The TrainAsONE Experience
In this post I will look back at my experience using the TrainAsONE system.
How long did I use the TrainAsONE training system?
From May 2018 until September 2019 I uses TrainAsONE with the subscription plan. 17 moths with the first month free.
How much did I pay?
16 x 6GBP = 96GBP (~124US$, ~112€)
For which kind of races I trained with the system?
From shorter cross-country races over street race, two half marathons and the 50km UTA where many kind of races and distances planned with TrainAsONE.
What did I like about their system?
I enter any goal, how many days I like to train per week and the system schedule the training sessions. If you have a supported Garmin watch, the sessions are directly loaded onto the watch and a reminder is send to the email inbox, if configured. I used a Garmin Forerunner 735XT and a Forerunner 935 and it worked flawlessly. If I missed a training, for whatever reason, the plan was automatically updated. It is as well possible to tell the system to stop for a certain time and then automatically continue with the then updated plan. This all worked so well, that I will for sure miss it. But honestly we live now in the 21st century, where everything is connected with everything, so why shouldn’t it work like this?
How was their support?
At one point in my preparation for the UTA 50, I was getting a little bit nervous about the workload the system was planning for the next couple of weeks. It was not enough in my opinion. So I wrote to the support about my thoughts and I got in less than 24h a response. They had looked into my schedule and because I had planned a short race (casual) the following weekend, the plan was still looking to prepare me for this. After this race the plan would focus on the UTA again. I could come back to the support, if this doesn’t work like expected. It did and everything was fine. The support is only available if you are on the payed plan.
Why I stopped using the system?
I decided that I want to do an Ironman race in 2020 and TrainAsONE only offers the planning for running events. This is sad, because I really like their system and hopefully they will offer something for triathletes as well.
How could they improve their system?
There are no scheduled ABC drills in there training sessions. I didn’t really miss it and it’s possible to just integrate them into the warm-up by yourself. But it would be nice to get some guidance from the watch. For example 5 min easy jogging, then 10*10 m drills. After that the normal session starts.
What kind of data do they use?
They use all the data which is collected by the watch.
Charts for data lovers
Several charts with different values are available, which can be examined in detail by hovering with the mouse over the lines. It can easily be zoomed in and out. Information for each chart are on the left side next to the chart name (small i icons). Everything is there described in detail and would be too much to write in this post. Below are all the charts with some of my running history.
What are they doing with this data?
First of all they use the data to feed their AI (Artificial Intelligence) System to generate a training plan for the entered goal. Sure enough it is their intellectual property how this systems works. Apart from that you find the information about the data usage on the web page under Help->About TrainAsONE->Privacy policy and Terms of use. It doesn’t make sense to write down all this details here in the post. Best is to read their provided information and then decide if you want to give them your data.
Summery
My experience using TrainAsONE was really good. I especially liked the integration and connectivity with the Garmin system. I was always very good prepared for my planned races and I followed the plan nearly to 100%. They claim that they can prevent injury from over training and in my case I had no problems with injuries. But the best training plan doesn’t help, if you don’t follow it. So the best thing is to find the “why I am doing this” and then do it. TrainAsONE helped me to do it and to reach my goals.