Gps watch or running apps?

[Wormshuffler]

Hi , I enjoy running, well jogging to be more accurate and can manage 8 miles, I'm very slow though, over an hour for 10k. I'm desperate to get quicker but it just doesn't seem to be coming so I'm considering asking Santa for a watch with a coaching facility.
At the minute I use the map my run app, but as I'm on android the coaching options aren't available, what do you experienced runners recommend please? many thanks

I use strava app atm but I don't know about coaching. I do want a garmin for Xmas but u doubt I'll be getting one :(

As for speeding up have you looked into hills/interval training at all? I run 3x a week, 1short speedy run (normally a 5k parkrun) 1 longer more leisurely run (usually with ds2 in the buggy) and 1 hills/intervals session. I find if I don't do the hills/intervals for any reason and just do 3 runs my times don't improve. I've got my 5k time from 33.20 to 27.20 in 3 months.

Good luck (sorry I've not quite answered the question you asked )

I found the Nike running app brilliant. Really motivated me to beat distance and time goals.

I love love love my Garmin. Used to use a complicated expensive one that was someone else's but now have a cheap and basic model of my own and it is my favourite thing, not really the watch itself but all the information it gives you when you upload your activities to Garmin Connect.

(I found my phone just couldn't cope without a good signal on most of my routes so none of the apps were much use to me, but I was running in the middle of nowhere.)

Thanks very much for your replies, it's intervals primarily I'm wanting to do but the app only tells me every mile and I can't do fast for that long...........yet , I've been trying to do lampposts sprints then recovery, but not sure if its helping. I have to go careful with lots of hills as last time I did them I buggered up my I.T band. Wish we had a park run here.

It's a garmin I'm hoping for, think I've made my mind up, any idea if you can sync the garmin workouts to any apps?

I don't know if you can sync up garmin to any apps but it tells you how many calories you've burnt if you wanted to enter it in MFP or something. The Garmin website is really good, you get records of all your activities, analyses, you can set goals, join groups etc. Everything you would get from all the other running apps.

I've got a Garmin forerunner 10 (the cheapest one) and I bloody love it. I hated having a phone strapped to my arm. If you're wanting to do intervals then a forerunner 10 might be for you, depending on the length the intervals you want to do. You can't program in anything longer than 10 mins (no idea why), so if you wanted to do 15 mins running, 2 mins walking you wouldn't be able to do it without tinkering around a bit with an extra walking interval.

Apart from that, it's so easy to use and you soon get used to what is a good pace for you. If you want to you can set a pace alarm that will beep at you if you're going too fast or too slow.

I didn't know you could set the virtual pacer thing on the FR10, as annoying as the sound of other people's bleeps are I have felt a bit thanks eau rouge

I always forget to turn mine off for my recovery runs and can often be seen jogging around the countryside beeping and saying 'shut UP!'.

Eun rouge that sounds perfect, I just looked up the garmin 10 and it says it doesn't have intervals but does have run / walk option. I want to run fast, then run slow but not actually walk. Will it know I'm not walking and start shouting at me or is it just a timer?
It seems daft to pay an extra 80 quid for just intervals as the 10 does everything else.

Yes, the walk/run option is just a timer thing that beeps when you need to change pace, it won't tell you off if you don't walk.

it definitely can't 'tell', I left it on and drove home getting loads of personal bests - it didn't seem to occur to Garmin that nobody can run at 57mph

Never used a Garmin so can't help on that but I use the Runkeeper app which also has some free training programs (where the woman talks to you). I think you can also program your own interval runs. You can also see all your runs on their website with graphs/maps etc. I've also used iSmoothRun (on iPhone but they might be on Android as we'll) and you can also program your own intervals there. Maybe something to use until you get a Garmin if that's what you decided on?