Contact Run With Hal Support

I bought this because I had heard so many good things from a friend who has used his run/walk approach. I can’t tell if the app facilitates this element of his approach at all. You cannot set it to give you intervals as far as I can tell. I have been a runner in the past, I am back at it after taking a break from an injury. I have put in my current pace which is only 14 minutes a mile and I’m barely covering 3 miles a week. It recommended for my first bass run a nine minute mile pace for one and a half miles. What? I sent the app a question about this never heard anything back from them. I thought, it must be adaptive, so I sit out on my run today using that as my first base run, when I got back, the app is no longer open anymore, despite my phone being on a lock screen the entire time, and it didn’t even save my run!! It’s as if I didn’t even go today! Which doesn’t seem like that big of a deal except when you are having a hard time initiating a Running program again, and it fails to even record your first attempt. I’m canceling my paid subscription and finding something better!

Hal Higdon is a legend in the running community and his books and training plans have helped tens of thousands of runners achieve their goals. He should be ashamed at the lackluster quality of this app and its total lack of updates to justify it’s subscription cost. I’ve downloaded this app every year and found no improvements have been made despite it charging yearly. Principally what is missing: 1. There is still no Apple Health Sync. No Apple Watch app either. I can’t think of a single other paid running app on the App Store that doesn’t include this. This app is so rudimentary RunGap can’t support it. 2. No feedback or voice cues. Again, a standard feature on nearly every free and paid running app, even if it’s just through Siri. 3. Undefined, vague, and unhelpful feedback on your training sessions. Why pay $50/year for a training plan that can’t even tell you how you’re doing? Apple’s Fitness App provides more valuable, measurable feedback but your data is locked in this useless app. You are far better off buying Higdon’s plans on TrainingPeaks directly which supports nearly all these features for the same price. Or if you’re looking for feedback and voice cues, literally any other running app on the App Store and grabbing a book by Hal and inputting each workout into your devices as you go. This app is a joke and an expensive one.

I really like the idea of this app. It’s easy to use and I like that there are descriptions for each workout. I’ve run 7 marathons (and probably 30 halfs) using pretty much the same plan and am looking to follow a new plan while training for my 8th marathon after having a baby last year. However, I’m only a week in and struggling with the inflexibility of the app. For whatever reason, it scheduled a long run on a Wednesday even though I said I could only do long runs on Sundays. It also doesn’t allow any flexibility or modification for weather. Right now, NYC is in a heat wave and I simply can’t hit the paces the app says I should for tempo runs. If I adjust, it “grades” me lower. If I run even .2 of a mile more or less than what is called for, the app also “grades” me lower. I know several running coaches and many would recommend slowing in response to weather. Yes, consistency is super important in training for a marathon, but the inflexibility in this app makes it almost unusable. I also feel like the mileage per week is all over the place - some weeks high, some weeks low. Lastly, I wish this app took into account past running history. I’ve run many races and having been running 2-3 times per week before starting the plan. I feel like the plan from this app just makes up a schedule and paces out of nowhere. Not sure I’ll continue to use it.