Guess what? We’re launching a fresh new redesign of RunKeeper.com! Yes you’re reading that right. And feel free to do a happy dance

We created RunKeeper to be a powerful personal trainer in your pocket, but many of you look to our website to do things like drill deeper in your workout tracking, interact with friends, and connect with other partner apps. That hasn’t exactly been looking its finest for some time now, and many of you have been sure to let us know how you feel about that.

Rightfully so. There were buttons for things like routes, races, training, plans, and apps–twice, in two different places. What does that even mean? Meanwhile, cool functions like finding friends and connecting your RunKeeper account to other apps were pretty buried.

And if you were just getting started on RunKeeper, many of these pages, were, um, depressing.

Not anymore! We’ve taken the time to give RunKeeper.com the revamping it was due (especially considering the spiffy new redesigns our mobile apps got earlier this year). Now the website offers the same inviting, fun, and helpful experience that RunKeeper for iPhone and Android do (we hope!).

We’ve cleaned up the navigation on top, so the features you interact with the most are clear and easily accessible: the ‘Feed’ button will show you what your friends are up to; ‘Me’ takes you to your activity history, fitness reports, training plans, routes, and more. Click the ‘Log’ button to easily post a new workout.

For those who are new to RunKeeper, these different pages offer helpful, friendly guidance for getting up and running (pun intended) with us.

We’re not claiming this new site is a masterpiece, but it is a significant improvement over what was there before and lays the foundation for us to make it more awesome in the months to come–so stay tuned for a bunch of exciting stuff in the near future!

To accomplish some of our goals, we had to move a couple things around with this update. To help existing users adjust, we’ve set up a guide to help highlight some of the more significant changes below.

We hope you see RunKeeper.com as a helpful and fun tool for tracking your fitness journey (you friends’ too!)! Let us know what you think!

By Erin Glabets

Last year I was “training” for my fourth half marathon. By training I mean I was running on the treadmill a couple miles a couple times a week and getting outside in those super warm March days. A few weeks before my race I realized I had barely run more than 5 miles in one stretch. Oops. I scrambled to get in an 8 and 10 miler the final week before race day and kicked myself for being so careless.

I finished just fine, but it all felt like a fluke and like I didn’t really earn my time. For this year’s half marathon (the Blackstone Valley Half Marathon in Rhode Island), I want to go in prepared. Better yet, I want to finally beat the personal best I’ve held for the nearly four years since my first half marathon.  (I still can’t seem to understand why my first is my best. Beginner’s luck? Does anyone else have this problem?)

To do this, I have been following a plan. And you know what the best part of the plan is for me? The happy green check marks that tell me I’ve completed a run and a job well done, and those red sad faces that say the opposite. I kid you not.

It’s brilliant for the approval junkie in me.

I don’t follow the plan perfectly; I switch Wednesday runs to Saturdays if that works better; swap interval workouts for easy runs if I’m feeling tired, and shave miles off of runs on busy days and add them to days when I’m feeling great and have all day to get out there.

Many people don’t want to follow training plans because they think they are so rigid they won’t be able to fit them into their lives. But I’ve found that trying to fit a square training plan peg into the round hole that is my schedule is still better than no plan.

For previous half marathons, I’ve had a general idea in my head of what I need to be running each week, but the lack of tracking and accountability made it really hard to stick to that plan. I would skip a run on a “busy day” and tell myself I’d make it up next time. That usually didn’t happen. This time around, seeing the long list of upcoming workouts and the red faces glaring at me when I missed really put on the pressure. I planned accordingly for busy weeks and bad weather, and kept my skipping to a minimum.

This Sunday is my half marathon. Going into it,  I’ve run about 220 miles over the last few months, and have gotten in a 12.2 mile run, about three 10 mile runs, a few 9’s, and many handfuls of 5+ distances. (Coach Deibler has been pushing me HARD!) Maybe not the perfect half marathon training regimen, but last year I tried to cram these long distances into the final WEEK before the race.

I’m really hoping I beat that PR this Sunday, but even if I don’t, at least I know I did (almost) everything I could. Maybe next race I’ll actually do the training runs on the correct days. Wish me luck!

