Category: Training

Apps make fitness success easy.

Today’s coaching apps cover nearly every aspect of an athlete’s journey from novice beginner to elite champion. Apps exist to track and monitor nutrition, sleep, and workouts, and the years of data collected by these apps have allowed the technology to improve steadily. Today, they can adjust training plans or fitness programs automatically to match a person’s endurance progression — or regression — as they work out. Many of the most popular training apps can automatically adjust workout intensities to reflect an improved fitness in terms of functional threshold heart rate and watts data (if on a bicycle with a power meter). 

Sounds great, right? It is, but these apps still rely on the endurance athlete to follow the plan. Real life has a way of fouling those plans. When these complications arise, a coaching app, especially an AI-powered app like Humango, can step in and keep that athlete on track to nail their fitness goal.

Keys to a Successful Training Program

It’s easy enough to sign up for a marathon, endurance gravel ride, or triathlon and grab a free training plan off the web. A goal race or event is the first step. To get to that start line will take more than a well-trained body. A person will need to demonstrate the following soft traits: Resilience, consistency, organization, drive, and focus. 

Successful endurance athletes are born with all of them or develop them over time and practice. An endurance coach can guide an athlete’s development of these traits. In fact, the ability to manage and manipulate these mental aspects of endurance sports is what separates decent coaches from great coaches.

Coaching from a Human or an AI-Powered App Is Still Coaching

AI-powered coaching apps can and do help athletes develop the soft traits mentioned above. Take resilience; AI can parse the data to see how a poor night’s sleep or 24-hour flu negatively affected the day’s performance and adjust the next day’s workout — or the next several — to be easier so that an athlete can recover adequately before starting again. That’s resilience.

This adjustment leads to the next trait, consistency. AI will adjust a training program to help an athlete stick to their schedule instead of burning out and quitting. Next, an athlete must be organized to stay consistent. AI’s ability to easily modify or switch workouts based on available training time ensures that an athlete has the time to get the work done. AI does the hard part of organizing training around an athlete’s life instead of forcing the athlete to organize their life around training.

Drive may seem unrelated to a coaching app, but research shows that a coaching app’s ability to hold users accountable — even if it’s just to themselves — is as effective as that of a human coach. Focus on the immediate task (i.e., the workout) is the last trait AI can help with. With AI’s ability to pull data from years of workouts, it can build a workout program that seems complex at the outset but serves to hold the athlete’s attention and, yes, focus.

It’s All About the Data

A coaching app processes and applies the same data as a human coach to its suggestions. For example, take a runner who fails to do the last two hard pieces of a workout at the assigned pace and intensity. A coach will note that failure and adjust the next training session accordingly. An AI-powered coaching app takes it a step further, instantly drawing on weeks, months, or even years of similar occurrences to ensure the program adjustment doesn’t set the athlete back too far on their road to recovery. AI also won’t push the athlete too hard or too fast based on the data.

In the scenario above, one core benefit of the AI coaching app is speed. The athlete will know how their training program will change as soon as the workout data gets uploaded to the app. There’s no need to wait 24 hours or a week for a human coach to review the data and draw up a new training program. This instantaneous feedback keeps the athlete motivated, driven, and focused. It removes that kernel of doubt that may creep in while they wonder what’s next.

If all this sounds easy, it is, except for one big caveat: the athlete must apply the same soft traits of consistency, organization, drive, and focus to collecting and uploading their workout data as they do to their sport. Without consistent, reliable data, the coaching suffers — whether from a human or an AI coach. Collecting and sharing data can be difficult for athletes when the data doesn’t show progress. Frustration and doubt start to rear their ugly heads. But these times are when a coach who can guide an athlete back on track is most valuable. Training is easy when things go well; not so much when they don’t. When game plans go sideways, having and listening to a coach will make the difference.

Humango uses artificial intelligence to elevate endurance training and boost athletic performance.

