miCoach

When you're pounding the pavement, accumulating mileage, you don't have to go it alone. You can put a coach in your pocket and run with the Adidas miCoach. And Adidas wants to make sure you get out there and work out with a little real-time audio coaching, so the company developed an easy-to-use smart phone app. To ensure no excuse interferes with you lacing up your sneakers, Adidas is offering the miCoach mobile app at a good price: free! It's available on iTunes for both iPhone and BlackBerry mobile devices (and an Android version is in the works, too).

Using the GPS capabilities of these smartphones, the mobile program monitors your pace rather than heart rate, which means no need to wear a constricting strap. Start the app, pick a playlist, and start running. You can be coached through a variety of training programs for running, whether you're just beginning, only have 30 minutes a day, or are training for a marathon. Adidas has also created sport specific conditioning programs for tennis, soccer, football, and basketball to get you ready to compete.

I have yet to use the app myself, but this new app is just the kind of technology that inspires me to get up, get out, and move. I did see a demo of the miCoach mobile and it looks really easy to use with a clean simple interface. The app tracks your mileage and elevation, plus charts out the data at the end of your run. It even maps your route. Plus, the app tracks the mileage you put on your shoes and then reminds you to buy a new pair after 300 miles.

I am going to try it. Are you?

Here are a few more screens from miCoach mobile.

After spending much of my day telling other people what to do — in a nice way of course — it's oddly comforting to have my miCoach Pacer ($139) tell me to speed up or slow down when I am out for a run. The miCoach is Adidas's answer to the Nike+ running system, but it offers real time audio coaching. This means a voice, you select the accent (I have chosen British male and like to think James Bond is coaching me), interrupts your music to let you know if you're running too fast, too slow, or just right for the selected workout. Some runners might find this annoying, but it does help me stay on track. No pun intended.

I have learned a couple things from my miCoach, which I've been using since Adidas unveiled the product at the Consumer Electronics Show, where the company gave me one to test. First, I am a visual person. I had become quite accustomed to checking my heart rate monitor watch for my stats: heart rate, time, and if I am using my foot pod, distance and pace. With the miCoach Pacer all this data comes to you in audio form. It is a bit of a tricky transition, but once made, all will go smoothly. You can press the center button on the Pacer to hear your real time stats. You pre-select what you would like to hear using the Adidas website, where you manage your information and select your workout schedule.

For more on the miCoach keep on reading!

The Consumer Electronics Show, aka CES, is taking place in Las Vegas right now. And it makes sense that at this convention of electronic gadgetry Adidas chose to introduce its portable coaching device, the miCoach. Adidas brought a handful of fitness bloggers up to Vegas to attend the press conference, and I was lucky to be among them.

The miCoach takes heart rate training to a whole new level and an audible one at that. After going to the miCoach website and figuring out your running workouts and regimen (from beginner to race training), it works like this: You place the small stride sensor on your shoe (or inside, if you have a pair of Adidas miCoach compatible shoes) and wear the heart-rate-monitor strap around your chest. Theses two devices send information about your speed and heart rate to the miCoach Pacer you have attached via wire to your MP3 player (including iPods), as you run the miCoach lowers the volume on your MP3 player to tell you to speed up or slow down and which heart rate zone you should be in.

I have yet to play around with the miCoach, but I sure am excited to. Stay tuned for a review of the gadget.