Race smarter with Fitbit at the Fitbit Semi de Paris

This post was originally published on the Fitbit press site. It has been adapted from its original format.

Fitbit, the leader in the connected health and fitness market, today announced a new partnership with the newly named Fitbit Semi de Paris. Fitbit aligns with the largest half marathon in France as the title sponsor to help motivate participants to be more active, sponsoring a new race app to foster friendly competition and support training for participants. By providing industry-leading activity tracking devices, impactful data and virtual coaching, Fitbit helps users prepare for and reach their performance goals at any level, from completing their first 5K run to setting a personal record for a half marathon.

Stay Motivated with the Half Marathon App

The Semi de Paris, the world’s third largest half marathon according to the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), has over 47,000 registrations for its March 6, 2016 edition. The race attracts runners of all different abilities, and for over 50 percent of participants this will be their first half marathon. To help runners of all levels maximize their training and stay on track toward their goals leading up to and throughout race weekend, Fitbit will also serve as the presenting partner of the Fitbit Semi de Paris mobile app.

Available to all Semi de Paris registered participants, the app allows runners to view their real-time run data in the Fitbit Semi de Paris mobile app when synced with a Fitbit account. Runners will be able to share their training statistics in the weeks leading up to the event – such as run times, distance covered and speed – helping them compare performance and progress, and make adjustments. Any Fitbit activity tracker can be connected and synced to the marathon app via the Fitbit app.

Furthermore, exclusive prizes, such as a Fitbit Surge fitness and activity tracker, will be awarded to racers who join and participate in challenges in the marathon app, which encourage participants to achieve the best distance for a 30 minute run or 1 hour and 30 minute. The Fitbit Semi de Paris app is available today on the web, Android and iOS.

“Fitbit is supporting runners as they train and compete by helping provide positive experiences through our involvement in events like the Semi de Paris,” said Benoit Raimbault, ‎Marketing Director for Fitbit EMEA. “With our broad range of fitness trackers, we want to enable people to train smarter by offering them tools to set and achieve their fitness goals – such as logging runs and workouts that build their endurance, enabling them to compare their training with others so they can gauge their progress, and tracking their heart rate to ensure they are pushing themselves. We are excited to see runners at all levels come together to challenge themselves to go further and faster this race season with the help of Fitbit’s suite of products.”

Train More Effectively for Race Day with the Fitbit Platform

The Fitbit platform combines connected health and fitness devices with software and services, including an online dashboard and mobile apps, data analytics, motivational and social tools, personalized insights and virtual coaching through customized fitness plans and interactive workouts. With this platform, Fitbit provides motivation and enables people to be more active, exercise more, sleep better and manage their weight – all key components when training for a half marathon. Here’s how it works:

• Fitbit Devices: A range of eight different wearable health and fitness devices that span multiple styles, form factors and price points that fit seamlessly into people’s daily lives and activities. Automatically see daily steps, calories burned, distance traveled, floors climbed and active minutes to track your training and health all day.
• FitStar by Fitbit On-screen Workouts: The newly launched Fitbit Blaze smart fitness watch delivers guided instructions and animated images to three of the most popular personal trainer workouts from FitStar (Warm It Up (8 minutes), 7 Minute Workout, and 10 Minute Abs) providing on-the-go exercises on your wrist to coach you during your training.
• GPS Stats: Connected GPS with Fitbit Blaze and on-device GPS with Fitbit Surge deliver real-time stats like distance and speed/pace, along with an elevation summary on the wrist, allowing runners to track progress and adjust to hit target goals; following runs, users can view additional details like route and laps/minute-mile splits on the Fitbit app or online dashboard to analyze and optimize performance over time – because for some races, seconds matter.
• PurePulse Heart Rate Tracking: Those using Fitbit Charge HR, Fitbit Blaze and Fitbit Surge can experience continuous, automatic wrist-based heart rate tracking to monitor intensity and stay within optimal ranges during various stages of a run – all without an uncomfortable chest strap; seeing resting heart rate provides users with an indication of how efficient their heart is working based on their training.
• Real-time Exercise Stats: Exercise mode on Fitbit Charge HR and multi-sport mode on Fitbit Blaze and Fitbit Surge uniquely records various workouts in addition to running – yoga, cycling, weight-lifting – delivering relevant real-time stats, workout intensity and calories burned for a full picture of a person’s training in preparation for the big race.
• Automatic Sleep Detection: Tracks how long and how well users sleep, illustrating where adjustments in lifestyle might be necessary during training for better performance.

Additional Fitbit mobile, online and social tools:

• FitStar Personal Trainer and Yoga Apps: Offers virtual personalized coaching through streaming video workouts anytime, anywhere to build strength, gain flexibility and maintain endurance. FitStar helps runners supplement their training with customized body weight workouts, as well as handcrafted Freestyle sessions such as “FitStar 15” in the FitStar Personal Trainer App and “Happy Hips” in the FitStar Yoga App.
• Nutrition and Hydration Tracking: Log food and water intake right on the Fitbit app, no matter where you are, to help you monitor calories in vs. calories out so you deliver the right amount of fuel to your bodies while in training and leading up to race day.
• Motivation: Social connectivity with a large, global community of friends and family on the Fitbit app so you can train, motivate and challenge each other to reach that next training milestone.
• Strava Integration: Automatically share GPS-tracked activities to connect, compete and engage with other performance athletes.

Visit Fitbit at the Race

Race participants and spectators can stop by the Fitbit booth at the Fitbit Semi de Paris Exhibition Race Village to get more information about Fitbit and its products, as well as see the newly announced, award-winning Fitbit Blaze. The exhibition area is open on Friday, March 4 from 10am-7.30pm, and on Saturday, March 5, 9am-7.30pm.