Setting a goal: races or training-goal templates

Written By Martijn Russchen

Last updated 9 days ago

You can train toward a race, or toward a general goal. IntervalCoach plans for both.

Race events

Add A/B/C race events in your Intervals.icu calendar (or via the Calendar page / Coach+ chat). IntervalCoach picks them up and structures your phases and taper around them. See "Races and events" for how each priority works.

Training-goal templates (no race needed)

Don't have an upcoming race? In Settings or onboarding, choose a Training Goal template instead. Each one has a default length you can adjust, and a phase model that decides which phases you move through and when.

  • General Fitness (12 weeks, adjustable 6 to 24) — One long Build phase, progressive overload, no taper. For raising overall fitness with no event to peak for.

  • Return to Sport (8 weeks, adjustable 4 to 16) — All Base. A gentle comeback after injury or a break.

  • Off-Season Base (16 weeks, adjustable 8 to 24) — All Base. Aerobic foundation between seasons.

  • Weight Management (12 weeks, adjustable 6 to 24) — Build focused on volume and consistency rather than hard testing.

  • Speed / Power Block (6 weeks, adjustable 4 to 12) — Build, then a Peak phase over the final 3 weeks. A short block to sharpen top-end speed.

  • FTP Improvement (8 weeks, adjustable 6 to 12) — Build on threshold and VO2max, then a 2-week Peak aimed at an FTP test.

  • Beginner (16 weeks, adjustable 8 to 24) — Build, gradual fitness foundation. An on-ramp for athletes new to structured training.

  • Maintenance (rolling, never ends) — Holds your current fitness on an open-ended 8-week horizon.

  • Multi-Day Hike (16 weeks, adjustable 8 to 24) — Build on long-walk volume, a 4-week Peak of back-to-back days, then a 2-week taper so you arrive rested.

Which training goal template should I pick?

Start from what you want the block to do, not from how long it is.

You want to keep getting fitter with no event in sight. General Fitness. It is the only open-ended template built around progressive overload, so it keeps pushing rather than holding.

You want to build aerobic depth before adding hard work. Off-Season Base. It stays in Base the whole way through, which is the right shape after a comeback block or at the end of a season.

You are coming back from injury, illness or a long break. Return to Sport, then move to General Fitness or Off-Season Base once you are training consistently again.

You have one specific thing to sharpen. FTP Improvement or Speed / Power Block. Both are short and both end in a Peak, so treat them as finishing blocks on top of a base you already have, not as a way to build one.

Consistency matters more than progression right now. Weight Management or Maintenance.

Can I plan the next block ahead, or stack blocks together?

There is no separate catalog to preview a template against your own data, and changing your goal replaces your current plan, so pick your next template when your current block is finishing rather than partway through it.

Stacking blocks back to back is a normal way to train and works well here. Alternating a progressive block like General Fitness with a consolidation block like Off-Season Base lets your weekly volume climb in steps, giving your aerobic system time to absorb each rise before the next one. Coach+ can set up the transition when you are ready.

What a template controls, and what it does not

A template sets two things: the length of the block, and the phase model, meaning which phases you pass through and how many weeks before the end each one starts.

It does not set a CTL target or a weekly training load of its own. Your weekly TSS target comes from your training plan and your own fitness, which is covered in "How your weekly TSS (training load) target is set". So two templates of the same length will not push different amounts of load at you; they differ in how the work inside those weeks is shaped.