Endurance sports have long pushed the leading edge of coaching and technology. Think Bill Bowerman of University of Oregon Track fame, who famously moved U.S. runners’ training for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City to the higher altitude of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, to prepare his athletes for competing at altitude in Mexico City. He later started Nike with the goal of engineering a better running shoe. Over the decades, training technology has only gotten better. We now have heart rate monitors to track the intensity of efforts, GPS units to track speed, distance, and efficiency, and bicycle power meters to measure watts. Artificial intelligence, (AI) promises to bring all that data together and help marathon runners, ultra runners, cyclists, triathletes, and other endurance athletes — plus their coaches — perfect their training.

The Endurance Coach

Athletes who hire a coach to help them achieve their best results can pay thousands of dollars a year for the guidance. The coach designs a training program and then monitors the progress. The most important benefit they provide is knowing when to dial back efforts to avoid burnout or injury and when to push an athlete through a mental block to reach their full potential. The difference between the two is what makes an effective coach. Data helps the coach determine whether a bad training day came from a poor night’s sleep, a bad mood, or over-training. 

Artificial intelligence can process the same data to arrive at the same conclusions. And like the coach, AI can adjust an athlete’s training program to compensate for that poor training day, a sick day, or a week where an athlete can’t train for some reason. A 2022 study published in the online journal PLUS One found that AI coaches were as effective as human coaches in helping people reach a goal. The caveat is that this goal has to be focused and specific, with a clearly identified pathway to success and easily obtainable data to measure progress — exactly what training plans deliver. 

The Novice Athlete’s Shortcut to Their Best Performance

Put simply, endurance training — and coaching — is about managing fatigue. Building endurance means pushing back the moment when fatigue sets in. Most free training plans, even the best-designed ones, factor in a perfect training program where the athlete eats well, sleeps well, and never misses a workout. Unfortunately, life never works that way. A work trip blows a hole in the week’s most important workout. A bout of COVID knocks out weeks of fitness. Managing these setbacks is where coaches really earn their pay.

But cost is the main benefit of the AI endurance coach. Instead of spending thousands of dollars a year, motivated athletes can deploy an AI coach to guide them through their training for a fraction of the price, flu bugs and family vacations be damned. And because of the low cost, novices and beginners to the sport can employ AI to train smarter instead of following the usual years of trial-and-error until injury or simple frustration leads them to invest in a coach.

AI Coaching Still Needs Real Coaches

This new AI-powered era won’t bring the end of human coaching. Successful coaches will always retain the unquantifiable soft skills that no data set can capture. The word of encouragement spoken at the right moment to push an athlete out of their comfort zone or the confident command to take a day off and not feel guilty about it, these are the subtle nuances that require the human touch. Still, AI puts a powerful tool in the coach’s toolbox. AI can now review data quickly and handle the tedious and time-consuming process of rejiggering a training program based on the results. In short, a human coach assisted by an AI coach should be a more effective and efficient coach. That’s a win-win for everyone involved.

A half marathon is quite a step up from a 10km race! Although it is just over double the distance, the fatigue accumulation for the distance is not exactly double. 

Step 1

One of the most effective things you can do to prepare yourself for the full 21.1 km (13.1 miles) is to train the majority of the time in your Endurance or Zone 2 training zone. This is the zone that will optimize your fat utilization, improve your capillarization (oxygen-carrying capacity) and increase your heart and lung capacity. If you spend around 80-90%% of your time training in this zone, and the other 10-20% in Zones 3 and 4 you will be well prepared for this distance. 

Step 2

Ramp up gradually. Everyone starts where they are at! This sounds so obvious – but not everyone will be honest about this! Make sure your training plan is the best plan for you given your own training, sport, injury, resources available, and life balance history. Humango takes all these aspects into consideration to deliver an optimal personalized training plan – all you have to do is follow along.  While training with Humango is the ideal scenario, if you aren’t in a position to customize your training – be honest about your starting point, and check that your training meets you where you are at – not beyond, nor behind. 

