iPhone Micoach initial review
Keen to actually try this out and see how well it worked I went out for a gentle ‘recovery’ 4 mile loop during my lunch break. After the weekend race my legs were in no fit state to try the coaching sessions so I put it to free mode and started my Garmin. How would the two compare…
First run result shows a pretty massive discrepancy in my opinion, the Garmin which tends to be pretty damn accurate showed the route to be 4.14 miles whilst the Micoach fell short at 3.74 miles. Almost half a mile is quite a difference over such a short distance.
It also seemed way off with it’s pace calculations. I’m not sure how often that updates but it’s possible it’s doing some maths wrong somewhere!
However, it’s not all negative feedback. It seems the device stores the tracks you listen to (although I appear to have broken that by breaking out into iPod mode). It was set to give feedback every 10mins which was nice even if it seemed incorrect – I definitely wasn’t running at a 5min/mi pace like it suggested at one point!
Just some insight I am testing this on an old 3G so it maybe an unfair test ad perhaps it just not powerful enough to do all it needs to. The music did jerk occasionally suggesting the phone was being tested. I also used up a third of the phones battery life for a sub 40min run. I don’t think I’ll be running a marathon with this on my phone!
It would be interesting to know whether battery drain and distance calculations were ok for others using newer iPhones/Blackberrys. I’m aware that most people who use this don’t have access to a Garmin or gps so can’t easily compare however you could compare to a plot on gmap pedometer or similar!
I will give the device another go possibly with one of the audio coaching tracks selected. That said my phone is to heavy for my short pockets meaning I have to hold it which rules out the sweaty sprint stages 
Please comment below if you have any experience or issues with the iPhone Micoach device.
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I agree, the distance it records is off on my 3G, on a well trodden 5 mile run I know well, miCoach recorded 4.4 miles, unless this gets addresses I’ll be going back to the mapmyrun app, which is also free.
Does the mapmyrun come up more accurately then. I have heard reports its more about the fact that we are both running on 3G and the GPS on this phone isn’t particularly great?