Review: Peloton Kind of Sucks As a Running App

In our tour of running apps (see my reviews of Runna and Nike Run Club), I’ve been focusing on apps that are geared specifically toward runners. But there are some general fitness apps that are also for runners, and it’s time we talked about one of the big ones—the Peloton app. If you’re deep into the Peloton ecosystem, this is likely the one you’ll pick up when you want to add running to your routine. So how does it compare? Let’s lace up and try it out.

What is the Peloton app?

Peloton is best known for its stationary bikes with built-in video screens, but that’s only a small part of the company’s 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. Peloton’s “gym” workouts are also included; these give you instructions to follow when training at a normal gym. 

There’s another tier in between: the Peloton App+ tier is $24/month and includes the platform’s 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 brand’s “running” 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 month—which 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, you’ll need the $24/month App+ tier.

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 don’t sync to Strava

• Only two training programs

• No guided classes for the marathon programs’ long runs

Setup

When you first open the app, you’ll 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 you’d like to re-up.) 

Next, it asks you to “check your privacy settings” by indicating your country and state. Strangely, the states are in reverse alphabetical order. No privacy settings are actually available from this screen. (I’ll 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 “perfect first class recommendations” that appear on the app’s home screen. 

Using the app

The app has five main screens accessible from buttons at the bottom: 

• Home: This is where you’ll find suggested workouts.

• Classes: This is where you can search for guided runs and classes that you’d 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 you’ve taken, set a goal, or view the badges you’ve 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 “free classes” from the class filter, you’ll see a lot more. 

Running with the app

When you run with the app, you select an outdoor run (make sure to select “outdoor” or look for the “audio” tag) and then hit “start” when you’re on the road, ready to run. The instructor guides you through what you need to do—which might include some warmup exercises like high knees—and 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 that’s playing and why they picked it.

The app can track your approximate pace and location with your phone’s GPS. This usually isn’t as accurate as using a dedicated running watch, but it’s close enough to be sure you’re 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, isn’t a factor. You can ignore the instructor and go faster or slower than instructed, and the app won’t notice or care.

If you don’t want to do a guided run, but you still want to track it in your Peloton app, you can use the center button to “Just Run” as they used to call it. (It’s now just a button labeled “Outdoor Running.” 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, you’ll 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). You’ll 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 “programs” section of the classes screen. (I didn’t see it on my free trial, but it’s there in the paid All-Access version of the app.) 

Peloton’s programs are a bit tricky to follow. Everything is laid out one week at a time, so you can’t 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 run—more 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 there’s no rescheduling workouts or doing them out of order: you can do each one or skip it. That’s 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 can’t start the next week early. And if you didn’t get to that last workout before the week changed over, too late, you can’t 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 you’ll 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 don’t feel the midweek runs don’t have enough mileage to train for a strong marathon, and that it’s best to add some more running on your own. 

But by far the biggest common complaint about the marathon program is that it’s based on guided runs, but doesn’t 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 you’re on your own to do the scheduled number of miles. That seems like a strange reversal when you’re 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 “F – 40s”). 

Peloton says that “profile pictures, leaderboard names, tags, and badges are always public.” However, you can hide other things. Here are the available privacy settings:  

• You can set your profile to “private” 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 “My followers” or “only me.” If your profile is public, those choices become “Anyone on Peloton” or “only me.” 

• 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 “personalized experience” on or off; same with “marketing and ads based on activity.” 

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 Peloton’s running features is that they work with the Peloton ecosystem. If you’re 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 can’t figure out why anyone would want to run with the Peloton app, unless you’re 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, I’ll 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 isn’t 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 Club—and 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 don’t want much in the way of running metrics or coaching, then it’s convenient to get your runs done with the same app. But if you’re just looking for an app that is good at tracking running, I’d skip this one.