training app features story

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The begining, reasons behind and where we are now with ulTrain: Hybrid Training.

By Dave Brett 7 min read

Dave Brett running a UTMB World Series trail race.

This is the story of where ulTrain: Hybrid Training came from. Where I started, why I decided to build ulTrain, where we are now and where its going. I hope you enjoy it!

A little history

My name is Dave, and I am a NEEK.

What’s that you may ask?

Well according to my kids its a cross between a Geek and a Nerd. So there you have it, thats me.

I have always been into fitness and exercise, however when I was younger it was more about skateboarding, surfing, kitesurfing as well as the obligitory football and rugby (thsts a UK thing). As I got older these became harder to do so I started at the gym and also running a little. As with everything I do I started to look at trying to get better and better then one day a mate of mine said to me,

“Dave, I am running this race to raise money for my late Dad, fancy joining up with us?”

Then so it began, my first Ultra Marathon. It was the Jurassic Coast 100 km race split over 2 days. 58 km on day one then 42 km on day two. Initially I was properly nervous about it, but a long story short, someone showed me about volume training, I set up my spreadsheet and away I went, getting in the KM’s each week until the race day(s).

As soon as I finished that race I knew there would be another and so the mass of spreadsheet training began, sheet upon sheet, re-doing the calculations based on the race distance, but, you know, it worked so why not.

Then I got sick of it!

The idea was born

The problems with training on spreadsheets is there are so many other variables that come into play when running an ultra. Some of them are:

  • Nutrition
  • Weather
  • Mandatory Kit
  • Race Kit
  • Optional Kit

All of these need looking at and accounting for so you end up with list after list on top of your plan.

Way back when I was a LOT younger I used to me a programmer and have always kept my hand in. This gave me an idea.

“What if I could write an App that takes care of all my Ultra needs. Then I can carry it with me wherever I am and know where I am at in my training plan.”

Since I am an Apple user (yeah yeah, I know!) I started to teach myself to write Apple iOS apps and ulTrain was born. The initial app was meant to solve the following key things, any it was only meant for me initially!

  • Event details (when, where etc)
  • Volume training plan (3 build weeks, 1 rest -> repeat, then taper and race)
  • What nutrition I used during training, and if it worked
  • Kit list attached to the event (So I did not forget anything on race day)

That was it. So I started writing the app and as with all apps, as I was writing it I had more and more ideas until it became what it is today.

Hybrid Training

One of the things that was important to me was BOTH strength and endurance. Just because I am putting in the KM’s each week does not mean I should not be able to strangth train at the same time. In fact there are many benefits to doing both at the same time, so long as you are smart.

This then hit another thing that annoyed me, why should I use 2 different apps to track my endurance training and strength training. There would be no cross benefit for nutrition then. So, yeah, you guessed it, thats how the strength training mode of ulTrain came about.

So, here is a list of there it is now (thanks to Mr Claude for this)

Everything ulTrain does

One private training app for endurance, strength and hybrid athletes, built native for iPhone and Android, with the same plans, numbers and privacy on both.

Training plans

  • Four ways to plan: Event / Race, Go Further, Move More and Weekly Distance
  • Race plans built around your event with Build, Rest, Taper and Race weeks, every week editable
  • A suggested starting volume based on your level and the race distance, with a 16 week lead in from your race date
  • Race plans for every distance, from 5K to 100 mile ultras
  • Injury weeks that pause targets without breaking your plan or your streak
  • Weekly Planner (Pro): map every day, runs, lifts and recovery, with targets, notes and routine templates
  • Calendar sync (Pro): planned sessions appear in your phone’s calendar with reminders

Strength training

  • 260+ built in exercises across legs, back, chest, shoulders, arms, core, mobility, calisthenics and full body, plus your own custom exercises (Pro)
  • Reusable routines with warm ups, working sets, supersets and cool downs, or start from 9 ready made starter routines
  • Live workout logging: sets, reps, load and rest timers with quick +15s / -15s / skip controls
  • Workouts survive a locked screen: a Live Activity on iPhone, an ongoing notification with set controls on Android
  • Full workout history with a calendar view (Pro), muscle maps, an estimated 1RM and a recycle bin for accidental deletes

Activities and health

  • Log runs, walks, hikes, rides, swims, yoga and more, or make your own activity types
  • Import automatically from Apple Health (iPhone) or Health Connect (Android), read only, with duplicate detection built in
  • Distance, pace, elevation, heart rate, calories and cadence on every activity
  • Hydration tracking with a daily target, your own vessels and a hydration streak
  • Body measurements with a US Navy body fat estimate, history and trend charts
  • My Crew: tag the people (and pets) you train with

Nutrition and kit (Pro)

  • Log fuel and hydration on every session and rate how it felt
  • What Works: your nutrition ranked by rating, so race day choices come from evidence
  • Race Fuel Plan: per hour and per aid station fluid, calorie and sodium targets built from your own data, adjusted for the conditions
  • Kit lists with packing progress, templates and to buy tracking for race day

Events and racing

  • Community race directory: search, filter by distance and season, favourite races and leave reviews
  • Link a plan to a race and track readiness with countdowns at 14, 7 and 1 days
  • Event Predictor (Pro): finish time predictions from your actual races, adjusted for elevation and aid stations
  • Pace Strategy (Pro): a per kilometre pacing plan for any distance and target time

Analytics

  • Training Load (Pro): Fresh, Optimal, Fatigued or High Load, and the reason why
  • Streaks (Pro): daily movement streaks (recovery days protected) and weekly workout streaks
  • Endurance Insights (Pro): trends, personal records, best performances and a Year in Review heatmap
  • Strength Insights (Pro): weekly volume, muscle balance, progressive overload and per exercise PR trends
  • Plan Execution scores that grade how closely you actually followed the plan
  • Personal Coach (Pro): short training summaries generated on your own device, private by design. On iPhone now, coming to Android

On your home screen (Pro)

  • Nine widgets you can configure: weekly progress, race countdown, today’s plan, training load, streaks, My Crew, strength volume, strength streak and hydration

Private by design

  • No ads, no tracking, nothing about your training is sold
  • Cloud sync is opt in, with a full backup and restore on both platforms
  • Hevy compatible import and export (Pro), so your strength history is never locked in
  • Delete your account and every byte of your data from inside the app

ulTrain Pro

  • 7 day free trial, then £1.99 a month or £14.99 a year
  • Free forever: 3 plans, 3 routines, activity logging, health import, the race directory and core analytics

It has come a long way, and I am properly proud of it. And as of this week the Android app is live on Google Play, so now you really can train on whatever phone is in your pocket, in the gym and out on the trails.