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In our tour of running apps (see my reviews of Runna and Nike Run Club), Iâve been focusing on apps that are geared specifically toward runners. But there are some general fitness apps that are also for runners, and itâs time we talked about one of the big onesâthe Peloton app. If youâre deep into the Peloton ecosystem, this is likely the one youâll pick up when you want to add running to your routine. So how does it compare? Letâs lace up and try it out.
Peloton is best known for its stationary bikes with built-in video screens, but thatâs only a small part of the companyâs offerings. There is a companion app, available for Android and iOS, that includes bike workouts and workouts for strength training, running, yoga, and more. If you own a Bike, Bike+, Tread (the treadmill), or Row (the rower), your $44/month All Access subscription includes access to the app.
But you can also use the app on its own, no major equipment purchase needed. For $12.99/month (after a 30-day free trial) you can take outdoor running classes, which are audio-only, and you can follow along with videos for strength training and yoga. Pelotonâs âgymâ workouts are also included; these give you instructions to follow when training at a normal gym.
Thereâs another tier in between: the Peloton App+ tier is $24/month and includes the platformâs signature cycling workouts, as well as workouts for the treadmill and rower. You can do these workouts on your own off-brand bike, or take the app to the gym and follow along while you use whatever cardio equipment they happen to have.
Note that much of the brandâs ârunningâ content is in the form of video classes meant to be watched on a treadmill. With the cheaper App One tier, you can take three of these classes per monthâwhich might be enough if you just want the occasional treadmill run as a contingency plan for bad weather.
To run outdoors, you only need the lowest tier, Peloton App One. If you want to add video classes that you can do on a treadmill, youâll need the $24/month App+ tier.
Peloton Tread
$2,995.00 at Amazon
Get Deal
Get Deal
$2,995.00 at Amazon
When you first open the app, youâll have to create an account with Peloton and verify your email address. Then you get to choose a username, which will be publicly viewable, and enter your birthdate.
After that, you'll get the screen prompting you to sign up for one of the app subscription tiers, as discussed above. (Remember: always cancel immediately, then decide later if youâd like to re-up.)
Next, it asks you to âcheck your privacy settingsâ by indicating your country and state. Strangely, the states are in reverse alphabetical order. No privacy settings are actually available from this screen. (Iâll say more about privacy later.)
Then it asks you whether you see yourself as beginner, intermediate, or advanced, and what kinds of workouts you are most interested in. There are options for walking and running, indoor and outdoor. This screen seems to be there to set up your âperfect first class recommendationsâ that appear on the appâs home screen.
The app has five main screens accessible from buttons at the bottom:
When I tested the app by setting up a free trial for the App One tier, only a handful of workouts were available. The Outdoor tag showed 15 audio classes (seven runs, five walks, three walk+run) and the Running tag, which has treadmill classes, showed five. If you uncheck âfree classesâ from the class filter, youâll see a lot more.
When you run with the app, you select an outdoor run (make sure to select âoutdoorâ or look for the âaudioâ tag) and then hit âstartâ when youâre on the road, ready to run. The instructor guides you through what you need to doâwhich might include some warmup exercises like high kneesâand then guides you through the session. Music plays in the background, and the playlist is part of the class. The instructor might talk about the song thatâs playing and why they picked it.
The app can track your approximate pace and location with your phoneâs GPS. This usually isnât as accurate as using a dedicated running watch, but itâs close enough to be sure youâre getting your mileage in.
The instructor will cue you to run faster or slower based on an RPE (rate of perceived exertion) scale where 0 is sitting still, and 10 is an all-out effort. You might be asked to do run efforts at a 7 and recover with walking or light jogging at a 2. Your pace, in the sense of minutes per mile, isnât a factor. You can ignore the instructor and go faster or slower than instructed, and the app wonât notice or care.
If you donât want to do a guided run, but you still want to track it in your Peloton app, you can use the center button to âJust Runâ as they used to call it. (Itâs now just a button labeled âOutdoor Running.â You can track other activities this way too.)
During and after the run, your phone will show your distance, elevation gain, calories burned, and pace. During the run, youâll see your current pace, average pace, and best (fastest) pace.
Afterward, when you view the workout from your profile, pace is shown as your average pace, and average speed in miles per hour (which is the same thing, but in different units). Youâll also be able to view charts of your pace, speed (again, same thing!), and elevation.
Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Peloton
Training plans are found in the âprogramsâ section of the classes screen. (I didnât see it on my free trial, but itâs there in the paid All-Access version of the app.)