What about you? What helps you stick to training? Have you ever scrambled at the last minute like me?

 Erin is the content manager at RunKeeper 

Ever had a knee injury? It stinks. It totally throws you off your running game and probably the overall daily routine, too.

Well, how about a triple knee injury? Wait, what? Is that even humanly possible?

Karen Calabrese, a high school Integrated Earth Systems teacher from Middletown, New Jersey, got hit with this unfortunate trifecta last fall. Patella tendinitis, a sprained ACL and a Grade 2 meniscus tear. For those counting at home, a Grade 3 tear requires surgery.

Think about that for a second. With that much structural damage to one leg, you’re probably thinking, “when does the cast come off?”

Quite the opposite. In fact, she never missed a beat.

After meeting with an orthopedic, Karen learned how important strength training was to her recovery, especially hip strengthening. 

“I didn’t know enough beforehand,” said the former college swimmer. Armed with support from the ortho and a trusty knee brace, Karen re-dedicated herself to running in 2013.

While it’s been a long road to recovery, Karen did something during the month of March that she has never done before. Complete a 10 mile run!

“I just kept going. It’s the longest I’ve run in my life” are pretty special words and definitely ones Karen cherishes.

She’s not afraid to admit the scoop of jelly beans pre-run (it was Easter Sunday) was just what those depleted glucose levels needed the last few miles! 

But, can we really call it a comeback when she’s been smashing personal bests ever since the triple knee whammy?

Karen might beg to differ. To get the inside scoop, we spoke with her last week to get those Secrets to Success for anyone looking to accomplish a big fitness goal: 

1. Change your diet. Through experimentation, she learned that dairy and fruit 24 hours before a long run would cause stomach issues. Learn what foods work and stick with them.

2. Enough protein will help with muscle recovery. She didn’t have protein the day we spoke and said her legs were feeling really sore.

3. Add sprints to your runs - short and long - to add some variety. In good RunKeeper fashion, Karen uses an audio cue every 1/4 mile to help with her overall mile pace.

4. Cross-training is super important. Hit the elliptical to alleviate impact. Hop on the stairmaster to strengthen the quads, while softening the blow.

5. Don’t make goals that are unreachable. Putting on her teacher hat, “once you make that smaller, more attainable goal, you can always set a higher goal.”

Certainly not resting on her laurels, Karen had kind of a big day on April 21st. Yep, the CGI Racing Unite Half Marathon. Her first one ever.

As all of us runners have told ourselves, and Karen no different, “I can’t believe I’m actually doing this.”

We can Karen. Great job with the 10 miler and in New Brunswick!

By Jon Gilman

The marathon was always something I dismissed as beyond my capabilities.  On many occasions, I remember thinking there’s no way I’m physically capable of running 26.2 miles, period.

I had previously run two half-marathons, so I wasn’t a total running novice but still had serious doubts about my ability to complete a full marathon.  It just seemed unnecessarily hard and not fun.  My wife, who has run seven marathons, would tell me about the intense pain she endured during the last few miles of her marathons and I couldn’t imagine doing the same. Yet, there was a mystery about the marathon that was stuck in my head.  Maybe it was just because I work at RunKeeper, but I kept wondering why runners have such a strong bond with the marathon?  The curiosity kept building up to the point where I reluctantly resolved to take on the big kahuna in my hometown of Philadelphia. But when the rubber hit the road and I finally signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon last summer, I was scared out of my mind!

“What the hell am I thinking? I’m probably going to get injured during training. What if I can’t actually run 26.2 miles?” All of these doubts were flying through my head and I felt like I had made a big mistake.  But I wasn’t going to give up before even starting, so I put my head down and embarked on my 16-week training program.

And don’t let me sugarcoat it; training was really hard, incredibly time consuming, and very often painful. But only in retrospect did I realize that enduring these tough moments during training was totally worth it!  On those long runs, I learned to dig deep and push myself further than I ever thought possible.  After finishing my 20 miler, I remember having an almost out-of-body experience where I couldn’t believe that I just ran for that long.  And sure enough from that point on, the doubts that had previously cluttered my mind faded away.  Then in a short few weeks, race day was here. And there’s no doubt I was nervous and anxious at the starting line but I knew deep inside that I could finish the marathon…and I did!  

