Vi Trainer - As Close to a REAL COACH as You Can Virtually Get

Before diving into this article, there’s a couple of things you need to know about me. I was an endurance runner for four years and earlier this year I shuffled over to short distance speed events like the 100m dash. I did this because I’ve decided I want to gain weight and endurance running was burning up all of my calories.

​Because of this particular goal of mine, I need to be careful with my training plan. I plan every sprint and every lift with precision and accuracy in order to achieve the best results I can possibly achieve. Workout too hard and I’ll burn too many calories but if I go too light I won’t stimulate my muscles and growth will not occur!

So as you can tell, my training plan needs to be highly personalized. That’s why I was blown away by Vi’s personalization feature. Of course, Vi doesn’t understand all of these intricate details (yet?) but the app allows the user to personalize and change their running goals whenever they want to.

TAll I had to do was tell it my goal is to REDUCE STRESS (meaning there shouldn’t be any super hard sessions), specify that I want to train for a 5k in 12 weeks and within 2 minutes Vi had a new plan for me. Vi now has me running 3 times a week, at minimal effort, for the next 12 weeks. This low effort aerobic exercise will ensure I maintain a caloric surplus (keep gaining weight) and still keep my cardiovascular health in check. This is a phenomenal feature that allows high levels of personalization (which I haven't seen in any other app).

In the screenshot below Vi shows me my training sessions for this week. Vi let me know (during todays running session) that it needs a total of two hours running with me in order to truly understand what my current fitness level is (average speed, cadence, etc). After this, it will update my future training sessions to match my average stats and thus provide training sessions tailored to my personal needs. I haven’t reached the full two hours yet so I’ll report back on this subject.

Right now I only have one phrase to describe Vi Trainer - it’s as close to a REAL COACH as you can virtually get. Not a minute goes by that Vi isn’t feeding you some kind of information into your ear. It’s either telling you your stats and averages, telling you about some of its features, or it’s giving you tips on how to run/breathe better, and on and on!

I’m pretty sure you can ask Vi to speak less during training but I’ve decided to leave it as it is - it’s like I have a running buddy with me! This feature is phenomenal for the runners who need and want real time coaching!

Here’s a few extra bits of information I picked up while playing with Vi Trainer this week:

• Vi asks you what your training IQ is (screenshot above)! If you’re a beginner it’ll teach you all the running-lingo from scratch but if you’re an expert Vi will speak words like ‘fartlek’ and ‘interval training’ without much explanation.
• Vi lets you play music while running. You can listen to the songs suggested by the app or you can ‘pair’ Vi Trainer with your preferred music app.
  
• I’ll admit, I kinda zoned out by the end of my workout, but, at the cool down part I think Vi updated me on some kind of weekly ‘total miles’ competition. A lady in LA got 39 miles this week, and it was her birthday! This was a surprising feature that adds a motivating challenge aspect to the app!

I’ll post an updated article as soon as I get more familiarized with the Vi Trainer app!  

---

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