Join the marathon of motherhood and revolutionize your fitness journey with the Endurance AI Training Platform. Discover how Athletica.ai puts 'fit motherhood' at your fingertips, making health and wellness easily accessible for every mom athlete. In this post, we'll shed light on the pivotal features and advantages that artificial intelligence training platforms like Athletica.ai offer to empower you as a mom athlete.
When in 2021 I found myself forced to take 6 months off from Triathlon training due to overtraining and a dysfunctional HPA axis, I started to read a ton of scientific articles about overtraining. As I reluctantly took it very easy, with 30-minute runs three times a week, I kept my dream of racing at the highest level in my age group very much alive.
I started looking for a new coach who had at least a Ph.D. in the area of sports science and had experience in triathlon. I had previously stumbled across this new cutting-edge technology of AI coaching and wanted to check out exactly what went into it. I booked a call with the founder, The Prof Paul Laursen, and started using Athletica under his guidance when I was healthy and ready to return to tri.
Here's why I use Athletica in both my own training and as a coach.
1. Personalized Workouts:
Mom life is inherently unpredictable, but an AI training platform like Athletica.ai seamlessly adjusts to your schedule, curating workouts that align with your available time and energy. YOU have full control over your training plan, you feed all the information needed to create YOUR plan.
When you're feeling a bit off or have an off day, Athletica.ai allows you to provide subjective feedback, and it then recalibrates, optimizing the subsequent training load to suit your current state—ensuring you can tackle any obstacle you may be facing. Here's a recent instance where Athletica.ai aided me in my fitness journey:
Athletica.ai comprehends your goals (you input this information into the settings) and continually crafts a roadmap (the training plan) in the background to help you achieve your peak performance on race or event day.
So, what if you miss a workout, or perhaps a few? Instead of berating you like an uncompromising coach,
Athletica.ai silently recalibrates your plan. However, it's essential to emphasize that the plan is a guide—you still need to put in the effort.
Back when I resided in the heavily polluted city of Dubai, I struggled with maintaining my fitness due to constant illness. My performances fluctuated, but with Athletica.ai and the guidance of my brilliant coach, The Prof Paul Laursen, I not only persevered but also qualified for three world championships in 70.3 Ironman, full Ironman, and XTerra in one year!
Traditionally, missing a workout would plague me with guilt, knowing my coach had meticulously designed my training plan, and now I had disrupted it by missing workouts left and right.
Ah, the marvel of AI!
2. Efficient Training
Time is a precious commodity for a busy mom. AI optimizes your training, ensuring every minute contributes effectively toward your fitness goals. As an endurance athlete and coach with a scientific background, I understand the significance of specific training volumes.
However, achieving wonders with lesser volumes is equally possible. I used to push my limits like a professional athlete, without acknowledging the need for recovery. The desire to push hard, overlooking recovery, led me to the dangers of overtraining.
You might train like a pro, but recovery isn't as feasible if you're juggling the responsibilities of being a mom—three kids, a job, and managing a household.
That's a significant consideration. You have kids, they introduce their own stress into our lives. We have jobs, household chores, and let's not even delve into the never-ending laundry! So YES! Let's maximize the limited time you have!
3. Progress Tracking:
Effortlessly monitor your progress. Athletica.ai keeps tabs on your Running Lactate Threshold and Biking Functional Threshold automatically, ensuring your intensity zones are consistently accurate.
You can view your Performance Profile and stay on course with your objectives.
No more second-guessing: "I wonder if I'm improving"... Athletica.ai monitors your thresholds and precisely adjusts your intensity zones.
4. Varied Workouts:
Bid farewell to workout monotony. AI introduces diversity to keep your routine engaging, preventing fitness plateaus. With Athletica's Workout Wizard, you can swap sessions when feeling exceptionally fatigued, seeking something different, or when you're pressed for time due to kids' activities, or in unfortunate circumstances, illness or injury.
While there's merit in repeated workouts, sometimes we crave a change. With AI at your fingertips, you don't need to consult your coach. You can autonomously modify your workout!
5. Goal-Oriented:
Define your goals, whether it's a 5K run, duathlon, triathlon, cycling race, or simply feeling your best. AI tailors your plan accordingly. The sports science underlying Athletica.ai's intellectual algorithm is based on decades of research by Professors Paul Laursen and Martin Buchett. For more in-depth sports science courses, visit HIITScience.com.
Let's be honest here. Without a Goal, you're adrift. You must commit your goal to writing. And then what? Let Athletica.ai take charge of the roadmap, suit up, gear up, and hit the road, supported by your Garmin and running shoes.
Seriously though, all you need is your Garmin watch with heart rate, and running shoes and you're good to go!