That’s the magic of the marathon! Training for something so challenging and all-encompassing provides an incredible source of internal strength and confidence that stretches well beyond anyone’s fitness journey. Completing the marathon taught me to never dismiss challenges as beyond my abilities but rather to believe that anything’s possible with enough grit and hard work.

After learning about the Boston Marathon bombings (I was watching the race a mile away from the finish line), I was really upset that anyone would target such a special event that celebrates incredible personal achievement.  Only after seeing our community’s response to the attacks did I realize that those two cowardly terrorists in fact achieved the opposite of what they set out to do.  Instead of demeaning the glory of the marathon, they just made it stronger.

Because they gave us runners more inspiration to run.  Because they gave us extra strength to push ourselves harder.  Because they increased our confidence in what we can achieve as individuals and as a community.  Because they lifted our determination to finish what we set out to do–come hell or high water.  

In the wake of so much devastation and destruction, it’s hard to glean positives from the tragic events that took place. But I do believe that the marathon and its runners (past, present, and future) are now stronger than ever before, and I am thankful for that.  

 Jon is the product manager at RunKeeper

We always knew the running community was a strong one. But in the past two weeks, our understanding of this fact has really been taken to a whole new level. 

We have received so many supportive, kind messages since our company has shared more of the heartbreak we’ve experienced as a  result of the Boston Marathon bombings. Each of them has encouraged us and continued to reveal how compassionate people truly are. 

One of them was from a runner in Los Angeles named Stephen Saux, who helped organize a 26.2-mile relay run with his friends to show their love for Boston (they even used RunKeeper Live to track the run so everyone knew where each other was, which we can’t help but think is a pretty awesome use of the technology).

In his words: “On Sunday, April 21st a few friends ran a marathon relay through the streets Los Angeles in hopes of putting a little light out into the world. We ran for those who didn’t get to finish. We ran for those who may never run again. The run started in Burbank and ended at the Santa Monica Pier.” 

The video below documents this run, and this blog post from Stephen’s wife shares a bit more detail as well. We hope you are encouraged by these as we were here at the RunKeeper HQ, and continue to be strengthened by the other incredible displays of running community across the globe.  

Jason is founder and CEO of RunKeeper. He ran the Boston Marathon last Monday. 

By Jason Jacobs

I wasn’t planning on running the Boston Marathon this year. As the CEO of a scaling startup and the father of a one-year old son, I am lucky I have time to eat lunch every day, let alone log the miles required to train properly for a marathon.  But when a number opened up and I was invited to run on behalf of Camp Interactive, I couldn’t resist.  I was born and raised in Boston and grew up watching the Boston Marathon every year with my family, and this race has always had a special place in my heart.

Training was grueling, to say the least.  My wife Ali works full-time, and often has morning events where she has to be out the door very early.  This meant that, some days, I would be banging out long runs and needed to be home by 6:30am, which meant getting up at 4:30am or earlier.  Plus, my long runs fall on Sundays, and I had a streak this winter where 3 long runs in a row all occurred during major blizzards. 

The first half of my training plan went OK, but the wheels started coming off the car on the second half.  I was under-rested, under-nourished, over-caffeinated, and emotionally and physically drained.  I toughed it out though, and while I didn’t go into the race in tip-top physical shape, at least I went in without any nagging physical injuries like in previous years.

I started out the race on fire.  During my training runs I trained at a pace just under 9 minute miles, but I did the first half of the race at a sub-7 minute mile pace.   WAY too fast to start out, which I knew at the time, but for some reason I didn’t care.  During the first part of the race I was tweeting, taking photos, texting my wife Ali, and generally having fun.  At around mile 13 or mile 14, I started getting tired (shocking, I know).  I slowed the pace to 8-minute miles for the next several miles, which is probably where I should have been from the beginning.  By mile 18 or 19, I was doing a mix of walking/running for the rest of the race.

I felt like crap for these last several miles. I was pissed at myself for not doing the proper training.  I was pissed at myself for going out of the gates WAY too fast, and I felt like I didn’t deserve all of the cheers of the incredible fans on the sidelines.  I wanted so badly to pick up the pace and truck it out, but I was having real trouble finding the internal strength to do so.  My legs had nothing left in them. 

