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Samsung Running Coach is a cool idea held back by hardware and execution

Samsung says beginner and experienced runners will benefit from its Running Coach, but that's only half true so far.

Running Coach on the Galaxy Watch 8 generates a months-long, personalized training plan for beginner runners to hit race milestones like 5Ks, 10Ks, or half & full marathons. You must then complete a 12-minute "running test," starting at a "comfortably hard pace" before building to "full speed," and are lastly timed on how quickly your heart rate recovers during cooldown. I ran six miles on the same neighborhood loop, mostly keeping to the same line, then synced my Garmin Forerunner 970 ( orange) and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic ( blue) in the satellite maps above.

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