RunCycleSwim HK$8 Rating 7/10 Shoedometer Free Rating 7/10 Emergency Bike Repair HK$23 Rating 9/10 This week, I'm reviewing not one but three apps that would be useful to triathletes. These are apps that keep gear in check. As much as you may love a pair of running shoes, they have a limited lifespan, and once that has been exceeded, you risk discomfort and injury. RunCycleSwim is a simple app that allows you to track the kilometres covered in your running shoes. Take a photo and name each pair of shoes, and you can keep individual shoe running diaries. The Shoedometer app tracks only your shoes' distances, but if you use distance-measuring devices such as Garmin Connect or Nike+, you can upload your distances to it. You can customise your shoes' profile, either by taking a photo or choosing a photo from the library. Shoedometer also allows you to set a distance at which you will receive a "retire your shoes" warning. The big question is, what distance should you set? At this point, you realise that the apps are redundant because the recommended retirement distance for any pair of shoes depends on your weight, running style, the terrain on which you run and the shoe brand, and can vary from 500 to 1,000 kilometres. Because of this, most sites and experts recommend that the best way to decide whether to retire your shoes is a visual check. My purchase of the Emergency Bike Repair app is like "closing the barn door after the horse has bolted". But now, if I have a problem while out cycling, I have a repair kit, as advised, with Allen keys and a chain tool. For the emergency repairs section, there are photographs and text to guide you through repairing chains, tyres, derailleurs and more.