I knew the RunKeeper team was watching from Kenmore Square, so I made sure to gear up and be in full running stride as I went past them, and kept running as I headed into the final mile of the race.  Ali texted a pic of her and my son at the finish line, and asked me to text when I was getting close.  I texted about two blocks before I hit Boylston St to let her know to expect me at the finish line very soon.  I then turned down Hereford and made the final turn onto Boylston to head towards the finish line.

As I ran down Boylston St, I got about two blocks when I saw the first explosion at the finish line.  I heard the police office in front of me ask another officer what that was, which I knew wasn’t a good sign.  About 15 seconds later the second bomb went off, this one only about half a block away from where I was standing.  At this point, everyone panicked, and it started to sink in what was actually happening here. 

I had no idea if my wife and son at the finish line were OK.  I also had no idea if those were the only two bombs, or if several more were going to go off soon after.  I didn’t know how many people were injured, the severity of their injuries, I just knew that everyone needed to get out of the area as soon as humanly possible.  At this point, I was two to three blocks from the finish line, but the police officers were not letting anyone move forward.  I was right next to the Prudential Mall, so I figured I’d head through the mall to try to get closer to the finish line and reunited with my wife and son. 

I staggered through the mall, and along the way stopped at our nearby apartment to see if my wife and son were waiting for me in the lobby.  They were not.  Meanwhile, I kept trying Ali’s cell incessantly, but every call went to voicemail.  Finally, the phone rang and it was her calling—she was OK.  She and her friends had run to an apartment a mile or so away.  I started crying immediately, so thankful and relieved that they were OK.  I staggered the mile walk to her friend’s apartment building, the whole time reflecting on the gravity of what had just occurred.

I got there and we hung there for several hours, fielding calls from tons of friends and loved ones, and checking on others who we had not heard from yet that were at the race.  Meanwhile, our apartment building was evacuated, so my parents came to get us and we spent the night with them. 

Now, a week later, our apartment building is still a crime scene.  Boylston St is like a movie set—still set up exactly how it was on race day.  The wounds are still fresh, and we’ve found it difficult to move on with daily life.  This race that I grew up loving turned into a horrific event, and our neighborhood and home are right in the epicenter of where it all went down.  I am very thankful to be alive and that my family is safe, but at the same time, can’t help but feel like things are forever different now.

Before the bombs went off, I was a broken man—mentally and physically exhausted.  Now I am a broken man that is incredibly lucky to have his family in one piece.  We also had several close calls on the RunKeeper team, and thankfully, everyone is OK.  I am going to take some time off from running and recharge the batteries.  I hope I can find it in me to run Boston next year, but it is hard for me to even think about at the moment.

If you have thoughts and stories to share on how you are processing through this tragedy, feel free to share them with us, in the comments below, or via e-mail. 

By Phil Connaughton

My motto in college was “run fast, turn left, don’t be a wuss.” It got me through four years of spiriting, hurdling and occasionally jumping. Unfortunately it’s not such a great motto for marathon running. After joining RunKeeper fresh out of college in 2011, I realized that it was time to make the transition from shorter distances to the longer ones. Sprinting isn’t really something you can continue competitively after college but every athlete still has the urge for competition. Marathon running is a huge part of the culture at RunKeeper; nearly half the team has competed in one or is training for their first. I naively assumed that if they could do it so could I, piece of cake.

I found out there are quite a few miles between a long jump runway and the start of the Boston Marathon. Step one was get a training plan. I used the Jeff Gaudette Marathon in sub 3:30 plan, which turned out to be a huge shock to my body. I quickly went from never having run more than 5 miles to an 8 mile run the first weekend, to watching the Super Bowl while unable to move on  a couch with both legs wrapped in ice. 

What did I learn? You have to ramp up your body. Sure my body was used to the grind of running sprint intervals three days a week but marathon running is a much different type of training. That Wednesday 6 mile ‘slow’ run is actually supposed to be slow. That’s an important part of the training and one that many of us overlook. We had Jeff into the office one day and he said those slow runs can be the most difficult ones. You really have to train your body to calm down, relax and enjoy the run. It’s not the time to push it.

