Races and events: priorities, tapering and periodization

A, B and C events

Event priority determines how the AI structures your training:

• A Events — your most important goals, where you want peak fitness. Pick 1–2 per year, at least 12 weeks apart. The AI builds a full periodization plan (Base → Build → Peak → Taper → Race) with a 3-week taper.

• B Events — important races where you want to perform well but not necessarily peak. Great for testing tactics, nutrition, and pacing. You get a 1-week mini-taper with reduced volume plus opener workouts the day before.

• C Events — practice/fun races you train through; they hold similar value to a key hard workout. No taper. The AI removes the scheduled workout that day but treats the event itself as training.

Multiple goals

Add multiple events in Intervals.icu marked A/B/C. The AI considers all of them when planning phases and tapers.

An event I didn’t create appeared

IntervalCoach reads your goals straight from your Intervals.icu calendar, so any event there is treated as a real goal. If another platform writes events into the same calendar, IntervalCoach plans around them too. Athletica, for example, can create a synthetic A-priority race (such as “Train to Maintain”) with a real date even when you only asked it to build general fitness, and once that lands in Intervals.icu, IntervalCoach builds a full Peak/Taper/Race block around it.

If you ever see a taper or race structure you did not ask for, check your Intervals.icu calendar for an event you did not add. Delete it, or drop it to C priority, then regenerate your plan and the structure relaxes.

Multi-day events (stage races, tours)

Detected automatically two ways: a single calendar event spanning multiple days, or consecutive same-name events (e.g. "Tour de Wallonie - Stage 1/2"). Once detected, Race Week extends across the whole event, taper timing is based on the first stage, CTL targets are raised 15–25% for cumulative fatigue, and the post-event email arrives after the last stage.

Tapering

A events get a full 3-week taper (volume down, intensity maintained) for peak freshness. B events get a 1-week mini-taper plus openers. C events get no taper. For multi-day events the taper happens before the first stage and the plan stays in Race Week throughout.

Periodization

The AI structures training in phases based on time to your goal — early phases build aerobic base, middle phases add intensity and specificity, final phases sharpen before tapering. Training-goal templates use goal-specific phase models.

Cycling disciplines (road, MTB, gravel)

Currently IntervalCoach treats all cycling as a single sport type — workouts aren't optimized specifically for MTB or gravel. When you set a goal event, the AI analyzes the event type (endurance, racing, gran fondo, etc.) to adjust target fitness.