Image via runScribe Kickstarter page.
As sports wearables become standard training equipment, user experience and the usefulness of data are quickly becoming the most important design and adoption factors. runScribe is a new running wearable that provides an optimal UX: barely noticeable when being used, and providing relevant and actionable data to users of all knowledge levels.
Coming in at 15 grams and 35 millimeters long, runScribe clips to the back of the user’s shoe. A 9-axis kinematic sensor and integrated motion processor detect the details of each step. An onboard flash memory means that, unlike several other recent running wearables, runScribe does not require the runner to carry their smartphone while running. Beyond the convenience of being a stand-alone device, this allows runScribe to be used in a wider range of sports, and by elite athletes who would not be willing to carry their mobiles on a run.
runScribe delivers data on 13 kinematic variables, from the relatively basic stride rate and pace, to advanced metrics, like pronation excursion and peak impact and braking g-forces. runScribe’s portal presents the data as an athlete’s runScore. Each run updates the athlete’s runScore, so the athlete can compare their runScore against their personal history and account for day-to-day variations, such as terrain, weather, and choice of footwear.
runScribe in Track & Field Training
Professional track and field coaches will likely find themselves facing many sleepless nights, as they wade through the previously unobtainable data runScribe supplies. While long-distance road runners will make up the bulk of runScribe’s users, some of the most interesting data and applications will come from the oval.
One of runScribe’s early testers was Steve Magness, author of The Science of Running and coach of several professional athletes in addition to the University of Houston’s cross-country and track teams. Magness describes how runScribe brought to the surface the interplay between stride rate and stride length to produce different paces, and the mechanisms athletes use to increase or maintain pace while fatigued.
Middle-distance and long sprints
Understanding fatigue will make runScribe particularly valuable for analyzing training and performances in the long-sprints and middle-distances. In these events, performance can be understood best as “who slows down the least” rather than “who runs the fastest.” Each athlete will manifest his unique “fatigue profile” in the closing stages of a race. runScribe will tell the coaches how the athlete slowed down: was it a decrease in stride rate or stride length, or an increase in ground contact time? Taking that a step farther, did a decreased pronation velocity or increased stance excursion cause the increased ground contact time?
Similarly, coaches will also learn how athletes compensate for fatigue. When an athlete grinds out a kick for the final 100 meters, is she increasing her stride rate, but taking shorter steps? Or is she taking fewer steps, but covering more ground with each?
Steeplechase
Athletes training for the steeplechase will be able to monitor their take-off and landing mechanics for the barriers and the water pit. runScribe will show what adjustments athletes make to their stride rate and stride length to get into position for a jump; and will reveal the mechanics of planting the foot on the barrier before jumping over the water. This data could reveal inefficiencies that are negligible and likely unnoticeable in an individual jump, but that may be significant over the course of a race that involves over 20 jumps.
Outdoor vs. indoor tracks
While outdoor tracks are 400 meters with (mostly) standard dimensions, indoor tracks have significant variations. Indoor tracks range from 200-300 meters in length. Some are flat, while others are banked on the curves, providing the athletes challenges and opportunities in their pacing and race tactics. With runScribe, coaches will be able to compare pronation and stance dynamics on the different types of track as well as on the curves compared to the straightaways. Crucially, they will be able to compare these mechanical data to the athlete’s performance to determine what factors are predictive of speed, success, and injury. These analyses will offer biomechanical explanations for why experienced track athletes often prefer one kind of track over another.
The accumulated data from a range of training sessions and pre-season races will enhance subsequent training and race preparation. Coaches will be able to more specifically target an athlete’s weak areas in workouts. And, with better knowledge of the athlete’s strengths, coaches can develop race tactics that take advantage of those strengths.
Integrating runScribe with Other Sports Wearables
Particularly if runScribe is used in tandem with other wearables, new avenues of training and conditioning will open. One device that will strongly complement runScribe is Leo. Lactate dynamics have long been known to play a major role in fatigue and subsequent alterations in stride length, rate, and pace. Until recently, coaches were unable to monitor blood lactate levels in real-time during training. Leo shows the time course of blood lactate alongside heart rate, as runScribe illustrates the impact of these variables on mechanics and performance.
Video analysis, like Ubersense and Coach’s Eye, will place runScribe’s insight on lower limb and extremity mechanics into a full-body context. And old-fashioned video footage of races and training sessions, correlated with runScribe’s output, will let the coach and athlete understand what really happened during that big surge at the bell or the final kick down the homestretch.
runScribe for Social Media and Fan Engagement
A large part of runScribe’s user experience is its easy-to-understand and visually appealing output. While the intended end-user of the runScore plots are runners and coaches, these visuals lend themselves to highly engaging digital media content for athletes and teams to share with their fans. Each runScore is basically a self-contained infographic of an athlete’s run. A runScore plot provides an attractive, informative, and easily digestible insight into an elite athlete’s experience.
Clubs and events can use the runScore as a jumping off point for educating fans on the lingo and statistics of the sport, spurring new conversations and engagements. Certainly an improvement over the standard tweet: “Crushed our 6-mile tempo run in 31 minutes today!”