We have featured the NURVV Run technology on the site before and we had the opportunity to test out a pair. NURVV Run offers a tool to analyse and develop your running technique to help you run faster and offers support to reduce the risk of injury. Does it deliver?
What is NURVV RUN?
NURVV Run consists of two very thin insoles that fit under your existing insoles and feature 32 sensors that provide thousands of points of data per second. The data can then be analysed in a user friendly App.
NURVV Run fits in all running shoes, is rain, mud and puddle proof and features a five-hour active battery life. Your purchase includes two ultra-thin, comfortable insoles, two lightweight GPS trackers and access to the free NURVV Run Coaching app on iTunes and Google Play Store.
Runners can run outdoors and indoors, you can run phone-free, and can connect their NURVV Run to Apple Watch or ANT+ to your Garmin watch to receive live, in-run alerts.
Each insole has a small pod that is GPS enabled and tracks the key metrics of your running activity.
In action the NURVV Run is far more than a GPS tracking device. The analysis of the captured data enables the athlete to monitor and understand how they are running and then develop their technique with helpful App support.
For athletes with Apple and Garmin devices you can pair your NURVV Runs with your watches and benefit from the data at a glance.
For athletes with Apple and Garmin devices you can pair your NURVV Runs with your watches and benefit from the data at a glance.
- Heart rate tracking with an additional heart rate srap
- Daily run allowance – to maximise your training and reduce injury risk
- Auto pause and restart
- Strava integration
- Manual data entry into the App
- 5+ hours active battery life
- Footstrike trainer – to help hone technique and reduce injury risk
- NURVV Run works indoors and outside
Fitting the device
The insoles come in standard shoe sizes to ensure they fit perfectly in your chosen shoe. No cutting is required, simply remove your existing insoles and slide the Nurvv Run inside and replace the original. To the outer side of each shoe a small flap attaches to the collar of the shoe to allow the left and right devices to attach.
Once installed they sit quite happily on your shoe and do not interfere with your running. They are very secure and lightweight. They do sit proud of the shoe but I have not caught them on anything which was an initial fear. They attach with a satisfyingly solid click. They were a little stiff to remove but instilled confidence that they are not popping off mid run. They are secure.
Linking to the App
Each unit pairs with the App or your chosen watch. It takes a second for the App to register the units and you can see the status of left and right pods.
The Garmin located the units straight away without issue.
NURVV Run in the real world
You have three ways of using the device to track your run:
- Connect the device to the App on your iPhone or Android phone
- Connect the device to your Apple or Garmin watch
- Use the units by themselves without your phone
If you don’t want to use the App you can press the start button on the side of the unit and then sync to the App at a later time.
The units pick up the GPS signal quickly and your ready to run! GPS tracking for the most part has been okay. Over a test route its recorded distance was acceptably close to the Garmin’s recorded distance to have faith in it’s performance.
The left and right pads deliver clever data on your technique. You can see how you pronate whilst running or walking! This was fascinating to see. The App has a cool feature to check the footbed performance, it shows a heat map of where the pressure is being recorded in realtime for each foot. Great fun!
It does offer a serious footstrike trainer which is an indoor workout, offering real-time visualisation of both feet. This allows a runner to make the connection between how their foot landing feels and the type of footstrike they are actually using. Runners can monitor how their footstrike transition from rearfoot landing to midfoot landing is progressing. You can also see if your footstrike is the same on the left and right foot or whether there’s a potential imbalance.
In use the units gather unique running metrics such as cadence, step length, footstrike, pronation and balance to provide a complete picture of an individual’s running technique.
Your Coaching Partner
The coaching app analyses data using advanced biomechanics to deliver simple, actionable insights and personalised coaching, before, during and after each run.
Live in-run coaching and technique analysis reacts to a runners performance in real-time with audio, visual, and haptic feedback during workouts. Voice commands help you hit cadence and stride length, pace etc. Like having your own personal trainer! Faster!
NURVV Run also helps runners understand how training affects the body with a personalised Running Health score. This figure indicates how sustainable your running is. This is based on training load, pronation, cadence and left/right balance. It reduces injury risk by identifying problem areas before they become serious and gives insights on how to improve.
Runners can also optimise their training with recommendations on a distance to run to achieve their optimal training zone and avoid overtraining. Based on your previous training load, NURVV Run’s dashboard will provide you with recommended running distances for the next 7 days and for each individual day.
Should you buy the NURVV Run?
As a training and development tool it works really well. The left and right side devices worked without issue and delivered reliable data over the test period.
At £249 it offers a wealth of data and support. Given what it delivers it seems well priced and you can move it from shoe to shoe. It feels like it will provide long term duties and provide long term training advice.
Each metric recorded had a good description available on the App about its function and very helpful tips on how to improve your performance, including great little videos to make things simple to understand.
As a mini coach the NURVV Run was really helpful. Easy to set up and fun to use. They are well made, solidly built and feel premium. The sensor insole is unobtrusive and again feels made to last.
If you like tech you’ll love these little pods. If you like data, you’ll be in your element. If you want to develop your running then the NURVV Run offers a great way to do so. Highly recommended and great fun but with some really detailed data to help you improve. A more powerful coaching platform than you might expect. Yes, if you want to add in a raft of data to your training, the NURVV Run is a great tool.
To celebrate the partnership announcement, NURVV Runn is available to buy for £174.99 from the following retailers between the 25th Jan to 7th Feb – NURVV.com, Selfridges.com, sportsshoes.com, sigmasports.com, amazon.co.uk and stormfront.co.uk.
Find out more at their website HERE.