Step 3

Explore your prehab options. Training for a half marathon can be grueling on your body. Your soft tissue, your joints, and your organs (especially your heart) will be working hard. Pre-hab is all about staying ahead of any injury and building a strong and resilient machine. Choose what fits your lifestyle best, but, basically, anything from the below list will ensure you are incorporating self-care, prehab, and recovery into your routine; massage, hot/cold therapy, rolling, yoga, pilates, strength and functional training, compression boots, trigger point therapy, Physical Therapy (especially if you have a pre-existing or known pre-injury state), sleep and even swimming where the impact is low but total body recruitment is high. Create a specific routine around your pre-hab and schedule it. By scheduling it, the probability of you following through increases, and so does the likelihood of training safely and having a great race day!

Step 4

Practice the race day process every opportunity you have. Every aspect of training can mirror your actual race day. Practice (and refine) your hydration and nutrition plan, pacing, visualization, race day warm-up, and morning routine, and wear what you will be wearing on race day – practice everything in training that you will be implementing on race day. Make your training as similar to racing as possible. Continually learn from your training and refine what went well and what you would do better. Then, when race day arrives, your plan is already well rehearsed – and all you have to do is implement it. Note – don’t be tempted to change your race plan last minute based on something you haven’t practiced. A well-known race day rule is “nothing new on race day.” It’s a good rule 🙂

Step 5

Choose equipment that is right for you. Considering equipment ranging from shoes to shorts and even tops and socks, we are all built differently. What is a good shoe for one athlete for example is not necessarily a good shoe for you. Avoid getting caught up in marketing and hype – do your research and get clear on what you need. It might be that you need a 3mm drop shoe with high stability but your training buddy runs best in a 5mm drop with a high cushion. Take the time to do your “educated buying.” Try out your equipment, get fitted, and talk to the professionals who care about your well-being – not just selling you the next new thing! Be mindful, you can’t always get it right. There might be some trial and error in this process – but you will be continually learning and gathering information as you go, fueling you for better choices in the future. 

You might be following an endurance training plan, or maybe you’re thinking about getting started on one. No matter what your level of commitment towards your goal, you are likely thinking about how you will stay motivated and see your goal come to life! Read on for seven practical yet powerful tips to stay motivated (and inspired) toward your goal and improve your performance.

1. Know your “why”. This is top of the list because nothing else happens until you are clear on the reason/s you are aiming for the goal you have set. This is not the reason a friend, family member, or fellow athlete thinks you should do this BIG thing – it is YOURS and YOURS only. In fact, the more personal your “why”, the more likely you are to achieve your goal. Dig deep, be honest with yourself, make it as detailed as possible, and then write your reasons down. You can even create a picture board to keep you motivated.  

2. Connect with like-minded people. Create training groups, connect with training buddies, and meet up with clubs and social programs that support your goal. The juxtaposition of endurance racing is that it is quite often performed solo, yet training can be quite social. Connect with supportive people and see your motivation rise.

3. Recruit a coach. For all the time you spend training, and the money you spend on equipment and racing, don’t leave the most important things out. A coach will hold you accountable, facilitate the personalization and optimization of your training, and help with hydration, equipment, nutrition, race strategy, psychology, strength and function, workout reviews, etc. 

4. Visualize the achievement of your goal. See it (literally) in your mind’s eye. See yourself achieving it. How does it feel  – how does it really feel – what emotions are present? Who is around you, who are you celebrating with, and how are you celebrating? What does it smell like, does it even have a taste? What is the weather like, what do your surroundings look like? What are you wearing? Make it as detailed as possible – include all the senses and emotions you can. Practice seeing your goal become real every day!

5. Break it down. How do you eat an elephant? And what does that have to do with endurance training and racing you might ask?! You would never sit down and eat an elephant in one sitting now, would you?! Neither would you set out to complete your first Olympic Triathlon or 50-mile ultra run off the couch. You break it down into bite-size pieces you can digest every day. You don’t have to see the end point from the beginning – you just need to see the next day, then the next week, and so on. Oh, and on the above point – a coach will help you do this! See your goal clearly – but then focus on the next step. 

