Three years ago, as I was preparing for the Bogota half-marathon, my cousin Diego introduced me to Adidas’ miCoach – an interactive personal trainer that he had recently acquired. At that time, I was in the market for a new Polar watch to replace my old one. However, after hearing Diego’s glowing description of how miCoach had transformed his running experience, I decided to give it a try.

Choosing to invest in miCoach turned out to be the best training decision I have ever made. It not only revolutionized my approach to running and training but also rewired my brain, making me a stronger and more strategic runner. With miCoach, I found a challenging personal trainer that, in less than eight months, helped me achieve my personal goal of completing a half-marathon in under 1:40. This achievement marked a significant improvement over my previous personal record of 1:51, which I had held for quite some time.

In order to maximize your workout results, miCoach offers several goal-based interactive training plans taking into account your age, physical condition, and time availability. It builds a plan comprised of diverse workouts designed to hel

To achieve maximum results from your workout, miCoach offers several interactive training plans that are tailored to your age, physical condition, and time availability. These plans include diverse workouts that are designed to help you reach your goal while keeping your workouts fresh. After an initial test run, miCoach creates a series of workouts that mix four effort zones personalized to your body and preferred coaching method. Whether you prefer to train by heart rate or by pace, miCoach relies on a heart rate monitor, a stride sensor, and a pacer – an audio feedback unit compatible with MP3 players – to keep you informed and motivated during your workouts. It also records your speed, distance, pace, and heart rate for later analysis.

When I first started using miCoach, I remember hearing my personal trainer challenging me to speed up and pushing me to run faster. It was tough to keep up with the effort zones, but after four months into my routine, the warnings were about slowing down because I was often running harder than expected. In a short period of time, my body had visibly changed, and it was time to re-program my workouts because I was running at a whole different level.

The interface of miCoach is a great example of how gamification can be used to keep you engaged. Earning badges for achievements such as the first 10,000 calories burnt or the first 100 miles run is a great way to keep your motivation up. However, the way in which your progress is tracked and visualized is the strongest part of the system. It gives you valuable information about your body and performance that you can use to analyze and understand what is happening when you run. More importantly, it allows you to carefully plan your strategy for a race.

Sharing your progress with others is also an essential component of the system and a great way to build a community around sports. Although my cousin Diego and I lived in different sectors of Bogota, miCoach allowed us to train and meet our goals together as teammates. For me, it was just as much about sharing tips and cheering each other up as it was about collective data analysis and strategic race planning.

miCoach is a customizable personal trainer that helps you achieve your training goals while keeping you motivated and informed. It transformed the way I prepare for races, pushing me to run harder and train better. Today, I am more aware of my physical strengths and weaknesses, and I know that my body can overcome tough challenges. It is important to note that I am writing about the first generation of miCoach, which I still use. Adidas now offers a wide variety of options for different sports.

p you reach your goal, keeping your workouts fresh. After an initial test run, it sets up a series of workouts mixing four effort zones personalized to you, your body, and your preferred coaching method—by heart rate or by pace. miCoach relies on a heart rate monitor, a stride sensor and a pacer—an audio feedback unit compatible with MP3 players—to keep you informed and motivated during your workouts. It also records your speed, distance, pace and heart rate for later analysis.

When I started using miCoach I would often listen to my personal trainer telling me to speed up, challenging me to run faster. I remember how hard it was to keep up with the effort zones. However, after four months into my routine, the only warnings were about slowing down because I was often running harder than expected. My body had visibly changed in a very short period of time, and it was time to re-program my workouts because I was running at a whole different level.

miCoach’s interface is a good example of how gamification can be used to keep you engaged. Earning badges for achievements such as first 10.000 calories burnt or first 100 miles run, are great to keep motivation up. However, I believe that the way in which your progress is tracked and visualized is the strongest part of the system. It gives you valuable information about your body and performance that you can use to analyze and understand what is happening when you run, and more important, to carefully plan your strategy for a race.

Sharing with others is also an important component of the system and a great way to build community around sports. Although Diego and I lived in different sectors of Bogota, miCoach allowed us to train  and meet our goals together, as teammates. For me it was as much about sharing tips and cheering each other up, as it was about collective data analysis and strategic race planning.

miCoach is a customizable personal trainer that helps you achieving your training goals, while keeping you motivated and informed. It transformed the way I prepare for races, pushing me to run harder and train better. Today, I am more aware of my physical strengths and weaknesses, and know that my body can overcome tough challenges.

(I am writing about the first generation of miCoach which I still use. Adidas now offers a wide variety of options for different sports.)