As of today there’s a new app version available in the App & Play Store. It’s a big one, a very big one! So here we are to tell you what we’ve got in store for you.
1. A new registration flow
Let’s start at the very beginning: we’ve redesigned our registration flow and made it much more user-friendly. This will help us to get better initializations, thus better calculations, thus a better app. If you’re already a Trenara user you won’t notice it of course, but for those who’re ready to discover Trenara is make a big difference!
2. Couch to 5 or 10k
Speaking of beginning: as of now we also offer couch to 5k (or 10k) plans. You can choose between a buildup of 6, 10 or 14 weeks when it comes to 5k and 10 weeks for the 10k plan. These plans are fixed at 3 runs per week. During these sessions we’ll mix running and walking to get you to your goal as responsibly as possible. So we’ve added 2 more ‘goal options’ next to the ‘achieving my ultimate running goal’: ‘start running’ & ‘rebuild my fitness’.
Thanks to these 2 options we’re not only adding start to runners to our audience, but we’re also providing a solution for those who were injured or just had a break from running. Before this update you had to have a well enough physique to use the app, that’s long gone now!
3. RPE
Something that I, as a coach, was really looking forward to is being able to assign RPE scores to the training sessions. Until now we only had data as feedback. Pace x, heart rate y over distance z. That still remains the basis, but it’s quite incomplete. Every refresher & training course I took over the past few months, given by scientists and elite trainers, talks about the importance of RPE: what was the athlete’s feeling next to those numbers?
From now on, Peak Pro users can rate their training. That score is accompanied by a description, so that you are guided in assigning a number. This way you can always look back for yourself at how hard a particular training session was.
More important, we’re also saving the score to our server. Because RPE feedback not only helps us to understand you better, in a next phase it may also result in adjusting your training plan. The fact that I might have planned an easy endurance run for you, doesn’t necessarily mean you experienced it that way. So when you accumulate too much RPE ‘surplus points’, then RPE will help to adjust your program.
In other words: your feedback will have an impact on your plan. And that’s what’s going to make us truly unique.
4. Messages regarding training plan adjustments
Speaking of Peak Pro and adjusting training plans: one of the existing perks of Peak Pro was that we already adjusted your plan if you ran too short or too far, or too slow or too fast. In this way we ensure that your goal remains achievable in a responsible way, rather than having to catch up on training – which is a ‘no go’ in training theory.
Until now you had to find that adjustment out for yourself, and if you didn’t you might have trained incorrectly. With this update that ‘issue’ is fixed! So don’t be surprised when I send you a message that I adjusted the training plan after a too long endurance run or a too hard interval 😉
5. More interaction
At the beginning of 2021, we’ve asked our Facebook Trenara Community what kind of developments they’d like to see. ‘More guidance’ got the most votes. The above points already contribute to that. Our 5th big novelty also fits that list: from now on we will actively ask you whether you are still satisfied with your current calibration. You can answer that question with a simple yes or no.
Why? Calibration is very important when it comes to generating a correct training plan. The calibration can go wrong for many reasons: it won’t be correct after a long period of rest, or when you’re doing another sport, or because you accidentally calibrated with an incorrect activity, … There are many reasons why we might not be able to estimate your abilities correctly, because we don’t have a look at a recent maximum performance (or an estimation of it).
Every few weeks we will therefore ask you the question: are you still satisfied with your current calibration? This ensures that you as a user pay a little more attention to that calibration, and that only benefits the app and thus you!
6. Training plan suggestions
From now on we can give suggestions after finishing a training plan. More guidance, you know. We’re not going to suggest a marathon plan to a newbie runner. And someone who has just completed a heavy training plan in terms of training hours, we’d rather advice to choose a ‘shorter’ goal distance to prevent overload. This system is already active for a number of goals and will of course be expanded. My guiding role as a coach will increase. Collaboration produces the best results, right? 👊
7. Social share
Last but not least: we improved sharing to social media. After many problems with the current option, the app builder wrote a custom one. One that works 😍🙌
It’s a big update, no? We look forward to your experiences. Have fun with our latest version, we are proud of it!
Download it now in the Play & App Store!
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