Pelotonâs programs are a bit tricky to follow. Everything is laid out one week at a time, so you canât get an overview of the whole thing to get a sense of mileage. The workouts are also based on time, since the platform offers (for example) 30-minute classes, not 3-mile classes. The exception would be the long runâmore about that in a minute.
When you begin a program, the first workout unlocks, and you need to do that workout (or tap a button to skip it) before you can do the next one. This means thereâs no rescheduling workouts or doing them out of order: you can do each one or skip it. Thatâs it.
You also need to stick to the week-by-week schedule. You have seven calendar days to do the workouts in the current week, after which they are gone and you are moved on to Week 2. So if you finish early, you canât start the next week early. And if you didnât get to that last workout before the week changed over, too late, you canât do it now.
Peloton has two programs for treadmill users, and two for outdoor running:
The two You Can Run programs feature two 20-minute workouts each week, and start with run/walk workouts. Gradually youâll do more running.
The Road to Your 26.2 plans are for runners who want to train for a marathon. They include strength training, which is great. But the inflexibility of the program schedule, as I described above, would be a problem for me if I were relying on this to get me to the finish line of an actual marathon I had paid money to sign up for.
Runners have sometimes said on forums like Reddit that they donât feel the midweek runs donât have enough mileage to train for a strong marathon, and that itâs best to add some more running on your own.
But by far the biggest common complaint about the marathon program is that itâs based on guided runs, but doesnât provide guided runs for your long runs. The long runs are the cornerstone of any marathon training program. But all Peloton gives you is a 10-minute guided warmup, and then youâre on your own to do the scheduled number of miles. That seems like a strange reversal when youâre probably doing it because the guided runs help you to get through the grind of training.
When you take a video class with Peloton, your username appears on a leaderboard, where others can see it, with your approximate age and gender underneath it (something like âF - 40sâ).
Peloton says that âprofile pictures, leaderboard names, tags, and badges are always public.â However, you can hide other things. Here are the available privacy settings:
These settings are all available in your profile, under preferences. Yes, some of them are confusingly similar. With some you need to turn a toggle on to hide your data, and with others you have to turn the toggle off to opt out. And finally, as of just a few months ago, Peloton will let you block users.
Without a subscription, you only get a free trial with a limited number of classes. With an App One subscription ($12.99/month), you can access outdoor runs (guided and Just Run) as well as strength and yoga classes. You need the App+ subscription ($24/month) for full access to all of the workout types, including the ability to take more than 3 treadmill classes per month.
The main upside of Pelotonâs running features is that they work with the Peloton ecosystem. If youâre trying to get your minutes in for the annual challenge, doing your runs through this app will keep everything in the same place. And if you have friends who live in the Peloton world as well, you can all train for a marathon together, or discuss your favorite guided runs and instructors.
Aside from that integration, I canât figure out why anyone would want to run with the Peloton app, unless youâre truly in love with guided runs from your favorite particular instructors. The guided runs provide a chatty voice and handpicked music, which can be nice for variety, but is that really worth $12.99/month or more?
Okay, Iâll say one more nice thing: even at the cheapest tier, the app does have strength and yoga built in, including a number of classes aimed specifically at runners. Since runners notoriously skip their strength training (just like lifters skip their cardio), this can be a good way to always have a workout literally in your back pocket.
The biggest downside of Peloton as a running app is that it isnât much of a running app! It only tracks the most basic metrics (time, distance, and pace of each run) and only has a few lackluster training programs. You can get guided runs and better training programs from Nike Run Clubâand that app is free!
Honestly, the running is really just an add-on to a general fitness app. If you enjoy the other components, like strength and yoga, and donât want much in the way of running metrics or coaching, then itâs convenient to get your runs done with the same app. But if youâre just looking for an app that is good at tracking running, Iâd skip this one.
Full story here:
What is the Peloton app?
Peloton is best known for its stationary bikes with built-in video screens, but thatâs only a small part of the companyâs offerings. There is a companion app, available for Android and iOS, that includes bike workouts and workouts for strength training, running, yoga, and more. If you own a Bike, Bike+, Tread (the treadmill), or Row (the rower), your $44/month All Access subscription includes access to the app.
But you can also use the app on its own, no major equipment purchase needed. For $12.99/month (after a 30-day free trial) you can take outdoor running classes, which are audio-only, and you can follow along with videos for strength training and yoga. Pelotonâs âgymâ workouts are also included; these give you instructions to follow when training at a normal gym.
