Articles about a healthy lifestyle and exercise are one of the main topics of the Life Hacker. And this is very cool, because in our time of the triumph of technology, this is exactly what most people lack. Despite the fact that I mostly write notes about all sorts of browsers, programs and websites, I am quite actively engaged in physical education (they now call it fitness :)), in particular wellness running. Therefore, I decided to combine these two hobbies and write several articles about special web services that help athletes in accounting and planning workouts. The first article is dedicated to the service from the most famous, perhaps, sports brand — Adidas.
The site Adidas miCoach was launched, if I'm not mistaken, in 2008 as part of a joint project with Samsung to create a Samsung SGH-F110 sports phone. I have been using this device and, accordingly, the associated service for about two years, and thanks to this, my running classes have turned from short-term emotional impulses into regular workouts.
In general, the main principle of operation of all such services is approximately the same and is as follows. There is a certain device that monitors the activity of an athlete during training, taking a number of indicators such as pulse, mileage, time. At the end of classes, all data is sent to a web service, where they are processed and used to build statistics, make recommendations, and so on. This serves as a powerful incentive for continuing classes and striving for new achievements, tested on yourself.
To work with the miCoach service, you can use the F110 phone I mentioned, which, unfortunately, has not been sold anywhere for a long time, as well as special devices from Adidas — miCoach Pacer and miCoach Zone. In addition, which is much more interesting, there is a client program for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android mobile phones.
First you need to go through the registration process on the site, during which you will be required to specify your age, height, weight in addition to the standard fields. This is not idle curiosity — based on the data obtained, as well as the test run, a training plan will be created for you. Yes, the miCoach service provides us with a full-fledged training plan and recommendations, which distinguishes it from a number of competitors who are limited only to collecting statistics.
The first thing after registration is to go to the sectionTraining plans and see what they offer us. The choice here is rich — there are options for beginners, for men and women, speed, game types and many others.
After choosing a workout, we get to the next window, where it is possible to customize the plan for yourself, that is, specify the start of the exercise, the number of workouts, set the days of the week for classes.
When you have finished setting up your profile and training plan on the website, you need to synchronize the data with your mobile device, where you have already installed the corresponding mobile application in advance. That's it, now you're ready to go on the treadmill. However, before that, let's digress for a minute and I'll tell you what miCoach training is like.
The miCoach training system is based on the concept of load zones. Each zone reflects a certain level of load: blue ― low load, green ― medium load, yellow ― high load and red ― maximum load.
As you can see in the screenshot, the zones can be determined based on two indicators: running pace and pulse rate (more details). Based on tracking at least one of these parameters, monitoring occurs during the training. Each training session consists of segments in several different zones, skillfully selected by Adidas specialists and coaches of the world-famous sports organization Core Performance. This is how, for example, a typical workout looks like:
Before we start running, we launch the miCoach app on our mobile phone and start running. The pace of our movement is controlled by the device and at the right moments a pleasant female voice is heard indicating, for example, « Accelerate to the green zone » or «5 minutes in the blue zone » and so on. In addition, voice messages appear at some key moments of the workout, for example, «Half of the workout» or «There is 1 minute left until the end. ». Thus, the Adidas miCoach system is a real pocket trainer who is always with you on the track and gives his instructions at the right moments. Such a system really works and stimulates the achievement of new results instead of dull jogging, similar to the hated boring duty.
After the end of the class, all data about the race is sent to the website, where they are processed and carefully stored to provide you with all kinds of statistical information on any aspect of your classes. There are so many types of data display that you can devote a separate article to them - these are graphs of pace, time, distance, and bar charts for different time intervals, records, calendar and much more.
Despite the fact that I have already written quite a lot of letters, there are quite a lot of interesting functions of the service left overboard, including creating my own training plan, linking routes to the map, using the service for cycling and strength training, and much more. But you will have to get acquainted with all this on your own, the benefit of Adidas miCoach is perfectly Russified and has an excellent help system.
After a long active use of the miCoach system, I have only positive impressions about it. However, after the demise of my sports phone, I started looking for another service that would work with Symbian devices. However, about this in the next article of this cycle.
Adidas miCoach