6. Convenience:
Access your workouts on your phone, enabling you to squeeze in a session during naptime or while waiting at soccer practice. A GPS watch is a minimum requirement, but I highly recommend adding a heart rate chest strap to monitor your Internal response reliably through heart rate. This becomes evident as you learn to train effectively. Understanding your heart rate zones becomes effortless because Athletica.ai provides all this information right in your workout description. Remember, garbage data in, garbage data out.
Remember, it's essential not to push too hard all the time—always leave a little in the tank.
By now, you're already familiar with how Athletica.ai supports you. Based on your historical data, Athletica's Genius Workout Reserve estimates how deeply you've engaged in a given workout. This aids in learning to gauge your efforts and refrain from pushing yourself just a tad too hard all the time.
What's wrong with always pushing yourself hard? You can read about some of the training philosophies integrated into Athletica.ai and delve into the importance of Zone 2 training in detail here.
7. Be a Role Model:
Demonstrate to your kids the significance of a healthy lifestyle. Training with AI sets a positive example for the entire family, showcasing flexibility in adjusting training plans as life unfolds.
And let's be honest, life with kids is rife with moments that necessitate a certain level of adaptability!
8. No more asking: "What Should I Do Today?"
No More Guesswork: No need to wonder if you're engaging in the right exercises or following the correct plan. AI takes care of that. You just need to provide the platform with accurate information (see point 7.) and establish the habit of submitting subjective scores as well as engaging in chats, as Athletica.ai genuinely analyzes all this data and adjusts your plan accordingly!
It's pretty mindblowing, if you ask me!
9. Support and Community:
Numerous platforms offer supportive communities of moms like you, sharing tips, successes, and challenges. With my Endurance Tribe, you become part of something bigger than yourself, elevating your game. We revel in sharing our victories and overcoming challenges while we push our overfilled grocery carts and try to find the youngest kid who took off 5 minutes ago!
10. Self-Care:
Remember, prioritizing self-care is a gift to your family. Utilizing AI is akin to having your very own assistant coach who handles the heavy lifting of adjusting the plan and strategizing how you can be the best version of yourself. It has alleviated much of the burden from my role as a coach, allowing me to reduce my coaching fees and extend my services to many more individuals!
And.... manage my kids....
Integrating AI into your endurance training as a mom is about more than just fitness; it's about reclaiming your time, setting and accomplishing goals, and being the best version of yourself for you and your family.
What about the human aspect of AI?
People fear AI is going to take over humanity.
No, AI will not replace a human coach. I view utilizing AI as leveraging my very intelligent Assistant Coach, which frees up my time from the intricacies of tailoring each athlete's training program, considering every aspect of their life demands, goals, and aspirations. This grants me more time to truly communicate and engage with each athlete.
Consider the scenario of Kerry, a mom with three kids, one of them unwell and sleep-deprived. Kerry is drained, both mentally and physically. She holds significant goals and strives to prioritize her training as best she can. Being aware of her situation (as she can message me anytime), I can modify her plan to involve meditation, yoga, nature walks, or a gentle short bike ride, offering her the flexibility she needs in her "life happens" moment without the guilt of missing a workout and having to request a plan change from her coach. I can have a human-to-human, mom-to-mom conversation about life, values and how she is doing the best she can with what she has.
I understand how that feels, having been on both sides of the equation. As an athlete caught amidst the trials of sickness and sleep deprivation, and as a coach trying desperately to reach out to the athlete, all while observing the missed workouts, attempting to contact them without a response. Only later discovering that she (or the kids) were sick and she hesitated to ask me to alter the plan due to the guilt she felt.
In all honesty, Athletica.ai has given me back precious time. And Time is the most invaluable asset we possess. It has granted me the opportunity to interact with my athletes more intimately—and ultimately become a superior coach.
From a sports science perspective, there are numerous paths to take an athlete to their optimal level. There are multiple ways to "skin the cat". I've rigorously tested Athletica.ai with my own training as I aspire to compete at the highest echelons of long-distance triathlon and return to Cross Country Skiing.
Athletica.ai enables me to meticulously analyze each athlete's programs and make minute adjustments based on my communication with the athlete and my understanding of what has previously worked for them.
As a mom athlete, I find immense joy in utilizing Athletica.ai due to its flexibility and the ability to adapt as needed without compromising my lofty, ambitious, and challenging objectives. I'm cognizant of my capabilities and understand the efforts required to achieve my goals. To reach race day in my prime form.
Ready to take on your next race/event with the flexibility, genius and support that you deserve as a mom athlete?
My dear mom athlete, I highly recommend you to try out Athletica with me.
Embrace the power of technology to make your mom athlete journey even more amazing!
