In for Review: Adidas MiCoach Pacer

In 2008, Adidas introduced miCoach.  It is a real-time training system that is design to work like a personal coach.  Instead of just reading the data like time, distance, and pace, miCoach has an audio feature that gives you feedback on your workout.  However, the first design was bundled with a heart rate monitor and a cellphone, making it expensive and it was never introduced in the Philippines.

Two years later, Adidas brings back miCoach.  This time, it is a standalone device with the heart rate monitor and pace sensor.  No music player included but is compatible with any music player in the market.  The best part is, Adidas miCoach will be available in the Philippines by end of February or early March.

Here’s a first look at Adidas miCoach Pacer.

Adidas miCoach comes in two kinds — miCoach Pacer and miCoach Zone.  But I can only show you the miCoach Pacer.

In the Box

From the box, the miCoach Pacer comes with the Main Micoach Pacer, a heart rate monitor and it’s textile strap and the stride sensor and lace clip.  It also comes with the usb cable, and music connectors.

The Micoach Pacer is the heart of the device.  It collects the data from the HRM and Stride sensor and syncs it to the miCoach Website.  All the controls and signal indicators are in the miCoach Pacer.  This has a built in battery with is rechargeable via USB cable.

The Heart Rate monitor comes with a comfortable and lightweight textile strap.  I shouldn’t have problems using this one.  This comes with the disposable lithium battery.

The Stride Sensor comes in with a small form factor.  It can be placed inside an Adidas miCoach compatible shoe or with any other shoe by using the lace clip.  Neat.

As you can see, there is no digital screen to view your data.  Everything is thru audio.  A narration voice is available during your actual workout.  It asks like a coach that tells you real time when to go fast, when to slow down, based on a pre-defined workout routine.

How Adidas miCoach Pacer works

Unlike other running gadgets, the Adidas miCoach focuses on Training Zones based on your heart rate or the heart-rate based training.  It divides the zone to Blue, Green, Yellow and Red.  The Blue zone is the lowest effort of all.  Training in this zone improves aerobic base and recovery.  Next is the Green zone which is for building endurance and calorie burning.  Next is the Yellow Zone which is taking things a bit more difficult to build anaerobic energy.  Finally, the Red zone for strength, speed and power.  This unique and scientific method of training removes the guesswork on how easy or hard you have to train for an upcoming race.

Adidas miCoach Website

The Adidas miCoach is not complete without the website.  All the tools are in the miCoach website and the miCoach Pacer simply installs or downloads all the workouts that you choose from the website.

From the website you can choose the type of narration voice (male or female), and what audio announcement will it make (time, calorie, distance, heart rate, pace, etc. Note that the UK voice provides English Units while the US voice provides metric units.  Other languages are available too.  But none in Filipino.

You can also select a plan.  This is my favorite part as it provides almost all the possible goals you want.  There is the beginner plan, a plan for a specific race distance, and a plan for breaking PRs.

You can also set your training zones.  You can adjust how hard or easy the run will be based on your heart rate.

I have created a workout plan which will last for 4 weeks.  I’ll start tomorrow (IF I wake up early) and will give a review of this gadget.  I placed some resources below in case you’d like to know more about Adidas miCoach.

• Adidas miCoach Website
• Adidas miCoach Video at YouTube
• Why Heart Rate Training Works
• How the miCoach Zone works

Watch out for Adidas miCoach to hit the stores.  Soonest is end of February.  It costs 139.99USD in the US.  It would probably cost close to 7,000Php in the Philippines.