Thereâs another tier in between: the Peloton App+ tier is $24/month and includes the platformâs signature cycling workouts, as well as workouts for the treadmill and rower. You can do these workouts on your own off-brand bike, or take the app to the gym and follow along while you use whatever cardio equipment they happen to have.
Note that much of the brandâs ârunningâ content is in the form of video classes meant to be watched on a treadmill. With the cheaper App One tier, you can take three of these classes per monthâwhich might be enough if you just want the occasional treadmill run as a contingency plan for bad weather.
To run outdoors, you only need the lowest tier, Peloton App One. If you want to add video classes that you can do on a treadmill, youâll need the $24/month App+ tier.
Peloton Tread
$2,995.00 at Amazon
Get Deal
Get Deal
$2,995.00 at Amazon
What the Peloton app is good at (for runners)
Keeps your exercise minutes in the Peloton ecosystem
Has a wide variety of guided runs with charismatic coaches and popular music
Includes a beginner program and a marathon training program
Can export runs to Strava
Strength training and yoga are available in the same app
Where it falls short (for runners)
No built-in integration with Garmin
No summary statistics like weekly mileage
Maps donât sync to Strava
Only two training programs
No guided classes for the marathon programsâ long runs
Setup
When you first open the app, youâll have to create an account with Peloton and verify your email address. Then you get to choose a username, which will be publicly viewable, and enter your birthdate.
After that, you'll get the screen prompting you to sign up for one of the app subscription tiers, as discussed above. (Remember: always cancel immediately, then decide later if youâd like to re-up.)
Next, it asks you to âcheck your privacy settingsâ by indicating your country and state. Strangely, the states are in reverse alphabetical order. No privacy settings are actually available from this screen. (Iâll say more about privacy later.)
Then it asks you whether you see yourself as beginner, intermediate, or advanced, and what kinds of workouts you are most interested in. There are options for walking and running, indoor and outdoor. This screen seems to be there to set up your âperfect first class recommendationsâ that appear on the appâs home screen.
Using the app
The app has five main screens accessible from buttons at the bottom:
Home: This is where youâll find suggested workouts.
Classes: This is where you can search for guided runs and classes that youâd like to take.
Just workout: This is where you can choose an activity, like outdoor running, to track without taking a class.
The fourth spot is either a screen selling you an upgraded membership, or (with a full account) a social feed.
Profile: This is where you can see the workouts youâve taken, set a goal, or view the badges youâve earned.
When I tested the app by setting up a free trial for the App One tier, only a handful of workouts were available. The Outdoor tag showed 15 audio classes (seven runs, five walks, three walk+run) and the Running tag, which has treadmill classes, showed five. If you uncheck âfree classesâ from the class filter, youâll see a lot more.
Running with the app
When you run with the app, you select an outdoor run (make sure to select âoutdoorâ or look for the âaudioâ tag) and then hit âstartâ when youâre on the road, ready to run. The instructor guides you through what you need to doâwhich might include some warmup exercises like high kneesâand then guides you through the session. Music plays in the background, and the playlist is part of the class. The instructor might talk about the song thatâs playing and why they picked it.
The app can track your approximate pace and location with your phoneâs GPS. This usually isnât as accurate as using a dedicated running watch, but itâs close enough to be sure youâre getting your mileage in.
The instructor will cue you to run faster or slower based on an RPE (rate of perceived exertion) scale where 0 is sitting still, and 10 is an all-out effort. You might be asked to do run efforts at a 7 and recover with walking or light jogging at a 2. Your pace, in the sense of minutes per mile, isnât a factor. You can ignore the instructor and go faster or slower than instructed, and the app wonât notice or care.
If you donât want to do a guided run, but you still want to track it in your Peloton app, you can use the center button to âJust Runâ as they used to call it. (Itâs now just a button labeled âOutdoor Running.â You can track other activities this way too.)
During and after the run, your phone will show your distance, elevation gain, calories burned, and pace. During the run, youâll see your current pace, average pace, and best (fastest) pace.
Afterward, when you view the workout from your profile, pace is shown as your average pace, and average speed in miles per hour (which is the same thing, but in different units). Youâll also be able to view charts of your pace, speed (again, same thing!), and elevation.
Training plans
Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Peloton
Training plans are found in the âprogramsâ section of the classes screen. (I didnât see it on my free trial, but itâs there in the paid All-Access version of the app.)
Pelotonâs programs are a bit tricky to follow. Everything is laid out one week at a time, so you canât get an overview of the whole thing to get a sense of mileage. The workouts are also based on time, since the platform offers (for example) 30-minute classes, not 3-mile classes. The exception would be the long runâmore about that in a minute.
