Adidas miCoach: Real-Time Audible Coaching, Interactive Training

Last year, I wrote “NIKEPLUS – Why Nike is Winning the Shoe War”.  In short, the success of NIKE was a consumer device that connected social trends and interactive training.  Their product was called Nikeplus or simply known as NIKE+.

Now, you didn’t think rival Adidas were resting on their laurels, did you?

In all fairness, Adidas has a competitive product called miCoach.

Here is their latest PR.

adidas Launches Virtual Running Partner With Real-Time Audible Coaching – The miCoach interactive training system guides you to speed up or slow down by tracking heart rate, pace, distance and stride rate –

adidas, a global leader in running, today kicked off its worldwide New Year’s Resolution to help you become a better runner with the launch of the miCoach Pacer and Zone. Over the coming months adidas stores will invite you to experience the new coaching devices and set fitness goals for 2010. 

miCoach is an interactive training service developed to motivate, inspire and enable runners to become better and reach their training goals, whatever they may be. The miCoach offering features two separate products:

1. The miCoach Pacer – a small, lightweight device that delivers real-time audible coaching as you exercise via headphones or combined with your own MP3 player. During your run, the miCoach Pacer verbally coaches you (i.e. speed up to green zone, slow down to blue zone, etc.) to ensure that you are staying within your targeted heart rate zone and  keep you running at the right personal level. 
2. The miCoach Zone – an easy to read colour-code LED display on a wristband device provides accurate, real-time coaching making it easy for you to train at the right intensity with the help of a heart rate monitor.

The new miCoach interactive training platform completes the adidas sports performance promise of engaging and enabling all athletes to achieve their Impossible.  Not only do we provide you with the most innovative footwear and apparel to perform in, we now offer personal coaching services so that you can get fitter, run faster and simply be better in 2010.

“miCoach makes it easy for anyone at any level to get personal coaching. The instant progress reports help you get the most out of your run and achieve your personal goal,” says Bernd Wahler, Chief Marketing Officer of adidas Sport Performance.  “The audible coaching feature of the miCoach Pacer provides a new dimension to any workout experience allowing users of any level to discover their true potential. This product is really about offering our consumers a personal way to train.”

The adidas Innovation Team (ait) began research and development for the current miCoach platform and devices more than two years ago with the objective of creating the most advanced and personal training product in the marketplace.  adidas also worked with some of the world’s finest athletic trainers in developing the miCoach training methodology, including Mark Verstegen, the founder and director of the Athletes’ Performance Institute (API), an elite training and sport research centre based at Arizona State University.

"This is all about reaching your next level, whether you want to improve your personal best time, lose weight or want to train for your first marathon,” said Christian DiBenedetto, aIT development team leader “miCoach acts as your own personal coach who is there with you on every run.  It practically does all the thinking for you and knows exactly what you want to accomplish and exactly how to help you get there.”

At micoach.com you can create personalised training plans, set goals and proactively monitor and manage your progress over time. The miCoach platform includes six documented training plans, ranging from those who want to run faster and improve a personal time, to those who want to lose weight. You can also create your own personalised training plan on micoach.com to make you a better runner.

On micoach.com you receive a training program that’s tailored to your heart rate zones and will help you achieve your fitness goals more efficiently than traditional exercise regimens. miCoach listens to your heart to determine your personal training zone ranges, each represented by a distinct colour for easy-to-understand and effective training – blue, green, yellow and red. miCoach helps runners set goals and then reach them by monitoring their heart rate and telling them when to slow down or speed up to meet their personal goal.