Train Your Way: The Thinking Behind Guided Sessions in the Full Potential App

When we started building guided sessions into the Full Potential app, I wasn't sure it could be done. A coach's voice in your ear, reading out your actual session, rep by rep, on your phone or your Apple Watch, without you touching a thing. It turns out it can. Version 2.1 is out now on iPhone, Apple Watch and Android, and that's the headline: press Start and the app talks you through every warm-up, rep, recovery and cool-down.

I could give you a list of features. But every switch in the app is really a coaching decision, and I'd rather explain the thinking. That's what this post is: why things work the way they do, what we've set as the starting point, and how to change it.

Honestly, this is my homage to running training. It's years of running, coaching and fiddling with gadgets, poured into one place, and I've loved building it.

And the whole thing hangs off one idea. We're all about choice. This is about letting you train the way you want to train.

This feature is available for runners who have got a plan through our charity partners or via a one-off plan from the website, and we'll be rolling it out to our private coached clients later this year.

First, Pick Your Way

If you've got an Apple Watch, there are two ways to follow a session. You can send it to Apple's own Workout app, or you can run it with us.

Apple's system is slick and built in, and if you're comfortable with it, stick with it. Honestly. But we've spent a lot of years using running tech and a lot more thinking about running, and we've tried to both simplify and customise the training process. That's what our guided sessions are.

The first time you open a guided session, the app asks you to choose. Nothing is ticked for you, because a default is just us answering on your behalf. Pick one and the other gets out of the way. You can change your mind any time in Settings. On Android there's no Apple option, so it's simply us.

As with anything, I'd always encourage you to give something different a go. You might have a process that's working perfectly well and still find something that's just that little bit better. It comes down to the type of person you are and how you want things to go.

One thing worth knowing if you wear a Watch: when it's on your wrist, your Watch runs the session and your phone does the talking. Your heart rate is on your wrist, and your phone has much nicer voices than your Watch can use.

Save the Cheering for Race Day

Our voice counts. It doesn't coach. You'll hear the step you're on, how long it is and the countdown. You won't hear "speed up", and you won't hear "You're doing great!".

That's just not who we are. I've tried Apple's Workout Buddy and I find it cringeworthy. I've used apps where people send you cheers mid-run, and it feels a little bit hollow. It's never live coaching either. It's based on some number about you, or it's AI, and neither is what we're about. The coaching lives in your plan and in the feedback you send back, with a real person reading it.

There's a training reason too. If training is a little bit harder, not as hard as possible, then the crowds, the atmosphere and other runners on race day make everything that much easier. Save the cheering for then.

And let's be practical. Most of you will have music or a book on. The last thing anyone needs is "You're doing great" cutting across their power song just as they're properly focused. None of this is a criticism of anyone else. It's just how we do things.

Starting (and Starting Again)

You choose how a session begins. Press Start run and you're off straight away, with the app explaining the session as you set off. Or have it explained first and get a "three, two, one" to start.

I'm firmly in the first camp. Nothing annoys me more than pressing Start and getting a countdown. I've pressed Start. I'm ready to go.

The same goes for coming back from a pause. Press Resume and you go straight back in, with a quick "Resuming." Pressing Resume means you're ready to resume.

What You'll Hear

Efforts, not zone numbers. The voice says "threshold", "easy" or "half marathon pace", never "zone 4". Our effort levels map nicely onto zones, but that isn't how we coach and it isn't how people talk. If you're new to running, zone 4 of what? Effort levels sit on the talk test, which is explained in the app with links, and that's far more use to most runners than a number.

Halfway and ten seconds. Both are on by default, and each has its own switch. The halfway call keeps you dialled in. That's often where you start to zone out a bit.

I'm on the fence about the ten-second call, so here's how I see it. It's there to keep the quality up: "Right, ten more seconds, hold it." A lot of people ease off on the "three" of three-two-one, and knowing there's ten seconds left keeps the focus. What it isn't is a signal to smash the last ten seconds. If that sounds like you, turn it off. Equally, if you'd rather not know where you are in a rep, turn them both off. You might like them for a while and then find sessions where you don't. Play about with it and make it yours.

Long-run checkpoints. On a long run you'll hear a quarter of the way, halfway and three quarters. You decide what counts as long: anything from 45 minutes to two hours, and we've set 90. Like the halfway call, they help you refocus. They break the run into chunks, and breaking a race into small chunks is one of the most important skills you can have, so long runs are the place to practise it. It can cut both ways, mind. Sometimes you feel like you've gone miles and you're told you've done a quarter. If that's you, turn them off.

