November 16, 2024, 1:57 pm | Read time: 12 minutes
Running with a plan: Our FITBOOK author, Nina Ponath, spent two months testing an app that offers an AI-driven plan to achieve your goals. She used the app’s training plan to prepare for a half marathon – read the article to find out how well it worked.
If there’s one sport that has really stayed with me, it’s running. I went jogging for the first time when I was 14. Back then, it was just a few leisurely kilometers through the forest, chatting with my mom as she ran. During my studies, the distances slowly got longer; the first ten-miler was followed by the first half marathon, and I ran more and more new sporting challenges instead of just for relaxation. Recently, however, I’ve been neglecting running somewhat. Somehow the habit has crept in and I usually run the same route, sometimes one turn more, sometimes less, always something between 6 and 8 kilometers, always at the same feel-good pace. “How boring!” I thought, so two months ago I decided to make a change! I wanted to bring more structure, more planning, and more pep back into my running life. An app that has integrated AI was supposed to help me with this.
Overview
I chose this app
I chose the ‘Trait’ app, an AI-powered running training application that offers recreational athletes personalized training plans. The app is aimed at both beginners and advanced runners who are looking for structured training plans for specific races such as 10-kilometer runs, the half marathon or a marathon. I noticed the app on social media. When it comes to health, it’s okay to be “influenced,” I thought and I downloaded the free version of the app.
What does training with the “AI app” look like?
To train with the app, you enter your goal in the screen right at the start. I chose one goal, “half marathon.” This was not a completely new goal for me, as I had already run a half marathon four or five times before, but I was never really ambitious. To get a suitable plan, you enter your best time at a distance of 5 kilometers, 10 kilometers, or other distances. With my best time of 23 minutes for 5 kilometers, the app’s AI function suggested a goal of “under 2 hours” for the half marathon. I couldn’t really imagine that I could manage that, but okay …
For the “half marathon under two hours” goal, I was supposed to complete three training sessions a week. So that the training would fit in with my everyday life, I had to specify on which days I had how much time to train. For me, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday were the best days to run.
This is what my training looked like
In the fall, when I started my attempt, the running season was more or less over and there were hardly any fun runs left. The only half marathon that was still taking place in October and was reasonably within my reach was in Lübeck. I briefly considered taking part. However, the idea of sitting in the car for more than an hour for a run, and not just once, because I would have to pick up my starting documents beforehand in addition to the day of participation, was so unappealing that I decided to run my half marathon just for myself. Theoretically, you can run 21.1 kilometers anywhere, even without a chip on your foot. Hamburg’s Alster seemed perfect for this: there are no traffic lights here to throw you off your pace, but there are water dispensers along the route, so you would have plenty of refreshments. I told my boyfriend about it and he thought it was a great idea. He wanted to go with me.
The app wanted me to run slower in training than I usually did
I chose a Saturday in October for the half marathon and the app spit out a plan for me. Three runs a week, usually a short run on Monday, a long run on Wednesday, and a leisurely run on Friday – so far, everything looked like what I knew from other plans.
But the training actually felt a little different. I was slower than before. For the run-in, I sometimes only had a pace of 7:09, which “Trait” suggested to me. I really had to force myself not to run too fast. Even during intervals, I never went quite to my limit, which was also the intention of the AI-controlled running program. This was intended to improve maximum oxygen uptake. Don’t ask me how this works, but it seems to have worked. Although I was hardly running at a fast pace, I became faster and more efficient with every run. Initially, the runs were relatively short, up to about 10 kilometers. The long runs increased to a distance of up to 18 kilometers, after which it became less in the weeks leading up to the half marathon.
Don’t forget to stretch!
It’s worth mentioning that I also trained my legs and glutes twice a week. I also take part in a total of five yoga classes a week, so I automatically do enough for my muscles and tendons. For anyone else who is drastically increasing their running workload, I would recommend incorporating stretching.
My half marathon under 2 hours
On Saturday, October 12, the time had come. The day before, I topped up my carbohydrate stores with oatmeal and rice. According to the “Trait,” I was also supposed to do a short run of 4.2 kilometers that day. I scheduled this for late in the morning.
On the morning of the 12th, I felt extremely unmotivated. I hadn’t slept well and my head clearly didn’t feel like running 21.1 kilometers straight away. My inner slacker spoke up: “If I feel really deeply into myself, couldn’t it be that there’s a slight scratching sensation at the back of my throat?” Luckily, my boyfriend was in the loop and highly motivated to run our little half marathon (his first!). Oh well.
We got out of the car at the Alster in 8 degrees and glorious sunshine. For our target time of under 2 hours, we wanted to run at a pace of 5:30; a time that is no problem for short distances, but for 21 kilometers? We set off and I had my Apple Watch running with me. I didn’t have my cell phone with me because I find it annoying on such a long run. However, you can easily transfer all your runs to the “Trait” app later on.
