If you have never come across Smashrun.com you will probably not be the only one. For the last few years I have been running with a Nike GPS Sportswatch and during the cold and rainy days enjoyed my Nike+ foot-pod for treadmill runs.
One downside of Nike is it’s closed off ecosystem and despite having a developer programme, Nike is very selective in allowing partners access to it. After having nearly done 3000km (or about 600 runs), and noticing that Nike is discontinuing one product after the next (first the Nike Sportswatch, then the Nike footpod), I have started to wonder if Nike still has a clue about their customer base. Nike’s excuse for getting rid of the footpod is that nowadays everyone runs with a GPS enabled phone and their running app is great. Sure, the irregular jogger will strap his/her iPhone 6 to the arm and go for a casual run and this makes me worried – how much Nike actually has lost the plot when it comes to wearables.
Not even a mediocre runner like me would ever run with a USD 800,00 device strapped to my arm in a country where crime is ripe and it is not unusual, that bikers or runners are held up at gun point and robbed. Never mind the chance of getting robbed, but having to rely on an expensive phone to track your running is just not ideal.
So I needed to find a way to save my Nike data and still continue to enjoy my hobby. There are plenty of different fitness sites out there, but most of them focus on a variety of sports and do not manage to track a specific discipline such as running very well. Worst off, some (Strava, Endomondo, Mapmyfitness) offer challenges where cheating is so blatant that I finally closed my account as I lacked the motivation participating in challenges against superhumans running 30 seconds to the kilometer.
I finally found Smashrun.com, which offers free membership (and pro features for a paid membership), which not just allowed me to sync all my previous runs from Nike, but also allows me to sync my future runs from Garmin.
Keeping track of running dynamics (especially data synced via the Garmin FR620) is really awesome, especially when you are looking at analysing your performance.