A better coach in Nike+?
The Nike+ Coach is a great feature in the App, but it falls short in a number of key aspects
The Coach feature in the Nike+ Running App is an effective way to get inspired in running more miles at a faster speed than your regular training.
I started using Coach this year, have gone through two levels of 10K training, and I’m about to finish the most intensive one. I have run about 800 Km on this program, increasing my overall distance and speed. This does not mean that it’s perfect, though.
There are a number of issues that Nike can address in order to make Coach better for users, and most of the problems can be resumed in this:
Coach does not know who you are
Nike+ Running knows your age, height and weight, how much you run on average, your top speed and what kind of terrain and weather you run on, but this does not mean that Coach will do anything with the information. Coach won’t adapt the training to you, based —for instance— on your age and gender. This is something that should be doable given the huge amount of data that Nike has on all of its users.
Coach does not know what Nike+ does, nor can it talk to you during training
Aside from giving you instructions on how to run before starting each run, and recording the progress of the overall program, Coach has no way of giving you advice during the training. This defeats the purpose of the feature in a number of situations: It will ask you to do intervals, progressive runs or even more complex series, but it will give you no audio cues on when to start or stop at any given part of the training. Also: on timed series, the clock on the iPhone sometimes does not work or is not visible to people without reading glasses .
Coach should be a digital assistant, not a calendar
Perhaps the problem with Coach is that it’s based on a fixed calendar program, instead of being based on the character from the movie Her.
On this use case, a digital assistant makes more sense, and if Nike built the feature it would be even better than the one in RunKeeper, with its complex setup process.
I find that the concept of a Coach as a digital assistant can reduce interface clutter, setup time and increase the use of the app. Coach can even be able to suggest the best time of the day to train, taking into account your calendar and normal workflow.
The future of coach
The new IOS 8 HealthKit points to great possibilities on the use of the data generated by Nike+ Running and other medical and fitness apps, and to the chance of making the training coach even more aware of your capabilities and limitations as a runner; as long as the privacy requirements of such sensitive data are met.
What do you think? What would you like to have as a Coach in your phone?
Coda — August 5, 2014
Today I started using RunKeeper to get aural cues on my training runs. I did have to create a workout containing the interval run lapses prescribed by Nike+ Running and run both apps at the same time in order to record the progress on both. This worked perfectly and it is a great way to get the feature until Nike decides to upgrade the Coach
I still like Nike+ Running better, but for now this will have to do
Coda — January 17, 2016
I have been using Spotify Running to get better playlists, adapted to my pace during my runs: I think this may work for you too, so I wrote about it here: The Spotify Running Feature: It Does Work >
Coda—February 4, 2016
I am testing a new App as a training coach for my next race. Read about it here. I will be keeping my runs in both apps, at least for the time being, although I found a way to move my data to the new system.
