V.O2: Running Coach 4+

The app is fantastic for establishing workout plans no matter what your fitness level. It’s somewhat adaptive in that you can add a race to the calendar and the program will adapt to prepare you for it. Syncs perfectly with Garmin and Coros watches to guide you on workouts. The only thing I’d like to see is an even more adaptive update that would actually increase speeds & mileage automatically based on past performance. Currently, you have to manually tell the app you’re ready to level up. Trainer Road does this very well as a cycling app, and I’d love to see V.O2 do the same.

If you have a coach, the app will allow your coach to upload workouts and make changes based on your performance, which makes this app sort of a one-stop-shop for your running career.

One thing I don’t really understand is why I have to mark workouts completed in the app when the app already syncs with my watch and has all the data from the workout I just completed. It already knows the workout is completed! Why isn’t this step automatic?

Overall, great app, simple and easy to use.

I’ve had this app for a couple of weeks as I’ve been training and I just have 3 problems with it.
First, that I can’t edit a workout after it’s been added and synced, So I can’t say “no this is the activity that I want targeted!”, it picks first and doesn’t let you change it, more freedom to edit would be wonderful.
Second, you have to act like your own coach planning workouts, I can’t just say “workout tomorrow” it has to be a set amount of reps and distance, but I can’t say that because I have no idea until I’m about to do it!
Third, I can’t add an easy run after I already ran it, they won’t connect and it won’t add to my training log, instead if I push “completed easy run” it doubles my distance for that run.
Overall great app and so smart, I’m learning a lot from it and it’s good for organizing my training and keeping track, but more freedom is necessary for this app to work right. Or you have to strenuously plan, add, keep track, and try to keep up, but if you would free it up for editing on runs and workouts, it would become the greatest organization, training, coaching app out there. Good luck

This app solves the absence of strong interval tools in more popular services like MapMy. There’s a lot of sophistication around run design, with great audio cues based on time and distance. Really complex routines are easy to plan. I can’t imagine interval training without it. The coaching plans are good, especially if you run year-round and get bored with rote schedules.

A few minor complaints:

1. I think the GPS is short. My intervals often appear unrealistically fast. When comparing the same run in much more wifey used and monitored running apps, V.02 seems to sometimes register a mile in as little as 0.91 miles. I don’t think that’s a problem for routine training, but may harm target training for races.

2. The UI remains kludgy. Creating a “library” of intervals ends up being messy because, for example, I’ve had to create a bunch of 800m intervals with different target paces and recovery times.

3. The Apple Watch app is junky. The primary thing I imagine most runners want during an interval is the remaining time or distance. I haven’t figured out how to make that the dominant visual element, or to stop my podcast app from taking precedence on the display. This is not a problem with MapMy, so it is solvable.

What I’d really love is to see MapMy or another major running app pay the V.02 team a zillion dollars for their great work and then integrate this tech into their better-designed interface.