When you begin a program, the first workout unlocks, and you need to do that workout (or tap a button to skip it) before you can do the next one. This means thereâs no rescheduling workouts or doing them out of order: you can do each one or skip it. Thatâs it.
You also need to stick to the week-by-week schedule. You have seven calendar days to do the workouts in the current week, after which they are gone and you are moved on to Week 2. So if you finish early, you canât start the next week early. And if you didnât get to that last workout before the week changed over, too late, you canât do it now.
Peloton has two programs for treadmill users, and two for outdoor running:
You Can Run (treadmill)
You Can Run Outdoors (outdoor)
Road to Your 5K (treadmill)
Road to Your 26.2, parts 1, 2, and 3 (outdoor)
The two You Can Run programs feature two 20-minute workouts each week, and start with run/walk workouts. Gradually youâll do more running.
The Road to Your 26.2 plans are for runners who want to train for a marathon. They include strength training, which is great. But the inflexibility of the program schedule, as I described above, would be a problem for me if I were relying on this to get me to the finish line of an actual marathon I had paid money to sign up for.
Runners have sometimes said on forums like Reddit that they donât feel the midweek runs donât have enough mileage to train for a strong marathon, and that itâs best to add some more running on your own.
But by far the biggest common complaint about the marathon program is that itâs based on guided runs, but doesnât provide guided runs for your long runs. The long runs are the cornerstone of any marathon training program. But all Peloton gives you is a 10-minute guided warmup, and then youâre on your own to do the scheduled number of miles. That seems like a strange reversal when youâre probably doing it because the guided runs help you to get through the grind of training.
Social features and privacy
When you take a video class with Peloton, your username appears on a leaderboard, where others can see it, with your approximate age and gender underneath it (something like âF - 40sâ).
Peloton says that âprofile pictures, leaderboard names, tags, and badges are always public.â However, you can hide other things. Here are the available privacy settings:
You can set your profile to âprivateâ so that only approved followers can view your full profile
You can choose whether your workout history is viewable only by yourself, or by others. If your profile is private, your choices are âMy followersâ or âonly me.â If your profile is public, those choices become âAnyone on Pelotonâ or âonly me.â
You can hide yourself from the search
You can hide yourself from suggested contacts, when somebody syncs their contact list
You can turn off the contact syncing feature for yourself (that is, using your phone contacts to find others)
You can hide maps of your outdoor run routes
You can hide your age and gender on class leaderboards
You can turn the âpersonalized experienceâ on or off; same with âmarketing and ads based on activity.â
These settings are all available in your profile, under preferences. Yes, some of them are confusingly similar. With some you need to turn a toggle on to hide your data, and with others you have to turn the toggle off to opt out. And finally, as of just a few months ago, Peloton will let you block users.
What you can do with and without a subscription
Without a subscription, you only get a free trial with a limited number of classes. With an App One subscription ($12.99/month), you can access outdoor runs (guided and Just Run) as well as strength and yoga classes. You need the App+ subscription ($24/month) for full access to all of the workout types, including the ability to take more than 3 treadmill classes per month.
What this app does well
The main upside of Pelotonâs running features is that they work with the Peloton ecosystem. If youâre trying to get your minutes in for the annual challenge, doing your runs through this app will keep everything in the same place. And if you have friends who live in the Peloton world as well, you can all train for a marathon together, or discuss your favorite guided runs and instructors.
Aside from that integration, I canât figure out why anyone would want to run with the Peloton app, unless youâre truly in love with guided runs from your favorite particular instructors. The guided runs provide a chatty voice and handpicked music, which can be nice for variety, but is that really worth $12.99/month or more?
Okay, Iâll say one more nice thing: even at the cheapest tier, the app does have strength and yoga built in, including a number of classes aimed specifically at runners. Since runners notoriously skip their strength training (just like lifters skip their cardio), this can be a good way to always have a workout literally in your back pocket.
Downsides and drawbacks
The biggest downside of Peloton as a running app is that it isnât much of a running app! It only tracks the most basic metrics (time, distance, and pace of each run) and only has a few lackluster training programs. You can get guided runs and better training programs from Nike Run Clubâand that app is free!
Honestly, the running is really just an add-on to a general fitness app. If you enjoy the other components, like strength and yoga, and donât want much in the way of running metrics or coaching, then itâs convenient to get your runs done with the same app. But if youâre just looking for an app that is good at tracking running, Iâd skip this one.
Full story here:
![[DK]](/data/avatars/s/57/57999.jpg?1720990206){kind=avatar}
