A few months ago I purchased the Long session Audiofuel track to use during my marathon training. I really liked the idea and think it worked pretty well. I actually used the track on my Silverstone Half and achieved a PB.

The concept is simple, using tracks with different bpm the pace can be altered by landing your feet on the beat. Much like with spinning classes you are in essence moving to the music. The long run session sets off at a slow pace and injects different bpms throughout, all with the intention of keeping you alert and pushing you through pain barriers. I didn’t realise how much a beat in a song affected my stride and cadence until getting this track.

I decided to then download a few of the other tracks and last week I used the intermediate interval coaching session. I loved it. I have never been a huge fan of intervals, finding them repetitive and dull. The track turned the session into something much more enjoyable. It was a pyramid interval track going faster and longer and then reducing after meeting the peak of 75seconds at maximum effort or 180bpm.

The songs are all unfamiliar but that didn’t seem to bother me. I’m starting to wonder how unhelpful some of the tracks on my iPod may be. If the bpm is low perhaps I’m slowing without even knowing!

The tracks remind me a bit of the Nike+ training tracks which used to be aligned with the footpod. However, Nike appear to have given up on this approach as I haven’t seen any new ones in some while which is a shame. The Nike ones tended to involve songs you would know and coached by big names like Serena Williams, the band OK Go all adding power and credence to the tracks but the marketing, at least in the uk has been poor.

Why not check out the tracks, if you run on your own but with an iPod I think most would like and benefit from them.

Click here for the Audiofuel website.

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.

First of all before even using the tool I have to say well done Adidas – you got there first before Nike and Garmin and from the screenshots and initial load it looks good. Let’s hope it works well, if not you’ve still got a bit more time but I’m sure the competition will soon be on your heels!

Finally a well known brand releasing a GPS running application, offering voice coaching (which must relate to pace and unfortunately not Heart Rate like the pacer). The device is completely free and the user interface looks simple and neat.

At lunch I’m out for a run so will try the app out. I am also going to do some digging to see whether the two devices can be used together because at the moment it looks like I can either get pace based training with the iPhone or heart rate monitoring with the pacer and I want both!

Testing review to follow shortly, to get the iphone app click here or for the blackberry app here. If you have used the app already and have feedback please comment below!

Competition for MiCoach…

The ultimate selling point of the MiCoach up until now has been the fact that it’s not just a foot pod it also harnesses Heart Rate technology to provide a much more rounded report. Whilst the review highlighted its cost the device still could offer more than the Nike+, until now that is.

If you have a recent ipod the likelihood is you have heard of Nike+ but you may not be familiar with what it is. In January I blogged about the handy little device but since I bought one many years ago not much has changed with it and in the light of more competition Nike have obviously decided to introduce some new features.

I haven’t seen much on this yet – looks like they are being sold on the Nike Store website for £40 which would bring the kit up to about £50, assuming you have an iPod of course.  They haven’t released audio coaching with HRM but suspect given time this will come too. All in all this must be a bit of a concern to Adidas but I think this will take a while to catch on and possibly Nike have entered the market too late.

Quite why the Nike+ software hasn’t been extended to harness the power of the iPhone 4 puzzles me. It has GPS technology built in yet they still chose to ignore it. When nike+ creates a gps, HRM application for the iphone the likes of Garmin et al will start to worry as people will switch. Nike+ can extend to cycling too offering the user the ability to have a multisport tool all under one shell. A Garmin Edge will set you back £200 to attach to your bike, an iphone holder for your frame as little as £10 from ebay, a forerunner is £200+ whilst a arm strap for your phone again, £10. Sure you need to have bought an iPhone which isn’t cheap but more and more people are moving to this device so come on Nike catch up and create the ultimate sports app!

A few weeks back I was asked to try out a couple of multipower products and I said I didn’t mind giving it a whirl. Over the last few years having stumbled on SIS products early on I have been pretty loyal to the brand as I actually quite like the taste of most of their products. However, I was willing to give another brand a try.

So far I have used the recovery choc bar, I’m not a massive choco fan and this came across as closer to dark choc form. That said it was perfectly edible and as it was in a bar format it meant I could chuck it in my camelbak and run to work with it. It didn’t need mixing up so could be consumed whilst sat at my desk working and also as it wasn’t a liquid it meant I could take it on with water at the same time which for me was ideal.

