What are the Agile practices? Well, in general being iterative about what you do and adjusting to your needs while performing the tasks. I know that this is a very rough description, but suitable.
In the winter season I will attend a public duathlon (running, cycling, running) for which I need to improve in speed. For this, I chose an agile approach for my training!
What are my goals?
In general, I tend to run too fast. Although I very well know how to keep a steady pace, that one is typically too slow for a good time.
To improve this, I chose to check my pace more regularly. Since I own an iPhone (although any GPS enabled device should work, given the right software), which I normally have along my training for background music, I looked for something usable.
So, the general requirement is:
- regular pace checks
- non disturbing/intrusive information on my speed
- preferable iPhone based
The solution
During my (not too in-depth) research I found two applications which should suite my needs:
Both support tracking and route following, alongside with pace informations. What makes both stand apart from the rest of the running apps is that both support speech based informations.
I chose runmeter for my training, basically because I have not found any information on what exactly runtastic will voice. The runmeter app had some 20 metrics announced in the App Store, which I found promising 🙂
Indeed does runmeter fit my training cycle very well. During training, I have my music running. I configured runmeter (running in background mode) to pause the iPod every 250 meters to tell me minutes/kilometer, time elapsed and kilometers left for the track.
How runmeter helps me
The runmeter-based feedback does help me because I very quickly get feedback on my speed, which I then can adjust. That helps me tremendously in keeping a considerable pace.