High fives kept the mood high
We started faster than expected. We only needed just over 5 minutes for the first kilometer. This didn’t seem to bother my heart rate; it had settled at a comfortable 135 beats. Nevertheless, we pressed on the brakes a little as a precaution. We still had a lot to do …
The first lap around the Alster, we both flew side by side with light legs. We ran in the direction my boyfriend prefers – to the left. The second direction was in my favorite direction, clockwise. My legs continued to feel light, and a glance at the clock told me that even if we slowed down a lot and dropped to a 6 pace, we would still be under the two-hour target. Yeah! For extra motivation, I had made a rule that my boyfriend and I would go in for a high five after every half hour.
Low motivation and knee pain
However, after the first hour, with a maximum of one high five and a few squishes away from the finish line, my boyfriend was no longer quite so motivated. “Another lap of this … oh man, this is longer than my usual run.” To be fair, it has to be said that he is more of a short-distance runner and his normal jogging lap is only 4 kilometers.
I then came up with the saving idea: To avoid getting dizzy, this time we would run along the Alster towards Eppendorf instead of in a circle. There is hardly any traffic here on the tributary and we didn’t have to stop at all. The only mini-stop we made was when we met a friend of mine who was waiting in front of the Eppendorf church as a wedding guest. “We’re running a half marathon,” I shouted to him as we ran past. The mere six kilometers we still had to go should be manageable enough.
My legs felt light and my heart rate was still right in the ballpark at 150 beats. My boyfriend next to me, on the other hand, was moaning about knee pain and complaining that I was getting faster and faster – which wasn’t true according to his watch. He was probably just running out of breath. I offered him half of a fruit bar that I had with me for emergencies. With this little booster, we both made it to the end relaxed. The clock said 1:51 and I was still a little proud.
What happens now?
I’ve been lacing up my running shoes three times a week for two months now and have fallen in love with running all over again. Instead of running the same routes and distances over and over again – something between 5 and 10 kilometers – I have given my body completely new stimuli and thus ensured variety. Even though it’s not running season at the moment, I want to keep up the training and have decided to structure my training in such a way that I keep a short tempo run, a feel-good run and a long run over 14 kilometers. My boyfriend likes this: he suggests running a short private half marathon once a quarter in future. That’s fine by me – maybe we’ll break 1:50 next time. The nice thing about running is that it always remains exciting and challenging when we adjust our goals.
What I liked about the ‘Trait’ app – and what I didn’t
Varied training
No surprise – you may have already gathered this from my experience: I found the training with the “Trait” app really good. The clear structure and the varied running units got me to my goal easily and with a lot of enjoyment. I particularly liked the fact that the runs almost always vary between different paces, so that for a long run of 16 kilometers, for example, you should run the first 40 minutes at a pace of 7 minutes, then 15 minutes at a 5.40 pace and so on. This means that even very long runs never get boring. I can say that training with the app has made me fall in love with running all over again.
Inflexible training plan in the free version
But there were also a few things that I wasn’t quite so happy about: In the free version that I trained with, it is unfortunately not possible to swap the days of the training sessions. So, if I specified at the start of the plan that Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are my running days, I can’t move my run from Wednesday to Thursday during an existing plan. Because something came up on some of my days and I wanted to change the day of my run, I simply trained like this and oriented myself to the next running session. However, the app did not record the run.
Pace too slow
Another downside is the prescribed pace, which sometimes felt too slow for me. Of course, we all know that most recreational runners run too fast and that a long run really should be considerably slower than the target race pace. For my taste, however, a pace of 7:09 (which the app gave me for long runs) when you have a race pace of 5.16 is a bit very slow. Sometimes it felt like I was walking on the spot and it was really hard to keep up the pace. Sometimes, I just ran faster. It didn’t hurt the result. However, I’m not sure if I would have reached my goal if I had always kept to the prescribed slow pace.
A prescribed pace can lead to an unnoticed high heart rate
Last but not least: Whether you only want to stick to prescribed paces in your running plan is a matter of taste. You can also plan your training based on your heart rate, which is certainly not the worst option. If you always run at a prescribed pace, as with ‘Trait,’ you might train at a very high heart rate without realizing it. Assuming I run a long run with a heart rate of 170 and don’t reduce the pace because my plan prescribes a certain pace, it is very questionable whether I will achieve my goal. Ultimately, however, everyone has to decide for themselves. If you want to train according to pace, need good, structured guidance and dare to deviate from the plan from time to time, the app with AI function that I tested definitely offers added value.
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Other apps for marathon training
The “Trait” app is just one way of using an app to train for a (half) marathon. Some other apps are:
- Hal Higdon
- Zen Labs Fitness
- SportMe
- ASICS Runkeeper
- MapMyRun
- Nike Run Club
- TrainingPeaks