Caledos Runner - A jogging App

I am trying to be a regular runner. My aim is to make it every alternate day, as that is the best way to get maximum benefit from running. Well, as of now, I succeed in doing it twice a week, which is not bad if compared to my few month back performance of once in 10 days.

There are two things which need to be improved while running. One is the distance covered and second is the time taken i.e. speed. Out of the two, at the moment, I am trying to concentrate on distance.

It all started, when my German friend took me to play Football in his group. I was surrounded by players from countries like Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal and many other European nations. Believe me, I could run around with them for hardly 3 minutes and that too in an indoor hand ball ground, which was followed by my 67 minutes rest. (Let me add it here, this is the best ever performance any normal Indian Cricket loving guy would give). This made me think, we need to do something. So, I started running and at one point I played one half  with out a break. (Played means I could run around with them. Touching football with feet was a rare situation countable on fingers.)

While in India, I tried to continue the same. I measured the distance around Shivaji Park in Dadar, Mumbai using Wikimapia .org (http://drkaustubhjoshi.blogspot.in/2013/03/wikimapiaorg.html).

I had this old mobile having stop watch that helped me to keep track of time required. But since, I was not very regular as wished, it was difficult to keep track of performance. Recently, during a similar conversation with someone, I was suggested to check for an app that does this task. And that is when I came across this windows based app name "Caledos Runner". It is freely available. I installed this app on my Lumia. It took me little time to understand how it works, but now I am getting comfortable with it. It allows you to keep track of the distance ran, walked, jogged or any other such activity. You can even use it check your swimming performance, provided you mobile is water proof.

It tells you the time required. Probable calories burned, your average speed during the run. It also tells you your present pace, so if by mistake are running little fast (not very good for long distance running), you can pace down a bit.

The app also gives you instruction on distance covered, speed and time and other things. It has GPS activated, so, it can provide you the location in case you are running in some new area. It can also adjust the back ground music from your list that syncs in well with your running pace, thereby, helping in improving performance. I am yet to properly figure out this facility.

It can also count your heart beats, but it requires some extension to be brought that attaches to your chest. It needs to be bought and I guess that is good for trade mill kind of work out. I am not there yet to buy it and I prefer outside running rather than on trade mill.

Overall it is a great app. There are many similar apps available for windows phone and I am  sure there must be big list available in Android. All you have to do is search "Jogging Tracker" or something similar and you will get a list. Some free, some paid. But I guess, the free apps are good enough. Because, at the end of the day, no matter which app you have, if you don't run, they are all useless.