My First Experience With Vi Trainer

Earlier this month I was invited to test a running app called ‘Vi Trainer’ and in this article I will give a brief overview of my experience with the app. This is the first of a few ‘Vi Trainer’ articles in which I will be documenting my experience before releasing a full review when I am fully familiarized with Vi Trainer.

I’ve tried many running apps and they all do pretty much the same - keep track of running stats like current and average pace, distance, elevation and keep track of personal time and distance records.

While researching online about the app, I found out it has a pretty nifty feature... Vi asks you what your goals are and creates a training plan to help you achieve those goals. ​

At first look, it’s not just any old plan, thrown together without much thought. It’s a solid plan with proper training load progressions - and from what I understand the plan will adapt in real time in case you miss a training session or aren’t able to fully complete it.

Now that’s impressive. Take a look at the training plan Vi has suggested for the coming week:

Anyway, I was pretty excited after reading about all of that! So, as soon as I could, I put my running shoes on, grabbed my headphones and went outside. As I was walking to my usual running spot I opened up the app and started the sign up process.

The app asked me what my experience in running was (beginner, intermediate or advanced) , it asked me what my goal in running is (I chose the ‘burn fat’ option, there are more) and a few other personal questions. This process was quick.

As soon I finished signing up, Vi had a ‘test-run’ ready for me. I started the running session and was greeted by Vi, the virtual trainer inside the app that guides the runner through each running session.

This virtual trainer quickly put a smirk on my face! Vi introduced itself and immediately gave me instructions in order to start my workout.

Throughout the session Vi was telling me a little bit about itself, how it worked and what our sessions would be like.

What really impressed me about Vi was its ability to get through to me. I mean, this virtual trainers voice does not sound like the pre-recorded voice overs you hear in other running apps. This virtual trainer feels genuine - so genuine that I’m having a hard time referring to it as an ‘it’. It’s almost like it has a real personality!

It pushed me through the hard parts of the workout with intent and passion in its voice, like it really wanted me to dig deep and push through!

This first training session was hard - I guess Vi was trying to understand where exactly I am fitness-wise.

I really have to emphasize that Vi, the virtual trainer REALLY stood out to me - the voice-over is phenomenal and made my first experience with this app a real surprise.

Vi says that I need to train for a full week in order to for it to really understand where I am in my running fitness and that from there Vi will be able to personalize my training plan even further.

On a side note, I do have something to mention that I will be paying attention to in the next few weeks... the app didn’t understand what was going on ‘in real time’. It kept following its original plan for the running session, even if I was going too slow or wasn’t able to follow its instructions...

For example, it told me to run at a 4:55 pace and I purposely stayed at 5:30. The app didn’t notice this while I was running and I’m curious to see if it will adapt future training sessions taking that information into account.

I can’t wait to see what Vi has in store for me.
I’ll release a new article as soon as I have more information to share about the app.

If this article has made you curious and you want to try Vi Trainer yourself click here or click on the image below to download the app with a free 14 day trial. If you decide to give it a try, let me know what you thought in the comments!

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About the Author

   ​​Paulo Piedade is a Certified Track & Field Coach, based in Portugal.
   Paulo is the advising Running Coach at the Running and Race Training group.
   His Runner Profile - runpage.com/profile/paulo.piedade