March Updates: Coach V5, Garmin Integration, Predictions for Everything
The Coach has been rebuilt from the ground up, Garmin is officially in the building, and you can now get AI predictions for 13 different events.
By Angus
Hey everyone!
I hope you're enjoying at least a few glimpses of warmer weather :)
Just wanted to share an update on some recent improvements to this Pufferized party. I'm still amazed at how many people are getting onboard and using the app every day now, and making me feel bad for not training enough!
All of your feedback has been seriously appreciated though, and I've tried to take as much of it onboard with these updates as possible.
1. Coach V5: rebuilt from scratch
In reality, most of the app has been rebuilt in March. This was part of a broader push to make everything more stable, and the Coach should now be a lot better at understanding all of your data.
The goal here wasn't to add flashy features, but to make the coaching conversations genuinely better and more consistent. Building on the journalling and context features from February, all of the context the Coach uses has been updated and restructured, so he should be sharper, more relevant, and less likely to go off on one. Less "interesting AI behaviour", more "actually useful tool".
A nice new feature is the ability to use skills in the chat. You can type /review session for example, and you'll get a deep analysis of your last session. You can see all available skills by clicking the little "/" button to the left of the chat.
2. Garmin. Finally.
We are now officially a "production-approved Garmin Connect partner". Fancy.
This means the Coach can take things like sleep, HRV and stress into account, before questioning the validity of your existence.
If you connect your Garmin account, and then type /review status in the chat, it's a nice way to test it ;)
If you're already syncing activities via Strava, the Garmin integration adds the wellness data that Strava doesn't provide. The two work nicely together.
3. Predictions for everything
There are now 13 events in the system, each with dedicated performance predictions powered by the same 16-year Strathpuffer dataset and beyond (some of them are arguably more entertaining than truly scientific). This was part of a broader, and pretty complex mission to make the whole app truly event-agnostic.
Current events include Strathpuffer, 10 Under the Ben, Etape Loch Ness, The Chiller 24, Battle On the Beach, Dales Divide, Trans Balkan Race, IRONMAN 70.3 Aix-en-Provence, and a few more. If there's an event you'd like to see added, just let me know.
On that note — your event goals, category, and other details are now all configured directly from the event session in your training plan. So if you want to update your race category or add notes about your target event, just tap on the event session in your plan.
One ask
If you have any ideas or feedback, please do get in touch. The best features so far have come from your suggestions, and I'd love to keep that going.
Let me know what you'd like to see.
Cheers,
Angus