They also sent some mixer to take on before exercise with electrolytes acting as an energy drink. I took this on before heading out on a longish hilly bike ride. I was slightly confused how much powder I needed to the water. There was a handy spoon but it didn’t say how big that spoon was! I struggled a bit with the taste of this one but think that could be due to poor measurement. Also I suspect if I was to throw a mixed up version into the fridge it would be a lot nicer cold! With regards to the spoon – if this is the correct measure then apologies im being a bit special

I was also sent some recovery products which I will try after really pushing myself. I’m slightly concerned these products are more for bulking up which is far from what I’m trying to do now so am a little dubious about those.

All in all an interesting range of products. However, I think these products maybe bit more tailored to the gym go-ers rather than the runners etc. There is a lot of competition out there and taste is a massive factor and I’m not sure at first try these guys have got it quite right but I’m prepared to keep at it. That said, having just logged onto the Multipower website there are a whole range of products which I could see being useful to my training like their crunch bars & flap jacks – part of the “Active” range.

I have always been interested in running technology, I believe I only really got motivated to keep running because of the Nike+ kit I got a few years ago. Since then I have moved onto the Garmin Forerunner a device I don’t think I could live without now. When I was given the opportunity to try out the MiCoach I jumped at it, having seen promotional merchandise in every running shop and magazine I opened.

I knew very little about the MiCoach pacer, I was aware about some technology Adidas launched with Samsung phones a little bit back but that was it. After a bit of research I was to discover the MiCoach is a Heart Rate Coaching device which logs distance traveled using a pedometer. The heart rate monitor is what brings it to a different audience to the cheaper Nike+. » Continue reading “MiCoach – The review…”

When the music you are listening to is rubbish! However, as i found on my run on Sunday, if this is the case having the ability to turn the volume down without fiddling with my iPod is a great addition to the new Sennheiser range of sports earphones.

Almost exclusively since starting running a few years back I have been using Sennheisers. This pair is my third neck band pair following an incident with my first and a tree and my second set, whilst still functioning, have seen better days after being thrown numerous times to the bottom of the gym bag and squashed. I have always found the neckband earphones comfy and simple to use so when I got this new pair I had no real hesitations to ditch my old orange pair for the new black/yellow combination. » Continue reading “It doesn’t matter how good the earphones are…”

Having managed to get my hands on a miCoach pacer system one of the first things I tried to do was see if I could use the Heart Rate Monitor with both the pacer and my Garmin Forerunner 405. The micoach docs suggested that the devices communicates using ant+ so I suspected that it would work and it did! following this I also tried to sync the footpod which was also a success.

I have recently reviewed the MiCoach and am currently writing a post to review my Garmin 405 which should be up shortly.

The micoach heartrate monitor is compatible with the Garmin 405 (untested on any other Garmins – feedback would be useful)

The micoach footpod is compatible with the Garmin 405 (untested on any other Garmins – feedback would be useful)

I suspect there is very limited crossover as to why you would use both devices -from early inspection the micoach offers audio coaching and a nicer heartrate web display but obviously lacks the gps functionality of the Garmins. That said it would be interesting to compare prices of the Garmin HRM/footpod vs the Adidas equivalent to see which is cheaper…

Personally I find the Adidas HRM slightly nicer to use, it’s easier to store and cleans/dries a lot quicker than the Garmin counterpart.

Looking forward to getting to fully play with the rest of the micoach device when I can get it fully working.

Compatibility List

Footpod

• Garmin 305
• Garmin 405
• Garmin 50

Heart Rate Monitor

• Garmin 305
• Garmin 405
• Garmin 50

NB I have had (personally unconfirmed) reports that the Garmin 110 is not compatible with the MiCoach.

Last week I posted a brief review on the KiFit/Ki Performance System and oddly since doing that I noticed its appearance in a TV program we watch.

One morning, having had to get up early for the BT engineer i flicked through Anytime on my tv and was presented with a title that I could hardly refuse “The Biggest Loser USA”. I didn’t know what to expect but 40mins I was hooked, now on its 8th series (in the UK), the show follows a group of excessively overweight people and forces them into training regimes with a weekly weigh off at the end. The guys on this program drop some huge amounts of weight over a small number of week but the show focuses predominantly on exercise.