Gel reminders. Every 45 minutes by default, on runs over 90 minutes. You can change both: every 20, 30, 45 or 60 minutes, on runs over one hour, 90 minutes or two hours. Why not be reminded? It takes one more thing off your mind. The reminder comes, you get it in, and you go. Fuelling is training in its own right, and it gets forgotten. Early in a marathon or half marathon block you won't feel you need a gel, but what we're actually doing is training your gut, building a routine and finding what works for you. You can take on carbs more often than every 45 minutes, but in our experience it's a lot to get down and it doesn't feel great. I do a lot of my long runs as out-and-backs, and those little nudges are really useful.

Laps (and Why Auto Lap Is Off)

Auto lap is off by default because I don't think it gives you useful data. Take a threshold session: 10 minutes warm-up, 4 x 5 minutes at threshold, 10 minutes cool-down. With auto lap on, every kilometre lap is a different mix. One will include a 90-second recovery and look slow. Another happens to line up neatly with a rep and looks quick. It becomes empty data, and worse, it's the kind of data people worry about, which is how fast they're going. That's not the point of training. Run to effort, not pace.

On an easy long run it's even less helpful. You're meant to be running easy, and it's so tempting to speed up when you don't like the number you hear. Where it can earn its keep is marathon-pace work, those 60 to 90 minutes we ask you to run at race pace, where having a window to sit in is useful. Some people love auto lap, so it's there if you're that person.

It's also worth remembering that GPS isn't 100% accurate. Run the same route twice on the same phone, or once on two phones, and you'll get different numbers back. They're useful. They're not gospel.

Track mode. Which is why there's track mode. If you're on a track or a stretch you've measured, that distance is more accurate than your GPS. I used to have a measuring wheel. For 400s, 800s or kilometre repeats I'd put a cone down, wheel out the distance and put another cone down. That's how races are measured, so why not train to it? The first time you start a session with distance reps, the app asks whether you'd like to lap each rep yourself. Say yes and each rep ends when you press Lap, not when the GPS thinks you're done, and your recovery starts on the clock.

Double-tap, and Undo. On the Apple Watch you can double-tap the screen to lap, or use the Action button if you've got an Ultra. I love the double-tap. There have been many runs where a stray lap or the wrong button caught me out, so we built Undo. Press Lap and we assume you meant it. Undo appears for five seconds, so you can ignore it, or tap it if you slipped.

Lap never ends your session. Press Lap as many times as you like in your cool-down and you're just marking a lap. To end the session you press Finish. We wanted you to take that moment. You've done your session, so take it in and enjoy it.

Warm-Ups and Cool-Downs Your Way

Our plans set 10 minutes for a warm-up and 10 for a cool-down, and that's what the app runs unless you tell it otherwise. As coaches we had to pick something, and 10 minutes is a good, simple starting point. There's nothing to think about.

But I turn on Open warm-up and cool-down myself, and I love it. With it on, your warm-up runs until you press Lap and your cool-down runs until you press Finish. My ideal warm-up depends on the day. For 400m, 800m or 10K work it's closer to 20 minutes by the time I've done strides and some dynamic mobility. For threshold, 10 minutes gets the heart and lungs going, and frankly I'm a bit anxious and excited and just want to start. There's nothing worse than a warm-up that drags on forever. And I've got runners training at half five in the morning whose first rep really is part of the warm-up. That's a whole different thing.

The jog home counts too. If you've got a bit further to go when the cool-down ends, just keep running and it keeps recording. It all counts.

Heart Rate, Done Properly

I've lost count of the emails that start: "Ben, to get into zone 2, I'm walking." I know straight away their zones are set wrong, because zone 2 isn't walking. Same as "I did my whole long run in zone 5." You can't do a whole long run in zone 5.

The usual culprit is a generic formula. Those are best guesses. They're not bad guesses, but they're not great either, and we didn't want to give anyone false confidence in a number. So the app only uses zones from your own test, using the Heart Rate Zones tool in the app. Without a test you'll see your heart rate, but no zones.

If you're doing a max heart rate test, have a few weeks of running under your belt first, and do it rested. You're trying to get your heart rate as high as it'll go, which needs fresh legs and a real push. It's a fairly gruelling experience.

Worth knowing as well: your heart rate doesn't snap into a zone when a rep starts. It's usually below the zone at the start and, ideally, in it by the end. Average a whole rep and you might have spent half of it in zone, and it was still a good rep, the right rep. I could go a long way down this rabbit hole, and I do love it, but I'll spare you.

