Pacerra - AI Endurance Coach
An AI-powered endurance coaching app for runners, cyclists, swimmers, and triathletes, built around Strava-connected training data.
Problem
One of my current "hobbies" is running. This year I decided to run a half marathon, more precisely the Telekom Vivicittá Half Marathon. I thought that if I do this, I have to do it as professionally as possible. However, I can't afford a running coach, so my best option was to use Artificial Intelligence to coach me. I asked for a training plan, and after every training session, I passed the screenshots of my workout recording to my digital coach to evaluate my performance and give me feedback. This is how it was going for weeks, when I got tired of always screenshotting my Apple Fitnes workout recording and sending it to my coach. I thought, there must be a better way to do this. So I decided to build an app that can connect to Strava, pull my workout data, and give me feedback without me having to do anything manually.
Goal
To create an app that automatically rates and plans my workouts, with it being able to instruct me based on my profile, past training sessions and data. It should visualize my performance and progress in a way that is easy to understand and motivates me to keep going. It should also be able to give me feedback on my workouts, so I can learn from my mistakes and improve my performance.
Approach
Dashboard snapshot
The dashboard gives an immediate overview of current training state, helping the user to quickly get hold of their progress, performance trends and the upcoming sessions planned by the coach. With every workout completed, the user receives a weekly evaluation about their success at trainings relative of the training plan for the certain week.
Weekly trends
On the dashboard, the user can see their progress of the weekly goal set by themselves, next workout, and the weekly distance done distributed by sports. User can also view their activity time relatively to past weeks.
Distance by sport & aerobic efficiency
The dashboard also has information about aerobic efficiency trends of the recent few weeks.
Detailed workout page
Each workout includes practical detail and context, so execution and post-session reflection both stay grounded in the same screen. In the summary panel, the most important information / metrics can be found related to the specific workout session. For example distance, average pace, average heart rate and calories. Users can write a workout note, so they can follow their performance progress with verbal information as well. In the summary, user can also find their achievements for the specific training session, if there are.
Goal setup flow
Each workout has a coach evaluation. Coach can rate your training, and based on your performance, provide personalized feedback and adjustments to your training plan.
AI reaction output
For people who prefer numbers over words, a number of informational charts can be found per workouts, with specific insight data.
HR & Pace
Users can see their heart rate paired to their pace on the combined HR/Pace chart. It is really useful to see how their heart reacts to the change of pace. The best efforts are also visible per workouts, so users can see if they have a personal best time within the given training.
Splits & Heart rate zones
Users can view useful information about their HR Zones to know how much time they spent in which zone in the current workout.
Goals
An initial Goal can be set at the onboarding stage. In the goals page, users can see their goal to keep themselves reminded what they are working for.
Weekly goal
Users can set and track their weekly goals, more specifically, set their goal of weekly sessions and which days they want to do training. They also get an info about when their next week's plan going to be ready.
Readiness
Based on the past performance, there is a progress bar about the readiness of the user for the specific goal. This panel updates you about the remaining weeks your preparation phase as well.
Upcoming activities
The upcoming activities for the current week can be seen on the bottom of the Plan page. There is an overview for each sessions coming up, and all of them can be imported in your phone's calendar.
Current state
The app is live with key capabilities for Strava sync, weekly plan generation, and workout-level AI feedback. Development continues around coaching quality and control depth.