The other big takeaway is, all those years in high school and college that I thought the kids on the cross country team were crazy, I was right. You have to be a little crazy to get out of bed at 6 o’clock, run 11 miles and start your day. That being said, after you’ve run that far you feel pretty invincible for the rest of the day—nothing can bug you ‘cause you already kicked that day’s ass.  

Unfortunately I was over aggressive with my first marathon training and got myself hurt to the point that I had to take a few weeks off. That’s not really a luxury of training plans that are scheduled to end on the day of the marathon. As it turns out, I ended up just sort of winging Boston after just getting over severe shin splints. It didn’t go well. But that was it—I caught the bug. I saw how much fun it was to push the body to that level and had to do it again.

I took some time off and started training for Philadelphia. This time I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I had trained a bit for Boston with Jake Cacciapaglia (RK biz dev) but this time we decide to attack the marathon together (that was an invaluable asset that I’ll dive into in a later post). We focused on sticking to the pace prescribed for each workout and had an injury free training experience. I think this was partly due to the fact that my body was ready for that type of running but also because we didn’t over train. The other key was to start training two weeks before the plan was scheduled to start. The idea behind that was something always goes wrong during training. Maybe you get hurt, maybe your buddy is having a Bachelors party in Vegas, maybe you just hate running for a week (yeah, it even happens to us!). But you’ll love it again after a week. Give yourself a chance to take that break and you’ll come back rejuvenated.

We both had much better experiences during Philly. I’m not 100% sure if there is another marathon in my future but I know when the bug comes a itchin’ the key will be to ‘Stick to the script’ as my college coach used to say. Don’t over train. I mean, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. 

 Phil is a Software Engineer at RunKeeper

We gave RunKeeper a fresh new makeover in time for the New Year, but we’re not stopping there! RunKeeper 3.1 for iPhone is now live, with more great updates to make getting and staying fit even easier.   

Weight Logging and Visualization
We know that weight management is a big part of your overall fitness, so we’re pleased to announce that we’ve made it easier to input and track your weight over time!  You can now enter your weight data manually, right from the phone, or do so in an automated way every time you step on the scale, by linking your RunKeeper account with one of the RunKeeper-compatible scales. You can also set reminders, so your RunKeeper app can remind you to weigh in at specified times, and tie those stats back to any weight loss goals you’ve set so you know when you’ve smashed it!

In-Activity Settings
Ever been 10 minutes into a workout and realized you didn’t have audio cues or some other RunKeeper setting configured just how you like? We sure have! Now you can manage your visual preferences, audio cues, auto-pause, and more—all while you’re in the midst of tracking your workout.

Night Mode
The response to our new look has been great (thank you!) with one exception—the bright white screen can be tough on the eyes, especially when you’re running at night. With 3.1, we’ve added an optional new “Night Mode” theme to the tracking experience that’s just right for low light situations (and for folks who love darker themes). You can toggle this in the in-activity settings mentioned above!

As you know, self-improvement is a continual process, but we hope this release gets us one step further down the path!  We’re excited to bring you more RunKeeper goodness as the year unfolds.

Download 3.1, and let us know what you think!

Adam Stroud has long been one of RunKeeper’s most avid Phandroids, so we wanted to let him give you an inside look at what’s been happening in the development process for Android 3.0: 

We’re excited over at RunKeeper about the fast-approaching release of our 3.0 app for Android! This update includes a major visual redesign and long-requested new features, but it also reflects a refreshed thinking in how we build the Android experience at RunKeeper.

During the development process, we took the opportunity to not only rethink how our app looks, but also to rethink how we deliver it to our users. An important trait of any quality app is providing the user with an experience that they are familiar with. While refreshing each and every screen in our app, we took special care to ensure that the RunKeeper experience is in line with the overall Android user experience. Ensuring that we comply with Android design principles allows us to give our app its unique identity while presenting a feel that is still intuitive to the user.

We also continued giving the app a more modern Android look. We started this process with the previous release with the addition of the action bar. RunKeeper 3.0 adds “swipeable” tabs and Google Play in-app payment, alongside other tweaks. We also developed an internal component library that is heavily influenced by Android design best practices. This gives the user a look and feel that is more consistent with other high-quality Android apps. We feel this provides a better overall experience for our users.

