Athletica: Train Smarter Not Harder

Super excited to announce I have been chosen as a brand ambassador for Athletica_ai.

Like many middle aged weekend warrior athletes, I too have followed a certain trend when it comes to their mid-life athletic career. We all probably played another sport growing up, maybe fell out of love with it, suffered from nagging old injuries, or life just got in the way and found our way to endurance type sports. Many of us continue to do these activities because we start to enjoy it, want to continue with our fitness gains, while some of us (like me) our inner competitive nature comes out, where we look to beat our old times or others in competition. If we choose the latter route, we enter various stages of our training which I outline below:

Stage 1: Do what you think

I call my first stage “Do what you think or more so, do what you remember from your past”. You want to run a 5k, so what do you do? You run 5k everyday or 3x times a week hoping you get a bit faster and faster every time you hit the road. You gain a little speed over time due to consistency, and see some fitness gain as you become a bit more comfortable pushing your heart rate a little harder each time.

Stage 2: The internet plan

Some of us progress to stage two when we want a little guidance or maybe because a friend told you about a plan they followed to a new PB. Finding some free training plans off the internet or youtube gives you a little guidance and hopefully you are able to reach a new goal you set out. After looking at various websites or youtube videos, you find something that suits your needs and ambitions. You might even venture into paying for a plan from a coach through Training Peaks or off a coaches’ website.

Stage 3: Paid Coaching

Many of us never reach this stage. A paid coach might be too expensive for you to commit to, after all this is just a midlife hobby. A paid coach ranges from $100+ a month with a few months of commitment upon registering. Depending on what plan you choose you have a range on the amount of communications you receive per month either via phone, email or text. Here the coach will give you a set month to month training prescription based on your current level of fitness and your goals and will make various changes as necessary as per your progress in your workouts. They often have a connection to your strava or training peaks account and can track your progress.

Enter a new stage : The constantly changing structured plan

This is almost a bridge between Stage 2 & 3. As technology advances, there is a move towards computer based or machine learning intelligence where based on your previous workouts, the prescribed plan created by the software will adjust based on your progress with each workout. Similar to a coach, however there is no personal communication. You may be required to give some subject feedback via a survey and RPE (how you felt, and how hard was the activity) after each workout.

Enter Athletica_ai

Athletica_ai is a new training platform based on machine intelligence. Similar to what Trainer Road is doing for cyclists with their new adaptive platform, Athletica is bringing their AI platform and training plans for cycling, triathlon, and running to the everyday (and professional) athlete. Athletica is based on Hitt Science principles, where building a slow aerobic based mixed in with high intensity interval training. To find out more in detail visit their website here.

As I have dabbled with internet training plans for the past few years, finding the right one without either finding only beginner plans or overzealous plans based on my goal rather than my level of fitness, I often found myself getting injured. So I hope Athletica will keep me in check as I continue to train for future goals.

This is not a full review of their program, as I have only been using their platform for about a month training for an upcoming event at the end June. Once I finish my full training block I will post a full review. As for now, I am very pleased to be part of their team and am learning a lot about my training and seeing many fitness gains I am looking forward to share shortly.