Park, the Thames Path at the South Bank and the Tamsin Trail, with measured distance, surface and corner count, and what is spoken at each corner.
How a running route becomes spoken corners
A curated route is geometry until something names its corners. How turns are detected from a route shape, what gets announced, and why this is not navigation.
Should heart rate count on a running leaderboard
A board that scores heart rate ranks equipment as much as running. The case for scoring only what every entrant can measure, and what that leaves out.
If a running app is free, what is the catch
Four ways free running apps make money, the tells in a privacy policy, and the questions to ask before handing an app a year of your location history.
Free, free tier, or free trial in running apps
Free means four incompatible things. A dated audit naming the exact feature each app locks, plus a fifth category for apps that have not decided yet.
Running intervals versus gym interval timers
A Tabata timer counts seconds. A running repetition ends at a distance, and the useful spoken cue is an instruction about what to do next, not a countdown.
What happens to a run when the GPS drops out
A gap in the track is not a gap in the run. What apps do with missing minutes, why an honest distance under counts, and what a coach should say about it.
What GPS does under bridges and between towers
Underpasses, covered markets and downtown grids each break a track differently. What you see on the map afterwards, and whether the distance runs long or short.
Why two apps measure the same run differently
Same route, same phone, two different distances. Sampling, smoothing, discarded points and the way each app handles a gap explain nearly all of the gap.
Which running apps quietly need a watch
Some coaching products only work if you own the hardware. An app by app check of what is gated, degraded or advantaged when you run with a phone alone.
What each running app can restore after a lost run
Only some losses are recoverable. What Strava documents, what other vendors do not document, and the steps worth trying in the first hour, quoted and dated.
How to set up spoken splits for a run
Switch on spoken splits, pick units, decide what happens to your music, and test it before you go. Including the settings some apps deliberately do not offer.
Why your running app voice cues go silent
Six unresolved Strava threads and the same five guesses. A diagnosis organised by cause: speech engine, audio focus, background limits and Bluetooth.
Android battery settings that stop run tracking
Android kills a run tracker to save power, and manufacturer task killers make it worse. Which settings matter, per manufacturer, and what survives the kill.
Runflake running app, and what it records
Runflake is a running app for a phone. What it records, what it speaks, what leaves the device, and where it is available today, stated with a date attached.
Why an iPhone stops tracking a run in your pocket
Locked screen, phone in a pocket, and the run stops. What iOS actually does to a recording app, the order to check settings in, and what Always is for.
Running with only your phone, and what it covers
A phone records distance, pace, splits, cadence and route on its own. What that setup covers, what it cannot, and why the phrase without a watch is ambiguous.
What running apps actually say out loud
Nobody publishes the wording. Here is every line Runflake can speak with its trigger, what Strava and Runna document, and why the wording is fixed.
Why running apps lose runs, and how to avoid it
A run is usually lost at the save step, not while you run. What happens on your phone during a run, what Strava says it cannot restore, and what to check.