Garmin Coach: can a running app replace a real-life coach?

Can an app replace a real-life running coach?

There are many benefits of being coached as one achieves one’s goals. For runners specifically, having a coach who has a solid understanding of various running goals and of various types of runners can provide any runner with things such as accountability, training plans, feedback, support, and guidance.

But having a personalized coach is not realistic for most runners. Therefore, runners often attempt to coach themselves using wearable devices such as watches and phones. “8 out of 10 runners used at least one monitoring device over the past 12 months” (Janssen, 2017).

Problems arise because watches can’t make a runner get up at 5:00 AM to get in a workout or force a runner to not quit in the middle of a run.

A runner must learn how to cultivate his/her own self-discipline and motivation.

The sport of running requires consistent motivation and discipline to plan workouts, perform the workouts, and ultimately assess the workouts. To do this consistently on one’s own is challenging – especially when one is new to the sport, enduring an injury, struggling with busy schedules, or simply intimidated by all the information available. Without support, runners can fall victim to tapping out or quitting on their fitness goals. “Personalized guidance and support are losing ground, often resulting in drop-out due to injuries or demotivation” (Janssen, 2017).

So how can an app on a watch foster consistent motivation within an athlete so that he/she can achieve his/her fitness goals? One company attempts to bridge the motivational gap by creating a platform that integrates digital coaching, fitness data analysis, and social connection.

Garmin (a company known for its vast array of GPS-supported products) has created a digital runner/coach relationship for their users by means of a free feature supported by some of their compatible fitness-tracking watches called: Garmin Coach.

A runner can simply plug into Garmin Coach a goal they have, whether it is finishing a 5K, 10k, Half Marathon, or increasing one’s overall pace, and Garmin Coach will offer adaptable training programs that are highly personalized and varied so a runner can achieve those goals.

Garmin Coach employees a design process that consists of the five key motivational learning principles outlined in John Keller’s Chapter on "Motivation, Volition, and Performance" in Trends and issues in instructional design and technology that a. understands their users’ motivational requirements and b. prescribes motivational strategies to help their users maintain motivation and consistency in their workouts so they can ultimately achieve their fitness goals.

Garmin Coach Design Strategy #1: Foster an Environment of Curiosity

Curiosity arises when one perceives a gap in knowledge where there are “unanswered questions and unresolved conflict” (Keller, 2018). Many runners (especially newer runners) feel lost or intimidated as they realize they know little and perhaps need guidance. Other challenges that arise for runners are boredom, lack of interest, and working out in a uniform, unchanging environment (such as a treadmill).

Garmin Coach seeks to cultivate an environment of curiosity that combats intimidation and boredom by creating easy and seamless workouts that sync with their compatible watches, incorporating a variety of workouts, modifying training plans based on performance data, and producing progress charts and graphs. “To instill curiosity in students is to encourage their disposition to learn” (Arnone, 2003). By using Garmin Coach, runners can use curiosity to easily learn things such as pacing, tempo runs, and goal-paced workouts by simply following the watch’s recommended workouts. Runners who use Garmin Coach inevitably resolve the conflicts of intimidation and boredom by having support and guidance and by doing the workouts.

Garmin Coach Design Strategy #2: Creating Relevance to One’s Goal

Motivation to learn is often increased when the knowledge one is gaining relates to one’s goals, or desired outcomes (Keller, 2018). Motivational challenges arise when the knowledge that is to be gained is irrelevant to one’s desired outcome (Keller, 2018). To increase learning motivation, one can employ learning strategies such as creating meaningful challenges, measuring goals, promoting skill competence, and focusing on what interests the learner (Keller, 2018).

Runners run for many reasons: they want to relieve stress, manage weight, improve one’s appearance, gain personal achievement, seek competition, have simple enjoyment, or for any combination of these reasons. Therefore, having a specific goal such as completing a marathon, running a personal best, or simply transforming from a walker to a runner who runs 4-5 times a week for 30 minutes a workout is often highly motivational for runners.

Garmin Coach understands that there are typically two motivational factors for runners. There are “runners who find their motivation for running in achieving personal goals” and then there is the “runner who runs mostly because of the social recognition that it may deliver” (Stragier, 2018). Whether a runner is motivated by self-achievement or by social relatedness, Garmin Coach recognizes the need for goal relevance for motivation.

For self-achieving runners, Garmin Coach does not use a cookie-cutter training plan for its users. Garmin Coach understands that their audience consists of a vast array of athletes who have a vast array of competency and fitness levels. Garmin Coach seeks to implement this concept of personalized goal relevance in their app by not only having a variety of personalized training plans, but the app can also modify workouts based on personalized performance indicators.

For the runners who find goal relevance within social connections, Garmin Coach also has a social connection platform where users can post their workouts and accomplishments and connect with fellow athletes.

Garmin Coach Design Strategy #3: Competency

Discouragement is often an inevitable obstacle one must overcome as one is learning something new (Keller, 2018). Learning challenges arise if one experiences adversity to failure, a propensity to catastrophize the future, or feels helpless from having a lack of knowledge (Keller, 2018). Keller states that these challenges can be overcome by implementing strategies to engage learning by promoting mastery of certain tasks, providing the learner with a sense of control of the intended outcome, highlighting abilities, and fostering an environment that promotes the cultivation of self-efficacy (Keller, 2018).

Garmin Coach helps their athletes achieve a sense of competency through features such as offering the power to choose a goal, select a coach, and track performance progress. Garmin Coach knows that workout “sessions that match with the physical capacity of the runner are more fun to complete, giving the runner a sense of achievement, and increasing the motivation to keep running and challenging themselves” (Janssen, 2020).

