Good 4 months have now passed since my last post. Now that I’ve started working full-time again at the beginning of the year, I haven’t been able to invest as much time in this “project”. Despite a 35-hour week, training for Challenge Roth is getting more and more serious. There are only 2 months left until the big day.
Building up an app and a brand alongside a full job and long-distance triathlon training? Sounds like too much at once? Yes, it is. And it’s precisely because there was so little time available that I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved so far. I’ve learned a lot again in the last four months. The last four months have been a crash course in app development, design and product thinking. I have not only programmed – I have understood how complex the topic of training platforms is: the many parameters in running (speed, distance, route, altitude, cadence, heart rate, etc.), mathematical calculation for statistics, storage of data volumes, evaluation of training files such as GPX, display of statistics and much more.
However, the process of developing new features and then holding them in my hand and examining them on my smartphone is simply great. Sometimes I find myself opening the app during the day and being excited about what I’ve developed.
What I find particularly difficult is focusing on completing a usable version. I keep coming across new interesting features and points that I hadn’t considered before. My goal should be to finish a simplified usable version first, but that is also a lot of work.
What have I already implemented so far?
🛠️ Technical Functions:
- Upload & analyze GPX files
- Save & analyze training data
- Define individual training zones
📅 Training planning: - Plan workouts in the calendar
- Reminders & notifications
- Filterable workout library
📱 User experience: - Responsive for mobile & desktop
- Social media post generator
- Statistics
Here are a few screenshots of the current development status:
QUO VADIS?
There are already a lot of apps of this kind on the market. Strava, Adidas Running, Trainingpeaks, Garmin, Coros, Wahoo, MATS, Pushing Limits and so many more. So far, I haven’t given much thought to what exactly the difference or USPs of my app should be. I have only implemented basic functionalities.
So the question of all questions: Which direction to go for?
POSSIBLE DIRECTIONS:
- The art of sharing sports results
Aesthetic, customizable sports content creation for social media (Canva for Athletes)
What I think is a big trend is the integration of training data into social media. Zach Pogrob is currently pursuing this approach with his Aura app. Even if I don’t like the style and the font used in most of the shared posts, I see great potential here to use the integration of Strava to create more beautiful and varied posts than is possible with Strava itself. In contrast, the map views used already look very good. At the same time, I came across Mapal’s posts, which I find very appealing in terms of design.
- Standardized, motivating, knowledge-conveying training plans
Initially, my plan was to be able to set standardized training plans in the app. These training plans should be backed up with daily motivation and knowledge. For example, the goal-setting process could be integrated at the beginning:
The user can create a new goal and is then taken through a goal setting process. In the process, the user receives help/knowledge on how to formulate a goal for themselves and what realistic increases in running are. Also taking into account previous experience or available training time, e.g. what progress is realistic with effort in time X.
For example, you can differentiate between long-term and short-term goals and then enter a minimum goal/realistic goal/maximum goal
You answer questions about why you want to achieve the goal etc.
The user can create a target card that they can print out
After that, you are given a new topic to work on every week: e.g. injury prevention, regeneration, training, etc: Injury prevention, regeneration, routines and then mental strategies for competitions.
This would scale well if other coaches could also create training plans and sell them via a kind of store.
This would scale well if other coaches could also create training plans and sell them via a kind of store.
These are my first approaches so far. To be continued…
