Race Recon: attach your race course (GPX, FIT or Intervals.icu route)

Attach a GPX or FIT file or an Intervals.icu route to a race: every sustained climb, training matched to them, and race-day pacing and fuel per segment. Pro and Max.

Written By Martijn Russchen

Last updated About 1 hour ago

Race Recon reads the course file of a race on your calendar. Attach a GPX or FIT file, or import an Intervals.icu route, and IntervalCoach finds every sustained climb, works out how long you will be on each one, and carries that into your training, your race-day pacing and your fuelling. Race Recon is included in Pro and Max, and in the free trial.

For the full story with a worked example, see the Race Recon launch post or the Race Recon page.

How do I attach a GPX or FIT course to a race?

Open Calendar or Training Plan, choose Add race and then Create your own. For a race that is already on your calendar, open it and edit it.
Under Course (optional), choose Attach GPX / FIT and pick a file of up to 4 MB. To use a route from Intervals.icu instead, enter its number under Intervals.icu route ID and choose Import.
The distance, elevation gain and start location fill in from the file. Save the race.

To change the course later, edit the race and choose Replace GPX / FIT or Remove course. Removing it restores the distance you had entered yourself. You do not need to delete and recreate the race.

What Race Recon shows you

Route and elevation. The elevation profile, total climbing, and every sustained climb with its length, height gain and average gradient. A climb has to run at least 300 metres and gain at least 20 metres to count.
Training matched to your climbs. IntervalCoach estimates how long you will be on each climb from your own threshold power or pace. In the weeks before the race, interval sessions of that length are preferred and blocks longer than your longest climb are chosen less often.
What to develop for this race. The race page compares what the course asks with your recent power or pace and your training history, shows which capabilities deserve attention, and suggests training for them. Where there is no data yet, it says so.
Course pacing and fuel. The course is split into climbs, descents and flats. Each segment gets an estimated time, a power target for rides or a pace for runs, and a carbohydrate and fluid budget. Open Full segment details for the complete list.
Wind along the course. Closer to race day, the wind forecast is read against the direction of the course to mark headwind, tailwind and crosswind stretches.
Estimated surface (optional). Tick the surface option before you upload or import the course to see paved, gravel and unpaved sections on the route map. This sends simplified route coordinates to the Geoapify mapping service, and no activity or account data. For cycling, known surfaces feed the estimated duration.

Does a hilly course make my training harder?

No. The course changes which sessions are preferred, while the amount of work stays the same. Your recovery, your training phase and your chosen methodology still come first, and the course never adds intensity to your week.

Does Race Recon work for running races?

Yes. Climb durations are estimated from your threshold pace, and race-day segments carry a pace target.

Why do GPX files show impossible gradients?

GPS altitude wanders by a metre or two between points, and a gradient worked out from one point to the next inherits every wobble. IntervalCoach resamples every file to 100 metre steps and smooths the elevation before it calculates any gradient, so the steepest slope you see is one you can actually ride or run. Gradients and segment times are still estimates.

My Intervals.icu route has no elevation

A route on Intervals.icu stores no elevation of its own, so IntervalCoach reads the elevation from one of your own recorded activities on that route. If you have never ridden or run it, export the course as a GPX file and upload that instead.

I can't attach a course (upgrade prompt)

Course upload is part of Pro and Max. On the Free plan the upload shows an upgrade prompt. If you are on a trial or a paid plan and still see it, reload the page; if it stays, contact support.

What happens to my course file?

It stays private to your account. We keep the route and its elevation and drop the activity data a recording carries, so no heart rate, power or timestamps are stored. Deleting your account deletes the file.

Community catalog. Use Share with the community when you add or edit the race. After review, the race appears in the public catalog with its elevation profile, climbs and a Download GPX link, and anyone who adds that race to their calendar gets the course too. See Community races.
Your club. Use Share with my club in the race form. Club members can view the event and download its course.