Competency can only arise when one believes one has the power to control their objectives. Garmin Coach attempts to create competency in their runners by also providing them with supplementary videos and articles that offer tips and motivation strategies. Although runners may be stretching their limits, they are supported by Garmin Coach as they achieve competency and mastery.

Garmin Coach Design Strategy #4: Adaptive-Based Feedback

Keller states that there is a direct relationship between successful learning attainment and the use of feedback when one is looking at how to cultivate motivation to learn (Keller, 2018). Challenges to learning objectives arise when there is a lack of feedback altogether, a lack of positive reinforcement, or when the feedback that is received is perceived as controlling to the learner (Keller, 2018)

. Evaluations, assessments, and feedback are opportunities to share ways to help learners achieve satisfying outcomes, but only if they are implemented in a way that does not take control away from the learner or produce negative, unsatisfying performance measures (Keller, 2018).

There are two events at play between Garmin Coach and its athletes: the coach (Garmin Coach) must use performance feedback to support and encourage the athlete, and the athlete (Garmin Coach user) must receive feedback from a place of openness and curiosity. “Detailed, quantified information about their exercise behaviour… this feedback is one of the main reasons for runners to adopt running apps and sports watches” (Stragier 2018). Feedback is simply data that assess what is working, what is not working, and what can be done differently to achieve the ultimate outcome. Garmin Coach provides its athletes beneficial feedback in the form of data and in the form of social connections.

This motivation design strategy is perhaps Garmin Coach’s most utilized motivational design strategy. The prescribed workouts are adaptive. If an athlete meets their goal early or if the athlete skips a workout, Garmin Coach takes that information and offers adaptive feedback to the athlete, and adjusts workouts accordingly.

After each workout, a runner will also receive a “confidence score” that indicates the coach’s confidence that one will meet one’s goal. The confidence score ranges from purple and green to yellow and orange. Purple and green indicate that one is in good shape (so to speak) and making progress towards one’s goal. Yellow and orange signify that the goal may not be realistic and perhaps it is time to reevaluate the goal.

This adaptive-based feedback provides athletes with positive reinforcement, rewards, and information that will ultimately lead to the satisfaction of achieving one’s goals.

Garmin Coach Design Strategy #5: Self-Regulatory Strategies

The motivational path to achieving a fitness goal is never straightforward. Otherwise, we’d all be able to run marathons. Internal and external distractions will inevitably crop up along the way to achieving a running goal.

Given that all runners are unique in their motivations, runners must be able to assess their own propensity to handle internal obstacles like confusion, procrastination, boredom while also managing external obstacles like distractions, interference, and interruptions as they are seeking to achieve a running goal. Runners can implement several motivational strategies to overcome those obstacles. Such strategies include task prioritization, environmental control,

pivoting and handling the integration of achieving multiple goals at once, and cultivating motivational beliefs, or a motivational mindset (Keller, 2018).

Garmin Coach seeks to cultivate self-regulatory behaviors by making the planning as easy as possible. They eliminate the question of “I don’t know what to do” by having the workout front and center of one’s watch. Garmin Coach also attempts to eliminate other internal distractions such as confusion, procrastination, boredom by creating varied and specific workouts.

Garmin Coach, however, is not able to find a babysitter or adjust one’s hectic work schedule so one can get in a running workout. That may be one of the biggest gaps in Garmin Coach’s application – the challenge one faces when overcoming personal life events that can block one from achieving one’s goals. Garmin Coach can not make a runner do the workout, but it does its best to set a runner up to create his/her own volition strategies to get the workout in.

Garmin Coach: Conclusion

Ultimately, can a digital coaching app replace a real-life coach for runners? Perhaps.

However, it is worth noting that a digital coaching app is unable to guide a runner who is suffering from things such as injuries, emotional burnout, or circumstances such as work/life balance.

It is also worth noting as well that a real-life running coach is unable to provide the biometric feedback, progress reporting, real-time workout information that a running watch’s coaching app affords.

There is also the question of trust. All coaching relationships are built on trust. Can one trust an app to help him/her achieve their fitness goals? Again, perhaps.

I’d like to conclude this case study with another option, one that bridges the coaching gap: cultivating a third type of coach – the self-coach. A self-coach is a person who understands their own deepest motivations. A self-coach has their own creative ability to be not only an innovator who is in charge of one’s fitness goals but be a person who believes in their own potential and possibility.

Without self-belief, achieving big goals is borderline impossible and no external app or real-life coach can make that happen.

References

Arnone, Marilyn. (2003). Using instructional design strategies to foster curiosity. ERIC Clearinghouse on Information

and Technology Syracuse NY. 2003-09-00.

Janssen, M., Goudsmit, J., Lauwerijssen, C., Brombacher, A., Lallemand, C., & Vos, S. (2020). How Do Runners Experience Personalization of Their Training Scheme: The Inspirun E-Coach? Sensors, 20(16), 4590. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20164590‌

Janssen, M., Scheerder, J., Thibaut, E., Brombacher, A., & Vos, S. (2017). Who uses running apps and sports watches? Determinants and consumer profiles of event runners’ usage of running-related smartphone applications and sports watches. PLOS ONE, 12(7), e0181167. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181167

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2018). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. Pearson Education.‌

Stragier, J., Vanden Abeele, M., & De Marez, L. (2018). Recreational athletes’ running motivations as predictors of their use of online fitness community features. Behaviour & Information Technology, 37(8), 815–827. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2018.1484516