Custom workouts

Custom Workouts

While pre-prepared training plans and workouts will meet most runners’ needs, there are occasions where a custom workout, built to meet a specific need, is a better choice.

Or perhaps you can’t use a pre-prepared plan, and need to be able to build your own?

Building your own workout, at least in TrainingPeaks and Stryd, is a ‘paid’ option.

Are there any good planning tools that you could use instead? And what does ‘good’ look like?

What does a ‘good’ planning app look like?

There are a few things:

• Can you set workout targets as percentages of Threshold Power? So that you don’t have to do the math to calculate wattages, so that the workout is still usable if your Threshold Power changes, and so that you don’t have to use power-based Zones.
• Can you set workout targets as ranges? So that you can run within the range, rather than trying to maintain a specific power number.
• Can you run to distance, time and lap button press? So that you have the choice.
• Are there repeating sections, and multi-step sections? So that you don’t have to add each work and rest segment manually.
• It is easy (or even possible) to download the planned workouts to your watch? While most watch manufacturers make it quick and easy to upload completed workouts, downloading planned workouts is often significantly harder.
• As a coach, is it possible to use the app to create and schedule workouts for your runners?

Final Surge

Free for athletes (paid for coaches), Final Surge offers the ability to plan power-based workouts or to use pre-built workouts and training plans, some free, some paid, and:

✅ supports workout targets as percentages of Threshold Power (rFTPw).

✅ encourages workout targets as ranges (asking for min and max for each segment).

✅ offers distance, time or lap button press on each workout segment.

✅ has repeating sections and ramps (up and down).

✅ can sync planned workouts to Garmin, Apple, COROS, Suunto and Amazfit watches; can sync planned workouts to Stryd, Zwift and TrainerRoad; connects to 3rd party Apple Watch apps like Watchletic and iSmoothRun. Note that some of these integrations require paid subscriptions.

✅ offers coaches the ability to create and schedule workouts for their runners.

Intervals.icu

Intervals.icu provides workout planning using a text-based format, and:

✅ supports workout targets as percentages of Threshold Power (FTP).

✅ accepts workout targets as ranges.

✅ offers time or lap button press on each workout segment.

✅ has repeating sections.

✅ can sync planned workouts to Garmin, COROS, Suunto, Wahoo and Amazfit watches; can sync planned workouts to Huawei Health and Zwift; connects to 3rd party Apple Watch apps like Watchletic and Intervals.icu Companion. Note that some of these integrations require paid subscriptions.

✅ offers coaches the ability to create and schedule workouts for their runners.

Manufacturer apps

Manufacturer apps (in my experience) tend to provide basic functionality that, while allowing power-based workout planning, do not match up to the apps listed above.

Other options?

The above are options I know about. Do you have any additional options?