While thinking about how to refresh RunKeeper, it became clear we were under utilizing the Android theme framework. With RunKeeper 3.0, we totally re-engineered our in-app theming to create a user experience that is not only consistent throughout the app, but also allows us to easily modify the look of the app in the future. These updates addressed the immediate consistency problems while also providing flexibility for future development. This was a major improvement over earlier releases, and creates a strong foundation for us to efficiently add on new features this year.

RunKeeper 3.0 was a large undertaking, but it was truly a labor of love. We are proud of what we have created and hope that the RunKeeper Android users will be as excited about the update as we are. If you’d like to test the beta build in the meantime; it is available here.  

By Adam Stroud
Lead Android Developer at RunKeeper

Name: Stephanie Empson
Location: Bellingham, WA
Starting/Current/Goal Weight: 277 pounds/220 pounds/140 pounds
Starting/Current A1C (3-month blood sugar avg): 8.5/5.3
Miles Tracked: 700
Calories Burned: 102,000+
Mission: To gain a healthier, more fit lifestyle.

I have had weight problems most of my life, but my latest journey started in April 8th 2012. It was a Friday and my boyfriend and I had plans to go to the drive-in, about an hour and a half away from our home.  I had not felt all that good for most of the day, but still wanted to go to the movies. So I never said anything to him about not feeling good.  I know I know—not a smart thing to do…

Let me give you a little background on me: I am an ex fire and rescue volunteer, I lost my job in 2009; I went to college for two years (really packed on the weight) and still had not found employment. I am also currently a CPR/First-Aid trainer, so you would think I would have made a better choice that day, but I didn’t.

My symptoms that day felt like they could be a cardiac event, so I monitored my pulse and took it easy most of the day. I had strange sensations in my chest and a feeling that my heart kept stopping and starting.

We watched two of the three movies, ate popcorn, hotdogs and other junk food and decided to head home.  As we got closer, I decided to go to emergency room.  

Upon arrival at the ER I was rushed to a room and was hooked up to various monitors.  Many hours later we were told it was not a cardiac event (much to our relief), but they asked if I knew that I was a diabetic, and I said no. My blood sugar was 360+ and my A1C (a three-month average of my blood sugars) was 8.5. A good reading is under 6.

The entire event scared me straight, so to speak. I started monitoring my foods and I got off my butt and started moving. My starting weight for this journey was 277 pounds.

I found two programs that I use without fail: RunKeeper to monitor my exercise and MyFitnessPal to monitor my eating. I had seen friends post their exercise on Facebook using RunKeeper and had used it some since January 2012, by some I mean VERY little.

I had recorded a whole 9.7 miles in January, 10.3 in February, and March took a total dive to a whopping 2 miles. Then there was the little trip to the ER and I ended April with 15.5 miles of walking.  In May, I got moving and walked 50 miles, and in June I had a total of 57.9 miles, between a little elliptical, cycling, and mostly walking.

At my three-month checkup in July, my A1C was down to 6.5 and I was down 25 pounds. (YES!!! all my hard work is paying off)

I continued to crank up the miles, and in September alone, I logged 124.9 miles. WOW!!!

That month I had my six-month check and my A1C is down to 5.4. (SWEET, this is working!!!) By this point, I had lost a total of 46 pounds.  My doctor took me off the blood pressure meds—success! Another three months and many more miles flew by, and on New Year’s Eve I had my nine-month check. My A1C is down to 5.3, and I am ecstatic that my hard work has totally paid off! I am down 57 pounds and can now ditch my diabetic medication.

So far, I have traveled 700 miles, burned more than 102,000 calories, and lost 57 pounds. I try to keep it to 1400 calories a day and try REALLY hard not to eat back calories I have burned during exercise, which RunKeeper and MyFitnessPal help me keep track of. Between these two programs I have improved my health, gotten in shape, lost weight and dropped five pant sizes. My current weight is 220 pounds. Who would have thought?

It is a new year and I still have a ways to go, and I am taking RunKeeper with me to the end and beyond.

Thank you for reading my journey.