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digital trainers

When Nancy Lennon wants to figure out what she can accomplish in a run, she doesn't go for a gut check or scope out her shoes. Instead, she goes straight to the numbers.

"I track all my numbers for every run because it's all about pushing myself and my pace," says the 41-year-old Toronto mother. "I would never have thought that I can do what I do if I didn't see it on paper … just looking at those numbers is what really pushes me."

For many people, running leads to an obsession with digits, as they track every detail of their progress to stay motivated and go the extra kilometre. And while number-crunching is much simpler than it used to be, thanks to a range of watches, websites and smart-phone applications, focusing too much on the figures can be a harmful distraction, running coaches say.

"With running there's this natural gravitation towards crunching numbers," says Michal Kapral, editor-in-chief of Canadian Running Magazine. "You're always asking yourself, 'How far am I going? How fast? What's my pace per kilometre? How do I convert to pace per mile? If I ran this pace for a five k what would I run it in?' "



Chris Whelan, a 52-year-old transit planner who lives in St. John's, looks forward to two things during the work day. One is going for a run on his lunch hour. The other is uploading the data from his Garmin running watch onto his computer the second he's back at his desk.

"I get excited to come back to the office and plug it in and see what did I do today," says Mr. Whelan, who took running up seriously a little more than three years ago.

Monitoring his heart rate came in handy during a half marathon in Halifax in 2008.

"I knew that if I keep my heart rate under 150 beats per minute I could go for a good long time. So once it started getting over 150 I'd work on getting it down again," Mr. Whelan says.

He will also keep track of each run's time and his pace.

"To stay motivated, you've got to have things to keep you going, and numbers certainly help."

Keeping track of numbers allows runners to analyze their progress and to compete against themselves as they try to shave time off their last run or improve their pace. And crunching numbers, whether it's a route's distance and elevation or a runner's heart rate, is easier than ever, says Mike Booth, a running coach and founder of Winnipeg-based Endurance Matters, which provides training plans for endurance runners.

"It's very simple, whereas it wasn't too long ago you'd have people doing a run and then getting in the car wanting to know how far they went. Now you just log on to the computer," he says.

There are dozens of websites and smart-phone applications that allow runners to log just about any number they might be interested in, from calories burned to how steep a route is to how many stops you made along the way.

"It can be more of a curse than a blessing," says Kevin Smith, a running coach and founder of Marathon Dynamics, a training facility in Mississauga, Ont. Many runners who use gadgets may become so obsessed with what the device is telling them that they ignore things such as topography or weather. "They start braking and trying to slow down the rhythm when it was free speed and free flow and they could have just worked with the topography and the land contour," he says.

Perhaps more important, obsessing about numbers can make running a second job rather than something to enjoy, Mr. Smith says. "I find they just spend more time looking at the damn screen and less at the beautiful lakefront that they went down to run on or chatting socially with the other runners they got together with."

Mr. Kaprall agrees that data tracking can be a huge help. But there is a point where runners may need to get back to the fun of the activity.

"The moment that you find yourself spending more time looking at your numbers than you are actually running, that's probably the wake-up call," Mr. Kapral says.

The digital track

Want to get running? Don't worry, there's an app for that. In fact, there are dozens. Here are five of the best for runners of all stripes.

iMapMyRun

A GPS-based tracking app that is compatible with both iPhones and BlackBerrys, iMapMyRun will automatically follow your route on Google Maps, recording data such as pace, average speed, total time and total distance. It also comes with a training log for you to follow details like distance, calories burned, time and date.

Run Chart

This is a great iPhone app for casual runners who wants to track their progress with a wide array of charts, including one that records your weight and others showing how you've fared on different routes. Perhaps best of all, it syncs easily with iTunes, meaning you can listen to music while gathering data.

AerobicView

Do you love graphs? Can you only make sense of data when it's visualized? Then this is the app for you. AerobicView not only tracks distance, speed and pace, it also offers sophisticated graphs that visualize trends based on week, month, last seven days, last 30 days, last 365 days, last year or all of the above.

Fitnio

Another GPS-based tracking app, Fitnio records runs and shows pace, distance and the calories you've burned, which is great for runners who want to control their weight. It also keeps an ongoing log to make analyzing your progress easy and, just in case you need assistance during your run, it has an emergency contact option.

Get Running

A perfect iPhone app for beginners, Get Running acts as your coach, providing a plan each day for how to best get in shape, and also breaks down each outing into walking and running periods. A woman's voice lets you know where you are in each day's plan and tells you why it's crucial to cool down after a run.

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