Beta 4.1 — a running coach, intervals and plans

Beta 4.1 is the second part of running in FITOS. FITOS can now coach a run, not just record it.

A voice coach

FITOS talks to you while you run, in your phone's own voice. It works offline, and your music goes quieter while it speaks.

• Every kilometre (or every half kilometre) it tells you your distance, your time, your last kilometre and your average pace.
• With a pace target it tells you to ease off or pick it up, but only when you've been off pace for a while, and not more than once a minute.
• At the start it reminds you to hold back if you're going out too fast. Near the end it tells you when you're on track.
• With a goal it tells you when you're halfway, when you're on your last kilometre and when you've reached the goal.

You can turn it off, change how often it speaks and test the voice in Running settings.

Intervals and sprints

Under Start run you can now pick a session:

• Ready-made: 6 × 400 m, 5 × 1 km, 8 × 200 m strides, 10 × 1 min on and 1 min off, 3 × 2 km tempo.
• Build your own: how many reps, a distance or a time, a pace or an effort, the recovery, the warm-up and the cool-down. FITOS keeps it on your phone for next time.
• Sprints: short reps with a countdown before each one and a rest in between.

During the session the screen shows the step you're on, what's left and what's next. The coach calls out each rep, and your phone vibrates every time the step changes. Afterwards the summary shows every rep and your best one.

Phone GPS is only accurate to a few metres, so a 100 m time can be about half a second out. FITOS says so on the summary. Longer reps are more accurate.

Plans: 5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon

Choose a plan under Running:

• the distance;
• your level: a 5K from zero (run/walk), or a recent race time;
• 3, 4 or 5 runs a week, and on which days;
• a goal time if you have one.

FITOS builds the plan from your race time: 8 weeks for a 5K or a 10K, 12 for a half marathon and 16 for a marathon. It has easy runs, a long run and harder sessions, with an easier week every fourth week and a taper at the end. Each run gives you its distance and pace, for example "6 km easy at 6:05–6:35".

A planned run shows on Today. Tap Start run and the coach already knows your targets. You can skip a planned run or move it to another day that week. The evening reminder covers runs too, and a run on a gym day is allowed: FITOS just warns you when you set it up.

Running counts in Recovery

Your readiness score now includes running load: how much you've run this week compared with your usual weeks. A normal increase changes nothing. A sudden jump lowers your score by up to 10, because that's when injuries happen. It needs at least 3 runs in the last four weeks to count.

Recovery also shows your last 7 days of running: how many runs, how far and how long.

Updates from inside the app

From now on you won't always have to come back here to download FITOS:

• Small fixes arrive on their own. FITOS downloads them in the background and uses them the next time you open the app. The version in Profile then shows a patch number, for example "patch 2".
• Bigger updates install from the app. When there's a new version, tap Update now. FITOS downloads it, checks the file is the real one, and hands it to Android to install. The first time, Android asks you to let FITOS install apps. FITOS opens that setting for you.

This version you install from the download page one last time.

Your privacy

Small fixes come from Shorebird, which we use to deliver them. Each time FITOS opens, it tells Shorebird the app version, the phone type and a random number for this install. It never sends your name, your account or your data. Bigger updates download only from tryfitos.me.

The privacy policy now says this. You'll be asked to accept the new version once.

What's next

Records like your fastest 5 km and 10 km, badges and route replay. After that, runs from a Galaxy Watch.

Getting it

Download beta 4.1. It installs over beta 4.0.1 and keeps all your data and runs.