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You guys know that I tend to fall in love easily but this time I swear it’s forever!  Because I am head over heels in love with the FREE Nike Run Club app paired with Spotify.  If you already know about this, then you probably love it as much as I do, and if you don’t, I am here to tell you why this is EXACTLY what I have been looking for!

To share a  little backstory, I have always been a runner.  I actually ran 4 years of Cross County in High School and even ran a half marathon last year.  Ok, whatever, it was 7 years ago, I just had to look it up.  In my mind, it feels like something I just accomplished; it feels like it was only a year ago.   I wrote about that experience here.  Anyway, so when I say I have always been a runner, I have NOT always been a good runner.  In fact, I was never the best and it never came easy.  I don’t even know if I enjoyed it.  LOL.  But, I did (and still do) enjoy the pride that came with being a runner.    When I look back at periods of my life where I was happiest and in the best shape, it often coincides with periods that I was regularly running.

PS: I had to see if I could find an old high school photo of me running and here it is! I am in the middle.  Do you think Jake or Abby looks more like me? I see a lot of Jake.

Anyway, I have been trying to get back into it for years now.  I just can’t seem to find a way to enjoy it.  It almost felt like too much work and had lost its spark.  For years I had been using the MapMyRun app by Under Armour and while it did a great job mapping and tracking my runs, I felt like my only motivation was to beat the pace, length, or duration of a previous run.  I was just not finding the motivation that I needed anymore.   I also ran quite a bit over the last few years at Orange Theory and really learned a lot about my base, push and all-out paces.  I liked how it was always interesting and the challenges were fluid.  In fact, those were actually guided runs, which is what I want to talk about here!

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I had never done an outdoor guided run.  And now I am literally obsessed with them.  So, now, let’s talk about the…

Nike Run Club App

This app is FREE to download and so far I don’t really even see options for in-app purchases other than their Nike Member Shop.   The Nike Run Club App has hundreds of guided runs, tracks your runs, gives you rewards and more!  It’s a place to connect with other runners or a place to connect with yourself.  It also has Spotify integrated so you can use the suggested RNC playlists or your own Spotify playlists.  Did I mention Spotify is FREE too?  Although, the long ad breaks are no fun during the runs so I would probably suggest upgrading that membership.  So, let’s start with the basics.

Your NRC (short for Nike Run Club) app has a home screen with your personal Home Feed sharing everything from recipes to mindfulness, finding your why, and breaking bad habits.  It is where you can shop their products and see what is new in the app.  It’s also a place to click “Start a Run” but that’s not what I am doing and I will share more on that in a minute.

The next tab is your Activity and you can look back at past runs, paces, courses, split times, and more, both on individual runs, weekly, monthly, or yearly.  This is also where you see any rewards that you have earned on a run.  These range from best 1k and 1mile time to 5x a week or 50K summations.

The next tab called Run is where the magic happens.  Again, you can simply press START or start a run by setting a goal, or you can use their guided runs.  This is what I am obsessing over right now.  If you tap Guided Runs up top you can see literally hundreds of runs of all duration and distance.  There is a Get Started Collection with First Run, Next Run, and more.  There are speed runs and interval runs. There is a Mindful Running Pack and Tough Day Runs.  There are Short Runs and Long Runs.  There are Run & Train Runs that cover cross-training.  There is even a Half Marathon Guided Plan where you can follow 14 weeks of guided runs/training and be ready for race day.

And while I haven’t done them all, there are runs called “Don’t Wanna Run Run” and “I Need a Win Run”.   There are even “Thank You Runs” and “Lunch Runs”.  I am blown away at all of the options on here and really excited to do them all.  Right now I am going through the Get Started Collection and have really enjoyed it.

Now, if you have never done a guided run you are probably imagining someone talking the whole time, but this isn’t what I have experienced.  Let me give you a little run down on how my Guided Runs have gone!

Guided Runs on the Nike Run Club App

First, you pick a Guided Run and tap through to your Spotify to choose their soundtrack or your own playlist.  I am not a huge fan of theirs but love some of the others I have found on Spotify.   When you click START you start running, the coach’s voiceover comes on for a minute or two talking about what you will be doing on that run, praising you for being here, and showing up for yourself.  You may be rolling your eyes, but I promise,  Coach Bennett, who does a lot of them, isn’t annoying at all and actually very encouraging.  When his voice comes on, your music volume decreases a little so that you can hear, then when he’s done it goes back up to normal.

During your run, the coach comes on every couple of minutes with something inspirational or asking you to check your form.   He reminds you of the effort you should be putting in and how you should be feeling and in these beginning runs he wants you feeling good, relaxed, and going at a nice easy pace.  As your run comes to an end he counts you through the finish line.  And once you get to 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 the actual run (like timer, pace, etc) will stop but he will talk you through a walking cooldown and congratulate you on a job well done!

I want to hit on that again because I was confused at the end of my first run.  I am used to hitting STOP the second I finish so that my time and pace records correctly.  You DO NOT have to do this.  It will stop and record it.

Sync with Apple Watch & Health

The Nike Run Club app syncs seamlessly to your Apple Watch and Apple Health.  It automatically adds the run to your activity and counts steps.  I actually really like the way it displays on my phone when I am running.  It has my pace and distance.  Also, when I did an Interval Training run the other day it showed how much time of rest I had left, added my splits, etc right there on my watch.  Then once you are finished with your cooldown, hold the stop button to finish the session, your watch tells you Crushed It or something equally as celebratory.   I also have been stealing Matt’s Apple Air Pods.  I didn’t think I needed them but I love them and once I reach a personal goal of mine, plan to get myself a pair!

There are also two more tabs in the Nike Run Club app.  The Club tab lets you join or create challenges and connect with your friends on the app.  Then the My Running Shop tab is a place where you can shop Nike products.  If you are interested in keeping track of the number of miles you have on a pair of shoes it lets you add that to each run and then let you know when you may need a new pair. They also have apparel, gear and share their new releases there.

Download and Get Running

You can click here to go to the Nike Run Club App homepage for more information and to download.

You can click here to download Spotify.

Set a goal or don’t set a goal.  This photo is from a blog post I wrote shortly after finishing that half marathon.  I have a loose goal of being able to run one in under 2 hours.  Right now I am getting my endurance built up so that when the opportunity to sign up for one presents itself I can jump into a training program, on the Nike Run Club app of course.

Also, if you already use this, leave a comment here and let me know your favorite run.  If you want to connect on there let me know and I will look you up.

If you haven’t started yet, today is the perfect day!  I can tell you that the motivation I have right now is exciting and I went from dreading trying to gear up for a run to being really excited about which one I am going to do next.  Getting started is the hardest part and I can tell you that it will be worth it!

So, that little girl in that top photo is not so little anymore.  I mean figuratively of course.  LOL.  Dozens of pounds and quite a few grey hairs later I’m still here, constantly trying to improve myself and find moments that ignite something in me and prove to myself that I can do hard things.  You can too!