Anyway on the arm of all the contestants was a band which when after a bit of google turned up the bodybugg or as we know it in the UK the KIFit. Would be great to see the contestants logins – that would be some seriously interesting reading! Now all they need to do is bring it to an English medium in the same capacity and I’m sure they will get interest!

About a month ago in Runners World mag I saw an advertorial for a new style “body monitor”. I have always been one for gadgets when i’m keeping fit and for anyone that has followed my blogs on and off they will have seen reviews for nike+ kits and are possibly also aware that I now run with a garmin watch which I extract feeds for to show pretty maps on myself. So with that in mind I got in touch with the KiFit guys to see if they had any interface and API available which would make there site a lot more appealing to me by the fact I could extract information and show you what I was eating, doing etc on my blog…

About the same time last year I contacted a similar (cue comments about the tech’s not being similar) organization called MiCoach (I believe) who offered no facility to access data either and weren’t really prepared to talk to me with my techy hat on, however, the people at KiFit seemed a lot more responsive offering me a bit of a demo and also a demo account on there site to see if I could extract what I wanted and whether getting on the device would interest me.

A few days ago over the phone I had a chat with one of the chaps who worked with KiFit and we poked around the system, the user interface seems well constructed and very user friendly. The UI came as a bit of a surprised to me, it felt very polished (however after a bit of digging the Activity Mgr System looks like it has been around for a little bit longer than KiPerformance) and obvious. When you log in you are presented with a very shiny interface that shows your day stats pulling information from an armband you are supposed to wear 24/7 which measure motion, skin response, skin temp, heat flux and steps.

For me, one of the interesting displays is that relating to sleep patterns, something that always intrigues me. Sometimes I wonder whether I have had a bad run because of a poor night sleep or whether it is just another one of those “runners excuses”…

This device can tell whether you are reaching deep sleep and how often you stir during the night. On top of this there are some nicety, how much physical activity your are doing each day is nice and considering this is supposedly on you all the time it measures everything which extends what the Garmin does (plus the Garmins battery life is shocking so would only last half a day!)

Click for larger display

The online platform integrates in your daily food eating patterns which is pretty cool, but whether I would have the will power to store this every day would be interesting, the tool doesn’t quite seem invasive enough to force you to do it – with something that has to be done almost daily you have to have a lot of will power to maintain this. It would be interesting to see whether there stats show peoples inclination to insert dietary data dwindles as time progresses?

Anyway, after a few hours poking around at the UI am I interested? At the moment I would say yes, however, the biggest niggle I have for this device is cost. You can’t use the device without a subscription and you pay a monthly fee for the privilege. Whilst the monthly fee won’t break the bank alone couple this with a gym membership etc and the costs still escalate. Also once you have purchased the device who is to say that the website will still be up and working in 6months time or a new OS come out that renders the device inoperable. I actually think that it would make sense to have both an offline and online system. Garmin have a similar model, sure there offline app is pants but you still have that facility – plus with companies such as Garmin, Nike, Nokia (to an extent) who offer online exercise management tools I think you can rest assured a little bit due to the shear size of the corporation backing it, i’m not so sure about the KiFit, although I would like to be proved wrong…

I will hopefully be granted a little more time to play and poke before my trial account gets revoked – I love the system and if I could extend my running data with all this information there would be a statistics overload on this blog and perhaps I could possibly move to the next stages of health and fitness which is watching the diet.

It gets an initial thumbs up from me except for the monthly subscription costs, I think anyone serious about training either over a long period or up to an upcoming event could seriously benefit from this online diary. I suspect if I used this during my next 12 weeks of marathon training I would have some pretty awesome data on the system…Oh and yes, I managed to get data from there site in order to put on my blog – well I’m half way there, can log on, extract data now just creating the code to display it in a nice way…

If you missed the link at the top of the article you can visit the KiPerformance site here. Anyway – back to running I go…

N

(n.b. I should prob point out I haven’t actually got to use one of these devices or seen what they physically look like I have only had access to the website and sales talk.)