6. Have clearly defined processes. These are mini goals that are action based ensuring your daily routine is (relatively speaking) effortless. Examples include laying out your clothes and equipment the night before an early morning training session, setting up your weekly calendar a week in advance so there are no last-minute surprises, or even leveraging point 2 above, and connecting with your support system in advance and know you will be there for each other. Every opportunity you have to reduce friction between an idea and action – do it! Every athlete’s process is different, and it takes some time to establish a routine, yet by making this a priority you will find very quickly you fall into a manageable schedule that brings you closer to your goal. 

7. Make it fun! Unless you are a professional athlete and HAVE to do this, I am guessing you do this for the joy of it. Pay attention to what brings a smile to your dial and do more of that! The more fun it is, the more you will want to do it, and the more you want to do it, the more fun it will be! Success in endurance training and racing is first, and most importantly, about consistency. Whatever you can do to maintain a consistent training routine (such as enjoying the ride) the more success you will have, not just on race day but along the way to it!

As the name implies, a sprint triathlon is the shortest of the race categories. This makes it a good entry point for beginners, those with limited training time, or even more experienced athletes looking for a change or to test a new approach out. That said, you don’t prepare for a sprint triathlon the same way you prepare for a full-distance tri! Here’s why!

1. Energy systems

A sprint triathlon usually comprises a 750-meter swim, a 20 km bike ride, and a 5 km run, although this might vary slightly from race to race. In the overall scheme of things, this is on the shorter side with the race being completed by most athletes in an hour to an hour and 45 minutes. As the race time is on the shorter side, the percentage of time spent in higher-intensity zones is greater and your training should reflect this. Consider spending more time in training in Zone 4 otherwise known as threshold. This will train your body’s speed endurance including your ability to utilize glycogen while also training you mentally for being in that “comfortably uncomfortable” zone during your race. You will still want (and need) to incorporate a high percentage of Zone 2 training, otherwise known as endurance training, as this has its own set of important adaptations that ALL endurance athletes need. 

2. Duration

Your training sessions don’t need to be as long as they would be if you were training for an Olympic or long-distance event, but here is the clincher. Because you will spend more time training at a higher intensity for a sprint triathlon, you will also need to focus more on recovering between sessions. Effectively as time spent in training goes down and intensity goes up, recovery time becomes more important. This is a fine balancing act between optimizing training adaptations and avoiding injury or overtraining, and one area a coach will help a great deal. In general, swim sessions will be in the 20 to 30-minute range, bike rides will be anything from 40 to 90 minutes and runs will fall in the 20 to 60-minute range depending on intensity. 

3. Fueling and hydration

In a sprint triathlon, the percentage of glycogen required to generate energy increases, and your fueling has to support this. The time spent in a race in a sprint triathlon is about half of the Olympic distance. So rather than focusing on the longer “in-race” strategy, it becomes more important to be well-prepared prior to your event. This includes a complete breakfast 3 hours before your race start, topping up your glycogen stores between breakfast and your race start, and maintaining your hydration during this window. Experiment with this during training, also making sure you have practiced your hydration and nutrition strategy during higher intensity sessions. Come race day, your heart rate will be high, blood flow to working muscles is prioritized and your gut will be more sensitive to anything you take in. By practicing and refining your hydration and nutrition during training (especially the higher-intensity sessions) you will set yourself up for a great sprint race! 

4. Recovery time

This is closely related to point 2, above. There is one other factor to consider over and above recovery between training sessions, and that is the recovery time after races. Due to sprint triathlons having a lower impact on your body, it doesn’t take as long to recover from racing and you can race more frequently allowing you to improve your racing performance reasonably quickly over a season. In contrast, most athletes will race 1 full-distance triathlon or 2 to 3 half-distance events, but a sprinter can race up to 4 or 5 times in a season. 

5. Equipment   

There is one major advantage to this shorter race when it comes to bike choice. A road, or even touring bike (the choice for many a beginner triathlete regardless of distance) will be less efficient than a time trial bike. The impact of this is magnified as race distance increases. Say for example a TT bike is 2 minutes quicker over the sprint distance. This gap gets magnified as the race distance goes up. Running efficiency might go down by 2% running off a road bike versus a time trial bike, but again, over the sprint distance, this is minimized. There is no question, a TT bike will always be quicker in a non-draft legal race than a road bike, but this advantage is limited due to the race being over a shorter distance. This is a clear advantage for racers new to the sport, for those who have a road bike (not a TT bike), and for those who generally feel more comfortable on a road bike.

