Here are 3 ways to track & train athletes using the RunDNA App.
With cross country season right around the corner, we want to share 3 ways the RunDNA App can help you be efficient and use best training practices with your runners, so you can focus on bringing out the best in them!
1. Track and Train
One of the ways we’re building community around running at RunDNA is by making it easier for coaches and runners to communicate and to modify training plans. The RunDNA app is great for keeping a pulse on my runners via both web and mobile platforms to see how they’re feeling from day to day, and to get feedback on their response to training during cross country season. Depending on how my runners are doing, I can assign rehab, exercises, strength plans, or modify their training all from the app straight to their phones.
2. Team Calendar
A huge feature I’m enjoy using is the Team Calendar. I’ve set up various groups within my team – such as Freshman/Novice Runners & Veteran Runners – and can easily assign core & strengthening workouts targeted for each group’s experience level and needs. These workout plans go right onto each athlete’s calendar, raising accountability and reducing emails or messages I would have needed to send to communicate specifics. The Team Calendar is also helpful in interacting with the team outside of practice, such as during long weekends or scheduled school breaks. I can add training for each group quickly and effortlessly.
3. RPE + Journal Entries
Another feature I love is the Rate of Perceived Exertion and Daily Journal Entries. Following an activity (running, cross training, core/strength, etc), athletes are asked to rate their level of effort on a scale from 1-10 for that activity. For example: a recovery run (RPE 3) versus a tempo workout (RPE 8). In addition, athletes can complete a Daily Journal Entry – questions such as “Do you have pain at rest or with activity?”, “Do you have muscle soreness?”, “Have you changed your daily routine?” Asking my athletes to reflect on these few questions and complete their RPE for any given day increases my ability as a coach to guide them appropriately.
In addition…
With the use of RPE and other metrics, the RunDNA App can assess multiple components to determine personalized Acute to Chronic Workload Ratios (AWCR). We’re seeing that keeping ACWR between 80-130 is ideal for keeping runners healthy. This essentially operates like a stop light – in the green (keep progressing); in the yellow (be cautious, pay attention to any aches, pains, fatigue, etc); in the red (possible over or under-training, adjustments in training load likely needed). Because the RunDNA App measures these factors over time, it can suggest increase/decrease in training loads to keep my athletes healthy and prevent injury or overtraining. That’s a coach’s dream!
