Adidas micoach how does it work

Adidas chose a minimalist approach here, but pushing a button on the front of the Pacer gives you an instant update on your current stats when needed. The heart rate measurements were an issue for me. There are four zones, green, blue, yellow, and red being the highest. A comfortable pace for me put me just on the top end of the blue zone, and this resulted in repeated alerts that I needed to slow down—even though it felt like I was going at a comfortable pace.

Luckily, there is a way to adjust the settings in the Pacer. The Web interface coupled with these devices is often where they trip over their laces, but not in this instance. The miCoach site is easy to navigate, and includes just about everything you need in order to track and improve your running.

The dashboard shows your latest workout time, calories burned, distance, pace, heart rate, and stride rate along with a preview of the next workout and overall achievements such as mileage to date. With a few clicks the data becomes much more granular, showing heart rate over the course of the specific workout for example.

There is a field for jotting notes about each run, as well as a box to enter the music you listened to during the run. The miCoach software recommends a schedule for you, which is accessible from a simple calendar interface that can be adjusted easily by dragging and dropping the workouts into different days. Some geek-athletes might complain that the Pacer is lacking a GPS for tracking the exact route of each run.

And how often do you get lost and need directions home while jogging? The glaring feature missing from the miCoach Web site is social connectivity. Adidas neglects to supply a way to compete against other runners using the site, or find a running partner nearby. Some quick Googling will throw up a couple of enterprising miCoach users who've created software for prying your data out of Adidas' jaws, but they're either Windows-only, or overly complex.

This seemingly small detail is one of the largest oversights in miCoach, and something potential Smart Run owners will really want to consider. Testament to this are a number of long support-forum threads asking for this functionality, with some of them dating all the way back to GPX file from miCoach, effectively solving this quibble.

We're also told that going forward there will be a full API for linking the watch to other platforms and vice versa. Once you've come to terms with your running data being held hostage , the miCoach platform has a lot to offer. Most pertinent to the Smart Run is the chance to customize your device. By default, when you start tracking a run from the watch menu, you'll see either your heart rate, or pace.

Swipe up and you can see additional info -- splits, total distance, time, et cetera. Head over to miCoach though, and you can choose exactly what you want displayed here. Cram up to four data views into one screen, or keep things simple, and add more pages with less data on them.

This is particularly good if you're migrating over from another watch that had things just how you preferred them -- like your fave pair of worn-in trainers. Actually, while we're on the subject, miCoach has an option to add the pair of sneakers you used for your run no joke.

It's just above the section that lists all the tracks you were listening to during the workout still no joke. There's still a lot more you can do on miCoach. The next main section that directly involves the Smart Run will be the training plans.

Here you'll find an extensive library of training routines for all manner of sports and workout goals. In the unlikely event that nothing tickles your fancy, you can go ahead and create your own.

They're all configurable choose how many days a week you can train, your current ability, et cetera and once you've tailored it, miCoach populates all the workout sessions into a calendar. This is where the Smart Run comes in. The next time it syncs, the routine will appear under the miCoach domain on the watch where you can see everything you need to know right there.

If this involves weight exercises and stretches, you even get little animations to demonstrate the correct movement and form, complete with the number of reps and amount of weight to lift. The first time you switch the Smart Run on, it will ask you to hand over some information.

The usual stuff: age, weight, height and so on. It will also want your miCoach credentials for syncing so you'll need to register online if you didn't already. Adding this info is a bit of a challenge, with lots of swiping back and forth to find the right letter, then on to the next.

But, once you're done, you won't need to do it ever again. I already had an account with miCoach, but with no data, so it was effectively a clean start. I headed over to the online training plans and decided it'd be fun to run a marathon. So, I chose Adidas' plan for this, and downloaded it to the Smart Run. I went back to the watch and headed into the training settings, and there it was: today's run.

It started things nice and easy with a minute moderate trot out in the park OK, it doesn't actually limit you to where you go. Next, I chose some suitably high-octane music, and then told the watch I was ready by pressing, "Get Ready. As mentioned above, it won't let you actually head off until it's locked onto a location, and found your pulse. The latter reassuringly appeared first, after about 20 seconds, with the GPS taking a little longer -- upwards of a minute.

All told, that's about the same time as other GPS watches we've used. Similarly, it tended to be quicker the next time if you're in roughly the same location. With both of those good to go, it's off and out the door. Seconds in, I felt a small panic at not having my usual MP3 player in my pocket, connected over headphones, or my HRM strap. This quickly passed, as the voice coaching kicked in and told me my first instruction: to run, but in my pre-defined "Blue" i.

Ten minutes in and the watch vibrated, letting me know I was entering the next stage, which was also confirmed by the virtual coach in my ears. For those who prefer visual cues, the screen displays your pace or heart rate with a colored background to show the zone you're in, and another colored band to show your desired one. If you're on form, these will be the same color.

I had things set up so that I could see my distance covered, current pace, total time and heart rate all on one screen. Things get a little crowded on the display this way, but once you're clear on which number is which and don't confuse your pulse with your distance , then you can grab the vital stats with a quick flick of the wrist. The touchscreen is also responsive, which is, of course, very helpful.

If you've ever used a touchscreen running watch like Garmin's Forerunner that isn't as responsive, you'll know how distracting this can be while on the move.

The only niggles we found relate to music. First up, for my tastes at least, it wasn't nearly loud enough. Using the same headphones a pair of excellent Sennheiser MM Xs with other media players, and the same song, made a significant difference. Secondly, on my first run with everything going Bluetooth, heart-rate monitor, GPS, a training plan and voice coaching , the music broke up at times, particularly when the voice coach piped up. On later runs, it was less evident, and experiments with lower-bit rate MP3s kbps corrected the problem entirely.

We mentioned this to our contacts at Adidas, who offered to take a look at our device, but we've been unable to reliably recreate the situation since. The miCoach requires an existing Adidas miCoach account, which must be created on a computer ahead of time - there is no facility to create an account directly on the smartwatch, which might actually be a small blessing in disguise.

Entering text is functional on the small screen with swipe gestures, but as you might expect it is slow and a bit of a chore. The swipe-based interface is relatively user intuitive, with small rebound animations that resist incomplete swipes and show you that there is more to the left, right or up and down. The miCoach lasts about 10 days when simply used as a watch.

Pressing the miCoach's only button lights the display and allows you to swipe up to a stopwatch or countdown timer. A swipe to the left takes you into the workout screens, which are then rifled through by vertical swipes and taps. Swipes to the left also take you backwards through menus, which works well enough on the cramped screen. The miCoach tracks your heart rate, your position, speed and distance traveled via GPS and your motions via an accelerometer. The combined sensors accurately measure your performance, which the on-board coaching programs can then analyse and help you improve.

You can configure all sorts of bespoke workout routines via the miCoach website, including those targeted at improving your performance in specific sports like basketball, football and hockey. From there the miCoach not only tracks your progress during each session, but actively coaches you through it, shouting encouragement into your ears via Bluetooth headphones.

For circuit training sessions, the miCoach also shows you how to perform each exercise using virtual models on the 1.