These are just some points to consider when training for a sprint triathlon. There are many nuances and specifics to drill into as you prepare for a sprint triathlon. For example, intensity ramp, specific recovery modalities and techniques, strength and conditioning, mental training, and more to master. Getting a coach just might be my #6! 

Happy racing!  

When you decide to run a half marathon for the first time — or the first time in a long time — it’s a good idea to keep one important truth in mind: A half marathon is a big step up from a 10km race! Although it is just over twice the distance, the fatigue accumulation is not exactly double. To make sure you’re prepared for the unique challenges of a half marathon, follow this simple five-step half marathon training plan.

Step 1: Stay in the zone.

One of the most effective things you can do to prepare yourself for the full 21.1 km (13.1 miles) is to train the majority of time in your Zone 2 (endurance) training zone. Doing this will optimize your fat utilization, improve your capillarization (oxygen-carrying capacity), and increase your heart and lung capacity. If you spend 80-90% of your training in this zone and the other 10-20% in Zones 3 and 4, you’ll be ready to run your best race at this distance.

Step 2: Pace yourself.

Ramp up gradually. Everyone starts from a different point. This sounds obvious, but not everyone will be honest with themselves. Make sure your training plan is tailored to you. The best plans consider your sport, training schedule, injury history, available resources, and overall life balance. Humango factors all of these aspects into your training to deliver an optimal, personalized plan. All you have to do is follow along and put in the work. While training with Humango is the ideal scenario, if you aren’t in a position to customize your training, be honest about your starting point and check that your training meets you where you are — not beyond or behind.

Step 3: Plan your prehab.

Training for a half marathon can be grueling on your body. Your soft tissue, joints, and organs (especially your heart) will work hard. Prehab is a proactive training approach designed to help you avoid injury by building a strong and resilient machine. Effective prehab methods include massage, hot/cold therapy, rolling, yoga, pilates, strength and functional training, compression boots, trigger point therapy, physical therapy (especially if you have a pre-existing or known pre-injury state), sleep, and even swimming. Choose the best options that fit your lifestyle and incorporate them into your training routine. By scheduling your prehab activities, you’re more likely to follow through with them — and that goes a long way toward ensuring safe training and a successful race!

Step 4: Practice. Practice. Practice.

Every aspect of training can mirror your actual race day, so practice your race day process whenever possible. Practice (and refine) your hydration strategy, nutrition plan, pacing, visualization, warm-up, and morning routine. You can even train in the gear you’re planning to wear on race day. By practicing everything in training that you will be implementing on race day, you’ll get your body and your mind ready and make the race itself less stressful. Continually learn from your training and refine what went well and what you would do better. Then, when race day arrives, you can run with confidence, knowing your plan is already well rehearsed and all you have to do is put it into action.

Pro tip: Don’t be tempted to change your race plan at the last minute based on something you’ve never practiced. A well-known racing adage advises, “nothing new on race day.” This is a good rule to follow.

Step 5: Pick equipment that’s right for you.

Equipment ranges from shoes and shorts to tops and socks, and every racer is built differently. The perfect shoe for one athlete may not necessarily be the best shoe for you. Don’t get caught up in marketing and hype. Do your research and get clear on what you need. Maybe you need a 3mm drop shoe with high stability, but your training buddy runs best in a 5mm drop with high cushion. Take the time to do your “educated buying.” Try out your equipment. Get fitted. Talk to the professionals who care about your well-being — not just selling you the next big thing. It’s helpful to remember that you can’t always get it right. There might be some trial and error in this process. You will be continually learning and gathering information as you train, fueling you for better choices in the future.

As you can see, the secret to successful half marathon training is creating a training plan and race day routine that works for you. Humango can help you customize your training and set you up to run your best race from the starting gun to the finish line.