Getting Started: Training Plans

First things first...

You Need an Accurate Critical Power

If you are interested in starting a Stryd training plan, you’ll NEED an accurate Critical Power. There are a number of ways to do that…

1. The best way as a new Stryder is to do the ‘Intro’ plan inside of the Stryd app. This plan will guide you through workouts that will generate an accurate Critical Power while teaching you about Stryd metrics and power training.
2. Join any of our 5k through marathon plans and perform the time trial at the beginning of the plan for a reasonable estimation of your Critical Power.
3. Continue your normal training while collecting Stryd data for a few weeks. If you have a variety of intensities and durations in your training, you should generate an accurate Critical Power. Read more here.
4. Or, if you know how to perform a Critical Power test, perform a test, and manually enter in a Critical Power.

With an accurate Critical Power (or if you’re doing the ‘Intro’ plan), you’re ready to get started!

 

Adding a Plan

You can get started adding a training plan by navigating to the "Settings" icon on the "Profile" tab. Under ‘Account Information -> Training Plans’.

   

 

Tap the + button in the upper right to enter the sign-up flow. Simply follow the prompts to get a training plan that is based around how, and for what distance, you want to train.

Intro to Stryd Training Plan

The two-week Stryd ‘Intro’ plan will introduce you to power concepts and metrics AND help to properly establish your Critical Power while teaching you how to maintain your Critical Power throughout your training! 

 

It has a variety of durations and intensities to keep it interesting and a time trial at the end to build off of. It is also a great way to build up after a period of time off. 

 

Marathon/Half/10k/5k/Base Training Plans

The titles say it all. If you have a race (or virtual race) coming up, simply select the distance you’re training for, and follow the prompts to receive a suggested plan based on your needs. 

 

‘Base’ training plans are for those of you who don’t have an established goal and are looking for either a slow ramp-up or maintenance miles.

 

 

Based on your selections you’ll have the choice of either a high or low volume plan. Don’t worry about selecting the wrong plan… it is easy to remove a plan and select a new one.

 

 

Once you’ve made a choice, you can go to the ‘Calendar’ tab to see when your first day of training is.

 

It is important to notice that these training plans are only designed to be under 12 weeks long. If you want to use one of these plans for longer than 12 weeks you will be given base mileage training as a default. If you do not want to do base mileage training then you will want to either add another training plan or change the data range of your current training plan. 

 

While we’ve tried to meet the variety of needs users will have in terms of training, as an early release we recognize it may not be perfect for everyone. Feel free to add some easy running days, or take a rest day when needed!

Using Training Peaks/Final Surge/2PEAK? If not, skip.

 

Connecting your training platform to the Stryd ecosystem

If you are using a training plan on another platform (Training Peaks, Final Surge, or 2PEAK) you can connect your account to your Stryd account to see your plan in the Stryd calendar and execute via Garmin or Apple Watch. Workouts on those platforms must be structured workouts with power targets for them to upload to the Stryd ecosystem (tell your coach!)

 

To connect your account with your Stryd account go to the ‘Settings’ icon and select ‘Connected Accounts’ -> Choose/add your account from the list -> Enable ‘Import Workouts From’.

 

 

You’re all set! Once the accounts sync, you’ll see your plan in the Stryd calendar in the app and on PowerCenter.

 

What if I edit my workouts on the other platform?

The Stryd platform checks twice a day for updates to workouts from your connected platforms. If you edit your workouts on a non-Stryd platform right before a workout, you will likely need to sync the platforms to update the workouts on your Stryd calendar. 

 

You can do this through ‘Connected Accounts’ in ‘Settings’. Choose your platform and tap ‘Manually Sync Workouts’. 

Set a Goal

At present we haven’t connected Training Plans with Events, so if you haven’t already created an event you’ll want to do so from the ‘Profile’ screen in the app.

 

 

Choose your event and see your race power and time estimation update with each difference-making workout! If you’re not familiar with Stryd ‘Event Planning’ you can read more here. 

View Your Upcoming Plan

On mobile and PowerCenter you can view your upcoming workouts. Tap into a workout to see how it is broken down and to see your power targets for that run.

 

 

As your Critical Power improves, the Stryd platform will automatically update your workout targets. Focus on the goal and let us do the math. :) 

 

Performing a Workout

Stryd’s structured workouts are available on Garmin Connect IQ 3.0 compatible watches (via the Stryd Workout App), and Apple Watch Series 3 and up.

 

You can find the full watch compatibility list here >> 

 

Executing a run on Garmin Connect IQ compatible watches

Stryd structured workouts on Garmin are done via the Stryd Workout App. Launch your training plan from 'workouts' and select your run!

