FAQ

We can’t tell you in detail, because we’d have to kill you 😉

Our algorithm helps us to analyze your historical data. Sometimes we underestimate your fitness, but when we see a new ‘best’ during a training session, you get a fitness calibration message from us. This way we get to know you better.

As of now our focus is 100% running. If you combine other sports, there’s a possibility that we underestimate your running fitness. In that case you’ll often see a ‘fitness calibration’ message from us.

In the meantime we already developped a new algorithm that will help us to analyze other sports and take them into account for your running schedule.

No, we’re not a sports tracker. You can take your favorite app or wearable to track your sessions and upload them to Strava, Garmin Connect or later Polar Flow. Sync our app with one (of two) of these platforms and we’ll analyze your session.

We compare your effort to what we had planned for you in your training plan, based on the input parameter of your choice. If there’s little variation between planned and executed, you’ll get a pat on the back 😉

Heart rate is a very difficult variable because of multiple reasons:

– not everyone knows their threshold heart rate (a recent lab test is a must), which means they don’t know their heart rate zones. Tools like 220 minus or training zones derived from maximum heart rate formulae aren’t correct.
– heart rate data are often only correctly measured when wearing a heart rate monitor strap. The rising usage of optical sensors is a drawback when it comes to correct heart rate data. When not measured correctly, heart rate data may jeopardize our analyses and thus the training plan.
– when increasing speed, your heart rate lags behind. When executing short intervals this implicates that we can not measure the correct intensity – we’d underestimate your effort.

Of course we understand the fact that heart rate based training plans are very popular as a one-size-fits-all solution. But we’re far from that. Because we analyze every second of your training session, heart rate just isn’t the best parameter out there.
You should also bear in mind that the popularity of heart rate dates from a period when their were no GPS’s for runners or power meters for cyclists: it was the best thing that was available in the 80’s en 90’s. But we’ve evolved.

For all those reasons we give our users the option to use heart rate as an input parameter (based on a lab test), but we don’t offer training plans based on heart rate (yet).

When it comes to cycling, power meters are a very reliable source of data. And although it’s on our wishlist, we’re not there yet when it comes to running:

– the output of data differs depending on the hardware supllier (eg. Stryd & Garmin). If 1 watt is 1 watt, how can that be the case? Because the measurements are incorrect. Research at the KU Leuven pointed out that the lower back might be the best region to measure power output regading running.
– there’s no scientific consensus on the use of “watts” in the training theory of running.
– the market, at this moment, is too small.

We’re looking forward to future developments, so we can gather more data.
Considering our ‘multi sport’ development, we can assure you that power meters are our tool of choice to measure training intensity.

As for now you can get a schedule for race distances from 5k (even if it’s your first!) to an ultra. You can pick a distance, date and desired finish time. Based on your historical data, we’ll check if the goal is realistich and will provide a personalized training schedule.

When not on a subscription, the progress bar compares your progress to the one we predict when perfectly following our schedule.

In that case you probably ran a bit too hard or too long. Often you’ll only be in the red zone during the most demanding periode of training: right before tapering before your goal.

You might have underestimated yourself or you weren’t training on point before. That’s also our aim: offer our users a personalized training schedule to help you flourish.

Yes, the paces displayed are 100% personalized to your current fitness.

Might be annoying, but there’s no question about it: you have to run slow to become faster. Each training session serves a specific goal, it’s realy important to follow the schedule as closely as possible.

Are the paces way off? In that case a fitness calibration can bring you a solution. Be sure to use an all-out effort as input by selecting a session from your history our via a manual input.

Yes, via the ‘+’-sign in the top right of the dashboard. Truth be told: this is the least ideal way to tell us about your activities, since we have little data to work with.

After a period without running (or less running), your fitness level – according to the app – plummeted. Take your time to build up, afterwards you can pick up your schedule again. You might need a recalibration to help us make an estimation of your currect fitness.

Yes, but you need to delete them on your platform of choice. When we import your activities from Strava and/or Garmin Connect, you need to delete the activities there. Because of the sync between Trenara and these platforms, your activity also will be deleted in our app.

These things can happen from time to time. And of course we have a fall back scenario for when this occurs. When you navigate to ‘My Activities’ and tap the 3 dots in the right upper corner, you get the option to manually sync your Garmin and/or Strava accounts. This will trigger a new sync – limited to once a day.

Look out: Garmin limits these so-called backfill requests in time. So don’t wait too long to synchronize your training (manually).

When our predictions and paces are not accurate, this tool comes in handy. Be sure to use an all-out effort as input by selecting a session from your history our via a manual input.

When having an active Peak Pro subscription, you can generate a training plan and add some intermediate goals. Runners often want to test their legs a few weeks before the big event – we’re no different.

You can add these intermediate goals when creating a new ‘main’ goal. It’s important to know these intermediate goals are what they are: intermediate. There won’t be a specific training plan for these goals, but we’ll adjust your plan towards your main goal so the intermediate goal fits in this plan.

Bearing this in mind, we’re no big fans of planning a goal in the (far) future (more than six months ahead). There’s so much more you can do to elevate your game.
When you’re a marathonner, why not push for a hard 5k to get some speed in your legs before entering a new marathon plan? Don’t just generate a plan for the next 8 months, play with your goals to become a better runner.