Coach Fartlek 3.0 is here

Coach Fartlek 3.0 is out now on the App Store and Google Play. It is the biggest update since 2.0, and nearly all of it comes down to one question: what decides how fast you can run, and what the coach does about it.

Until now the coach has seen how much you train, how you recover and how your sessions went against the plan. That is enough to lay out a sensible week. It is not enough to answer why you are not getting faster. That is what 3.0 adds.

The foundation is five factors that together explain how fast you can run for a long time: VO2max, threshold, running economy, durability and anaerobic capacity. The coach rates them from your runs, races and zones. Each factor now has a card under Profile and a view of its own with the value, the change over the last three months and a line that says how strong the evidence is.

What is genuinely new is the next step. In the deep analysis the coach weighs the factors against your goal, marks each one Maintain or Develop and points out the one holding you back the most. For a marathon runner with a good threshold it is often durability, meaning how the last miles feel. For someone racing a 5K it can be something else entirely. The same numbers mean different things depending on the race, which is why the judgement is made by the coach and not by a formula.

That judgement then steers the plan. The blocks are built around what needs developing, and at the top of Races and goals sits a note where the coach explains which race you are working toward, what is limiting you right now and what that means for the week. If it is everyday life that sets the limit, three days a week or an achilles that will not take more, that is written there too. The note is rewritten every time the week is planned.

The notes are in more places than that. When the week is planned the coach writes a line to Load, Recovery, Health log and each of the five factors: what it sees in your data and what it is doing about it. The Wednesday recovery check is no longer needed, since what it used to say now sits where you look. Notes are included in Pro and Elite.

Profile has been redone to hold all of this. It is arranged into Status, Races and goals, Performance factors, Conditions and Your coach, and Training zones now sits under Your coach with last month's time per heart rate zone right on the card. The week card in the calendar has a row with the coach's words on the block you are in, with a dash per week so you can see where in the block you stand.

The look has been gone over at the same time. The cards have more air, the charts are drawn the same way whichever view you are in, the sheets share one header and the chat is built in the same material as the rest of the app. Most of it you will recognise. It just holds together better.

Finally the prices, because they change. The free tier is now Free trial and it is one week: you share your goal, get your first plan, train with feedback and talk to the coach for seven days, and finish with a deep analysis if there are enough runs. Then you choose Pro or Elite if you want to continue. If you choose neither, your calendar and all your data stay there to read, but the coach goes quiet. The reason is simple: every plan, analysis and reply from the coach costs real money to run, and free with no end did not add up.

Pro is $7.99 a month ($8.49 on Android) and gives you the planning, the feedback, the chat and a deep analysis every three months. Elite is $19.99 ($20.99 on Android) and gives you a deep analysis every month and whenever you ask for it, deep dives into single workouts, the important question in the chat and self coached. Upgrade and the deep analysis runs right away, so the factor cards and the notes fill in the same day. The full comparison is on the pricing page.

If you already have the app, just update. If you are on Pro or Elite, your factors and your first judgement are worked out as part of the release, so the cards do not sit empty until the next weekly planning.