How Your Plan Is Built

Your training plan is built by an AI planning engine that works in stages, like a real coach drafting a block of training. When you ask for a plan, it moves through six steps before anything is saved.

1. Intake#

The planner starts by reading you. It pulls your profile metrics (FTP, max HR, best 5K, CSS, weight, and more), your recent training history, and your upcoming races into an athlete brief. This is the raw material everything else is built from, which is why a complete athlete profile leads to a better plan.

2. Macro periodization#

Next it lays out the big picture: Base, Build, Peak, and Taper phases, with weekly load targets aligned to your A-race. This sets the overall shape and intensity of the block so each week builds toward your goal. See Training phases for what each phase means.

3. Session building#

The planner then fills your near-term days with fully structured workouts — intervals, targets, and durations — kept within each week's load budget. These are the detailed sessions you will actually do in the coming days.

4. Forecasting#

Days further out are sketched as outline sessions: sport plus intent, without detailed structure yet. This gives you a sense of what is coming without locking in details that may change. How far the detailed and forecast windows reach depends on your tier, covered in Plan horizons.

5. Review#

Before saving, the plan is checked against safety and quality rules: a sensible week-to-week ramp, the right session frequency, and a proper taper into your race. This catches plans that ramp too fast or skip recovery.

6. Commit#

Finally the planner writes the plan to your calendar and mirrors rideable bike and run sessions into Shift, so planned workouts can be ridden in the virtual world.

After it is built#

A plan is a living thing. When life happens, the coach can revise it intelligently rather than starting over, making the smallest sensible change. See Adapting your plan for how that works.