 

We’ve put together a great guide on how to use the Stryd Workout App here.

 

Executing a run on Apple Watch

By far the easiest way to do a Stryd structured workout is via the Stryd Apple Watch app. Simply launch the app on your watch, select ‘workouts’, confirm that your workout is there (or tap ‘fetch workouts’ to update your list), and start the run! 

 

More detailed instructions on using the Apple Watch Stryd App can be found here.

 

What if I don’t have a compatible watch, or I’m not sure?

Garmin and Apple Watch have third-party app platforms that enabled this workout experience by enabling us to build entirely custom power-based workout apps. As other major watch platforms enable third-party app development and power-based workout compatibility, look to see this structured workout functionality come to other platforms.

 

In the meantime, you can still execute power-based training on your sports watch. Power-based workouts are simpler than pace and heart rate-based training and are typically simple enough to be committed to memory (or whatever other ingenious methods you’ve used previously).

 

Rescheduling a Run 

You can reschedule a run on mobile or PowerCenter. On mobile, tap and hold the run to get a menu, select ‘Reschedule’ and select the day you’d like to move the run to. On PowerCenter, simply go to the calendar, click and drag the run to the day you’d like to move it to.

 

 

This can be done prior to a workout being performed, or if you missed a workout and want to move things around.

Analyze Your Run

So you finished your first structured run with your Stryd device and you’re ready to view the run. The new post-run experience was designed and built to deliver quick insights into your performance. 

 

Planned vs Actual

The new post-run experience makes seeing your execution of the workout easy with color-coded splits and a split view for quickly digging into where you nailed it and where you fell short or went out too hard.

 

 

The splits and workout summary allows you to see how each part of your workout played out. Do you run your recovery too fast? Do you push your hard efforts too far? Also switch between summary, individual splits, or distance based splits view.

 

 

And you can still enjoy the classic ‘table view’ of your splits with the added ability to export them to a CSV. 

 

We deliver a lot of metrics and wanted to really elaborate here. Learn about each metric by clicking into it to see a description and an isolated view of that metric over the course of your run.

 

 

Post Run Insights

By tagging your run with more information you can add valuable insights to your training. Tap the ‘tag’ icon to add details like surface type, run type, RPE, etc., and see how today’s run compares to similar runs across the last week, and/or the last 90 days. 

 

 

There is a lot to be discovered here, and more to come in the future. Start tagging and see what you discover! Hint: try tagging a trail run ;) 

 

Excluding a run from your auto-calculated Critical Power

Sometimes things just don’t work out when you go for a run, and you need to exclude a run so it doesn’t screw up your data... You can exclude that run from your auto-calculated Critical Power by tapping into the ‘...’ in the upper right corner of the run and selecting ‘View Details’. Toggle off ‘Include Run in Analysis’ off to exclude it from your CP calculation.

Analyze Your Training Plan [iOS only]

The training analysis feature in the app allows you to compare similarly tagged runs across the last 90 days of training. Within the calendar click on the ‘analysis’ icon on the top of the screen. 

 

You can be as general as comparing ‘easy’ runs, or as specific as Friday runs at your favorite lake based on the tags and filters you use. 

Identify trends across your training data and see how you improved over the last 90 days.

 

 

 

Manage Your Training Plan/s

 

Can I delete a training plan?

Yes, training plans can be deleted within the mobile app or PowerCenter. 

 

In mobile go to the ‘Settings’ icon in the upper right of your 'Profile' -> ‘Training Plans’ -> and swipe the plan you wish to delete -> tap ‘Delete’.

 

In PowerCenter, you can delete a plan by going to the calendar, and on the right side of the screen click the plan icon. Select the plan you wish to delete. Click delete and confirm.

 

 

What if my run didn’t pair with the workout?

In the case that your run didn’t pair but you still did the workout, you can manually pair via the mobile app or PowerCenter. 

 

On mobile, a run and a workout must be located on the same day. Click and hold the completed run and select the workout you wish to pair it with. Workouts can be unpaired by long-tapping the paired workout and selecting ‘Unpair Workout’.

 

On PowerCenter, you cannot pair runs manually at this time, though you can unpair a run in the case of a mistake.

 

Can I have multiple training plans?

Yes. Technically you could have multiple overlapping training plans, though we don’t recommend it unless you are looking for a lot of choices and variety. 

 

What does pausing a training plan do?

At the moment you can ‘pause’ a training plan within the app and PowerCenter. This will simply hide the plan until you choose to resume at which point the plan will reappear and you will resume at the point in the plan that you would have been if you hadn’t paused. 

 

We are looking for feedback here, so let us know how you would like this to function! Email michael@stryd.com.