iSmoothRun

I have been using a Garmin 910XT for years and love it. However, the lack of LTE capabilities meant that I had to either carry a phone while running, or be unable to communicate during long runs. The stock fitness App on the Apple watch was insufficient for me, but this ismoothrun app on the Apple watch has the features that I need for marathon training and racing. 1) Start / pause (or lap) by pressing the crown and button on the Apple watch. (Garmin has more hardware buttons, but one hardware button feature is enough for me.) 2) Download complex interval workouts to the watch (even easier than Garmin Connect workouts) 3) Accurate GPS (as good or better than Garmin during my tests) 4) Easy export to Garmin Connect 5) Good enough battery life, more than 50% battery remaining after a 3 hour workout. I was ok with the Garmin interval beeps and vibrations, but I do prefer the voice commands from ismoothrun. If not for this ismoothrun app, I would have bought the new Garmin LTE watch. But with ismoothrun, the Apple watch becomes about as good as a Garmin for a marathoner, and a much more capable device overall. The only reason I would use a Garmin now would be for ultra running training or races that require more than 5 hours of battery life. For everything else, I am using the Apple watch and that's because ismoothrun is so good. I rarely write reviews, but this app is so useful for me that I wanted to share my positive feedback.

For anyone looking for a great running app, I would highly recommend iSmoothRun. It’s $5 but more than worth it for what you get. The great thing about it is being able to set an unlimited amount of custom intervals and specify your goal pace for each interval. So whenever you are running, the app will tell you if you are X seconds ahead or behind. It will also tell you when you have 800m, 400m, 200m and 100m left, so you know when to pick up the pace or straight up full sprint until the finish. You can set custom rest intervals as well (e.g. after 0.50 miles, you can either walk for 0.25 miles or walk for 3 minutes before the next interval). This is THE APP to get if you’re training for something like a marathon or physical test.

But right now it’s just barely cutting it. The watch + iPhone setting just does NOT work. The watch app in watch only mode works as expected. Any time I try to start the watch + iPhone (from the watch) it just displays no info on the watch and the iPhone app sits at the start run screen. Don’t cut and paste your standard check your settings faq either. I’ve checked them all. Smashrun... I love your website but you might want to consider a “ymmv” statement when recommending this app right now. Update: I got the watch and iPhone app working together by starting the outside runs from the phone NOT the watch as shown in the faq. However, treadmill plus this app = fail. It constantly repeats stats, goes to auto pause when auto pause is disabled and doesn’t record the pace or distance correctly on a treadmill. The watch is recording the correct info and can be seen in the watch records. It’s the app.. right now it’s working ok for outside runs and that’s it. I’ll still use it over Nike’s nightmare though. It sad that the Apple Watch is such a running tool failure.

I’ve logged over 900 runs in iSmoothRun, and it is hands down the best app for serious runners, and I’ve tried them all! I like to customize my interval runs and no other app provides the flexibility and customization that iSmoothRun does! I also love that I can customize the audio cues to provide just the information I want when I want it. And the ghost cues are great for helping me keep pace. I also like that I can upload my runs to RunKeeper, so I can keep all my history and analyze my progress. When the app recently had a bug uploading, I was worried I would have to find another app. I emailed support and they fixed it within a day!

No metric support!!! My running coach sent me to the track for a high intensity workout but I couldn’t express her “100 meter” or “400 meter” instructions in the app because I had to choose from 1/8 mile, 1/4 mile distances!!! Easy fix - replace scroll bar with text input and let me do the math to express 100 meters in miles. Add this feature and I’ll update my review. ❤️🏃‍♀️ PS there is an option in settings to switch from “English” to “Standard” - does English = Metric? In any case I couldn’t get this to work despite trying multiple times. PPS not everyone has email on their phones! There should be an email form on your web site. Okay I’ll update my review to four stars since you have the feature I need but honestly. It is well and truly buried!!!