TRAINING SOLO CAN JOG ON! | Tony Piedade, JoggingBuddy

JoggingBuddy was born out of “selfish” needs begins Tony, reflecting on a time where he found himself living a busy Londoner life, overweight and smoking 40 a day: “I decided that enough was enough. I put my shoes on and went out for a run at three o’clock in the morning in north London, and I found that there were people running as I was running  around my local area.”

Struck by the amount of people running in the early hours, Tony began thinking how great it would be if he was able to partner up with others so that he could compare times and keep himself accountable, bettering his experience of an early morning solo jog. It was evident that Tony was not the only one feeling this way. As soon as he created JoggingBuddy, then a small side project, it began to gain traction with many others signing up to the site. 12 weeks later, JoggingBuddy was being used in Europe. JoggingBuddy now has members in 123 different countries and boasts a near-balanced gender divide, with 53% of users identifying as female.

Tony’s belief that self-motivation can only get you so far is rooted in psychology, hence it’s widespread uptake. A study in 2020 reported that those who make New Years’ resolutions are more likely to stick to their targets if they have some support – more so than those with no support or extended support. Perhaps this is why JoggingBuddy has taken off: there is a clear need for people to share their goals and have people cheer them on when the going gets tough, locked down or not. JoggingBuddy has also identified that, pre-coronavirus, people were breaking habits when they worked or travelled. Because the application is based on your personal location it is rarely challenging to find someone to pair up with nearby.

There has been a new found appreciation for fitness and a lot more time on many people’s hands, and JoggingBuddy wants to help convert this appreciation into milage: “we want to be the platform that encourages members to buddy up to be more active together.”

Activity levels have soared since the pandemic started, especially running due to closed gyms and nonoperative sports clubs. Public Health England’s couch-to-5k scheme saw unprecedented levels of uptake with almost one million app downloads in 2020 – a 92% increase compared to the year before. “The fact that there is an hour put aside specifically for exercising I think has been the galvanizing force behind a lot of people getting more active, which is phenomenal” Tony explains, and “the fact that people are also not wasting two hours a day commuting means that you can redistribute that time for personal health investments. We know that on our site we’ve seen 35 to 40% increase in signups as a result of what you might call a COVID effect.” Joggingbuddy has been on a positive trajectory regardless Tony mentions, however the pandemic has made it much more pronounced.

JoggingBuddy is keen to emphasise that their site is free to use for anyone, from rookies to the elite, and has set out to champion the power of supported running resolutions. They consider themselves ‘tech agnostic’, meaning that they integrate with many key running technology products such as Strava, FitBit and COROS. An inclusive community is extremely important in times of hardship says Tony, “there’s fast runners, experienced runners, ultra-marathon runners…They’re all members of the site and they’re incredibly valuable to the community.”

To keep people focussed and motivated during a time of unrest, JoggingBuddy have encouraged the running community to participate in The Challenge, which is a collective effort to run 1 million miles. Shedding light on the rationale for such a target, Tony highlights that “We all need a goal, [individuals are] often very good at setting their own goals. We shouldn’t be dictating that to individuals, however I think as a community it’s right that we try and set some kind of goal for people to reach. As soon as we reach a million miles, no doubt that will become 3 million and 5 million and 10 million and it will grow. But as a community, it’s quite nice to have that target.”

As someone who has experienced the uphill climb to regaining fitness via the power of jogging, Tony is able to provide sage advice. His first rule is to “go slow”. His second, and perhaps more resonating advice is to “allow yourself the time to create the routine where you begin to feel this urge to go out and run…and enjoy it from then on.”

Keen to buddy up & get moving?  Go to www.joggingbuddy.com