I had a great run this morning. The weather was nice and I felt good which is great. I also had my first run testing the Adidas miCoach Pacer. Incase you didn’t know, I’m a big fan of Nike+. It’s a great tool that really helped me get off my ass and start exercising again. The only downside is that it only gives you basic information, which is great when your just getting started… but I want more.
I came across the Adidas miCoach Pacer and asked Adidas if they would loan me one to check out. The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was the amount of stuff that was in there. There were 8 parts in the box!! A heart rate monitor and strap, stride sensor and shoe clip, the miCoach device, a cable for charging and uploading, another cable to connect to your mp3 player and a single headphone.
Last week I did what Adidas calls and “Assessment Run” in order to calibrate the Pacer to my heart rate. It was a 12 minute workout that has you go from walking to sprinting. What was neat about the workout was that a voice tells you exactly what to do and for how long.
Based on your heart rate it divides your workout into 4 zones and depending on the training program you’re using it will create time based workouts according to the zones. This is different for me because I have always donedistance based workouts. 
Today I did a 40 minute “Green Zone” workout. I connected all of the artillery and headed out. One thing I do like is that the device coaches you along the way. So without prompting the device it will tell you to speed up or show down to get in to your training zone. The device itself doesn’t have a screen so you have to push a button to get a rundown of your stats (which are customizable depending on what you want to know).
Another nice feature is the ability to edit your workout or running schedule. One beef I’ve had with Nike+ is that I can’t change my run day on the program. With the Adidas miCoach you can pull up a calendar and manipulate it how ever you like. You can edit your work out too, it you know you ran 5 miles and not 4.78, you can change the stats for accuracy.
I’m going to continue to play with the miCoach in addition to using my Nike+ Sportband for the next few weeks. I’ll update you along the way!
Phil Castello 