Apple launches always land with a hefty helping of hype and the brand's new Apple Fitness+ feature, Time To Run, is no exception. Apple Fitness+ is a fitness and wellness service built entirely around Apple Watch and its new Time To Run offering is an audio experience designed to elevate the running experience for both seasoned runners and beginners.
Each episode is lead by a Fitness+ trainer and follows a route through a famous city. You're not required to follow those exact routes yourself, rather each trainer's narrative is intended to structure and enliven runs in any location, even on the treadmill.
Take newly appointed Fitness+ trainer Cory Wharton-Malcolm's Time To Run episode for example, which uses the vibrant sights and terrain of London as a framework for his lively coaching. Users listen to Wharton-Malcolm's coaching and benefit from a curated playlist full of motivational and energising music. What's more, key London sights are brought to user's Apple Watch screens through a series of images. That famous Apple Watch click notifies you every time a new one flashes up.
'We've been thinking about an audio experience for running since before Fitness+ launched,' says Jay Blahnik, Vice President of Fitness Technologies at Apple, 'and we're very excited to bring Time To Run out this January, we believe it's perfect timing for people that are either just getting started with their running journey, want to get back into running or simply want to find some motivation as we kick off the year.'
For Blahnik, one of the biggest misconceptions about running is that it's not as exciting as other forms of exercise, 'a lot of people who are recreational runners believe that running involves going for as long as you can,' he says, 'but you can make your runs more interesting and improve your fitness even further by changing what you do on each run, by adding a little extra speed here and there, walking between intervals and trying to push yourself faster on each song.' Time To Run is Fitness+'s vehicle for doing just that. 'When you have a coach in your ear guiding you through all those physiological changes, it not only makes running more comfortable but you gradually start to see your fitness improving too.'
According to Blahnik, hitting play on a Time To Run episode makes your workout fly by too, 'a lot of people say that running for 30 minutes feels like running for 45 minutes,' he says, 'we really feel that with the right music, the right coaching and the right inspiration, running for 30 minutes can feel like running for 10.' Now that's an appealing idea.
Time to Run will launch with three episodes: London, coached by Cory Wharton-Malcolm - which became available this week -, Brooklyn, coached by Emily Fayette and Miami Beach, coached by Sam Sanchez. One new episode of Time to Run will be released each week on Mondays.
Time to Run can be experienced outside or inside on a treadmill, and episodes will be available in the Workout app on Apple Watch with a Fitness+ subscription__. For Apple Watch customers who use a wheelchair, Time to Run becomes Time to Run or Push, and once selected, it gives users the choice to start a run or an Outdoor Push Running Pace workout.
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