When it alerts, and when it doesn't. With your Apple Watch running the session, you'll hear "In zone", "Above zone" or "Below zone". There's nothing in the first two minutes of a rep, because there's nothing more annoying than starting a rep and hearing "Below zone" ten seconds in, then beep, beep, beep. You're settling in. If you get there inside those two minutes, it tells you you're in. There are no alerts at all in recoveries, because your heart is still high from the rep, which is what a recovery is for. And if you stay out of your zone, the reminders back off: after one minute, then two, then four. We're not a car seatbelt warning that gets louder and louder. If you're above or below for a whole session, we'll assume you've got a good reason. This is your training, after all.

What's next. We're working on a way to check your zones from your training history. People often train harder than they need to, so it can't just take your runs at face value. It'll look across lots of sessions alongside how you said each one went, a bit like the max test lets you add a few beats if you know you held back. Averaged out, that shows us the outliers and the gaps. Nothing is perfect, but we think that's the best way.

Pausing

Auto-pause is off by default. I find it a bit annoying. It works out how fast you're going from GPS, which has a lag, and on intervals a slow recovery keeps tripping it. Some people like it, so it's there. When it's on, it says "Paused." and "Resuming." so you know what it's done.

The one that tells you you're still paused. While we were testing the app I ran home thinking I was collecting lovely data, got in and found it hadn't recorded a thing. I'd paused without realising. So now, if you've paused and you're clearly still running, your phone tells you: "Your session is still paused. Tap resume to keep recording." It happens. I've done 15 minutes on a static bike, looked down and seen my watch was just telling me the time. We're only human. And as every runner knows, if it's not tracked, it didn't count.

Treadmills and Cross-Training

A treadmill is a bit like a track. The belt isn't perfect, but it's a lot more trustworthy than a wrist guessing your distance indoors. And plenty of you will train with just your phone, so treadmill mode is built for that.

Save a speed for each effort and it's yours. The app never overwrites it. My favourite bit is the Last button. On an interval session you drop the speed for the recovery and pick it back up for the rep, and Last swaps between the two in one tap. If you're wearing a Watch, you choose whether your distance comes from the Watch or the belt.

On cross-training days the app asks which machine you're on. It makes your health record more useful, and as a coach it matters too. A bike session isn't as comparable to running as the elliptical is, so knowing which one you did rounds out the picture.

A Session Shows the Day You Ran It

If you run Thursday's session on a Tuesday, it now moves to Tuesday, on your phone or your Watch. Of course you want to look back and see which day you did it. It also helps when you're moving things around, or when you just like the look of a session and fancy doing it. Running should be fun, after all.

Swapping sessions around is fine. As long as you're not putting hard sessions back to back and you're giving yourself recovery, there are no set rules about which day a run has to happen.

Make It Yours

Everything above is a choice we've made as coaches, and every bit of it can be changed. The defaults are how I'd set you up on day one. After that, play about with it. Turn things on, turn things off, and see what helps your running.

One honest note. For now, the voice is one that's already on your phone. That was the best way to get this into your hands now, and yes, it can sound a little robotic. We're looking at ways to make it feel more human.

Because this isn't finished. We've worked on it for months and we'll keep working on it. If you use it and there's a feature you'd love, or something that would make it more useful, tell us. We're small enough that your feedback genuinely changes what we build next.

Co-pilot, not pilot. You're still the one running. Enjoy it.

Everything else in 2.1

• Apple Watch: run a whole session from your wrist, even with your phone at home. It syncs when you're back.

• Watch faces: today's session, your week and a race countdown, plus a Control Center button. Tapping one opens your session ready to start, and never starts it for you.

• Lock Screen and Dynamic Island: your step, countdown and heart rate at a glance, with a big Pause button.

• Heart rate from AirPods: AirPods Pro 3 and Powerbeats Pro 2 work with no Watch.

• Apple Health and Health Connect: sessions are saved there, including ones you type in by hand.

• Add your own sessions: a parkrun or a social run that wasn't in your plan. It replaces that day's rest day, and your coach sees it.

• Sign in with a 6-digit code from your email.

• Missed a team call? Watch it back from Today once the recording is up.

• Android: guided sessions arrive on Android for the first time.

  
  

Training for a spring race? If you want a plan built around how you actually like to train, drop me a line and we'll build a block that gets you to the start line fit, fresh and ready. Book a coaching package →