VDOT Adaptive Trainer Instructional Guide

[This is a instructional guide on how to manage your Training Preferences and get the most out of your Adaptive Trainer subscription.]

The VDOT Adaptive Trainer is designed to provide a fully automated and adaptive coaching experience on V.O2. This monthly subscription service allows you to manage your Training Preferences and update the type of workouts you want to receive at any point in your training journey.

All Preferences can be updated manually but the service will also guide you through your training and make suggestions as well. Remember, before making changes manually you want to allow your body at least four weeks to adapt to a new stress level. If you ever have questions please email us [email protected].

Training Preferences

TRAINING FOCUS

Choose the race distance you are currently training for or choose Base/fitness if you’re between seasons, getting back into shape or recovering after a big race.

The Adaptive Trainer allows you change your Focus at anytime. For instance, if you have a few 5ks coming up in the near future but you’re ultimately training for a half marathon in 3-4 months, you can always start focusing on the 5ks then switch to a half marathon focus. If the goal is purely to run your best in the half marathon, then choose Half Marathon focus from the get-go and use the 5ks as fitness assessments along the way.

WEEKLY MILEAGE

Select the weekly mileage that you’re currently running (not your goal or expected peak mileage) or the most weekly mileage you can safely manage based on your current fitness. You can always update your Preferences manually to increase or decrease your mileage, otherwise, the Adaptive Trainer will suggest when to increase or decrease your training volume as you go.

Keep in mind that if you select 30 miles you will not receive workouts totaling 30 miles every week. Your weekly mileage will always vary as a % of your Preference. For instance, one week you might see 24 total miles and the following 27 or 30. It’s important as intensities vary that your weekly volume fluctuates too.

TRAINING DAYS

Select how many days you want to run. This should vary based on your experience, training history, state of fitness and your Training Focus. For instance, if you typically run five times per week but you haven’t run for several weeks due to injury or time off you might select two or three days to start.

This service currently does not allow you to rotate between a certain amount of running days one week to the next. If you select five runs per week you will always see five runs scheduled until you update your Preferences.

QUALITY DAYS

First select your Training Effort:

  • Base Phase – If you only want Easy running to start. This is ideal for athletes transitioning back from little or no running, or simply looking to maintain fitness. There is one longer run but no speed workouts included with this setting.
  • Base Quality Phase – If you want one long run + one speed workout per week this is your setting. This is ideal for athletes who only prefer or can stay healthy with just one speed workout per week, or athletes who are transitioning back to speed or Quality Sessions.
  • Advanced Quality Phase – If you want one long run + two speed workouts per week this is your setting. This is ideal for athletes who are more experienced and are used to this level of training.

Then choose your Quality Days:

  • Long Run Choose which day you prefer your long run (Please note: days can be moved on your calendar without updating your Preferences)
  • Quality Day 1 – Choose which day you want your first speed workout.
  • Quality Day 2 (only applicable with Advanced Quality Phase) – Choose which day you want your second speed workout of the week. We generally recommend maintaining at least two easy days between your Quality days.

WORKOUTS PREFERENCE

Choose whether you want all workouts published in distance versus time. For instance, do you prefer 10 mi or 16km at your Easy pace or 120 minutes? Or 3 x 1mi or 2km at Threshold pace versus 3 x 7 minutes?

The total duration of your workouts will always be appropriate based on your weekly mileage, VDOT score, Training Focus and regardless of which setting you choose.

UPCOMING RACES

Add any upcoming races here or directly to your calendar and the Adaptive Trainer will update your training accordingly (mileage will always decrease the week of and after a scheduled Race). At this time there is no option to “train through” a scheduled race. The app will update your mileage to prepare and recover properly as if you’re are racing. If you’re not planning to “race” then you can manually delete the Race and replace it or do your planned Quality that week in the race.

If you’re training for a specific half marathon or marathon make sure to schedule those races even if they are several months into the future so the app takes them into account. Your long run will increase more than a typical week to account for the longer distance races counting back from the race date.

For instance, if you have been consistently building your long run you will see your longest runs four and eight weeks out from a marathon.

Pausing the adaptive trainer:

You can pause the adaptive trainer by going to your Training Preferences, clicking the three dots next to it and then selecting “Pause Training”.

Canceling the adaptive trainer:

Canceling the adaptive trainer can vary depending on whether you’ve purchased it via Apple or Google or if you purchased it through the web. View each of the options by going to this page.







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