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How to use TrainerCycle

A quick walkthrough of everything the app can do, in the order you'd actually use it.

Setting your FTP

Everything in TrainerCycle is built around your FTP (Functional Threshold Power) — it's what every %FTP target in every workout is calculated from.

  1. Open Settings and find the FTP box.
  2. Enter your number and hit Save. It's saved to your account, so it applies everywhere — Live Ride, Plans, the library's Intensity Factor numbers, all of it.

There's also a Weight box just below it — enter your weight in kg to see your power-to-weight ratio (W/kg), a common fitness benchmark. It's shown as a static reference in Settings, and live next to your watts number while riding.

Don't know your FTP? Run the Ramp Test from the library (see Riding Live below) — it suggests a new FTP automatically based on your best minute of power, and shows whether it's an increase or decrease (with the percentage) before you accept it. FTP shifts as your fitness changes, so it's worth retesting every 6-8 weeks or so — if you're following a plan that doesn't end with a built-in test, we'll prompt you to retest once it's complete, before suggesting what to do next.

Building a workout

Hit Create Workout on the Workouts page to build your own structured workout from scratch, on its own dedicated page.

Add a single step

  1. Set a duration (mm:ss), a target type (% FTP, Watts, or % HRmax), and a low/high range.
  2. Click Add step. It appears in the step list below, colored by intensity zone.

Add an interval set

For repeated work/recovery blocks (e.g. 4x8 minutes), use the Add interval set form instead — set the work duration/target, recovery duration/target, and how many repetitions, and it builds the whole block in one go.

Save it

Give it a name and click Save to library. It's now yours, synced to your account, and available from every page's workout picker — but only visible to you, not other users.

Using the library

Every workout you've built, plus a large set of prebuilt ones (Recovery through VO2 Max, Threshold, Over/Unders, Anaerobic, and the FTP Test) live in the library on the Workouts page.

Following a plan

The Plans page groups plans into four phases — Foundation (new to training, limited time, or coming back from something), Base (building your aerobic engine), Build (sweet spot work raising sustainable power), and Specialty (threshold/VO2 sharpening) — shown as a roadmap at the top of the page so it's clear how they connect before you pick one. New to structured training? Start with 8-Week Beginner Foundation — it's gentle, and includes built-in deload weeks (lighter, easier weeks marked right on the plan) so you actually recover as you build. Use the rides/week filter to find one that fits how much time you've actually got, from 2 rides a week up to 5.

Click a plan to expand its week-by-week breakdown, including rest days. Click any day's workout name and it jumps straight into Live Ride or TrainerStrength (whichever fits that day) with the session loaded and ready to go.

Hit Follow Plan on one you want to commit to — it aligns to the coming Monday and shows a banner at the top of the page with your current week and next scheduled session, one tap away. Not feeling that particular session? Skip moves you on to the next one without losing your place in the plan. Finish a plan and, where there's a natural next step, we'll suggest it directly — no need to go hunting for what to do next.

Building your own plan

The Plan builder (Training → Plan builder) makes a plan exactly how you want it, week by week. Start from scratch, copy one of the TrainerCycle plans, or pick Triathlon or duathlon.

Triathlon and duathlon plans are built around your race: sprint, Olympic or 70.3 triathlon, or a sprint or standard duathlon. Pick the race date, the days you can train and your experience, and you get base, build and peak weeks with a lighter week every fourth week, bricks on the long ride day, then a taper and race week. The race shows a countdown on Today. You can change any session before saving it.

Logging swims

Log a swim from the Ride button (Log a swim), from Today, or from Rides: enter the time, distance, pool or open water and how it felt. If Strava is connected, swims come in by themselves.

Swims count towards your Fitness, Fatigue and Form. Swim TSS uses your CSS (critical swim speed), the swimming version of FTP, which you set in Settings from a 400 m and a 200 m time trial. It also sets the paces in plan swim sessions.

Notes, logged activities and single workouts

On the Calendar, click or tap any day (or use + Add) for three options:

Riding live

Connect your gear

  1. Open Live Ride in Chrome or Edge (Safari/iOS doesn't support the Bluetooth this needs).
  2. Click Connect trainer and pick your trainer from the browser's device list.
  3. Optionally click Connect HR strap too.
A trainer connection is required before you can start a ride — this stops you from starting a session that won't actually control resistance.

Pick a workout and start

Choose a workout from the menu (or "Free ride" if you just want to monitor without a script), then hit Start. The overview chart shows your whole ride's planned intensity with your live power/HR traced on top; the zoomed chart below it shows just the current step in detail. Your watts number changes color live based on which intensity zone you're in relative to your FTP, and if you've entered a weight in Settings, your live W/kg shows right alongside it.

While riding

The Ramp Test

A structured warm-up followed by 1-minute steps rising in intensity until you can't hold on any more — stop it whenever you need to. It works out your best minute of power from the actual data and suggests a new FTP, clearly marked as an increase or decrease (with the percentage change) versus your current number, with a popup to accept or keep what you've got.

Strength sessions

Open TrainerStrength, pick a session (Full Body, Upper Body, Legs, Core, Push/Pull Day, or the hip/glute-focused Knee & Hip Support routine), and hit Start.

For each set, log the weight and the reps you did, then tap how many more you could have done (0 to 4+). Everything is filled in from last time, so most sets are one tap on Log set, and the rest timer starts when you log. Planks and other holds log seconds instead of reps. Use the dropdown to switch to the version you do, such as a goblet squat or a barbell back squat; each version keeps its own history.

Your weights are chosen for you. Each exercise has a rep range, such as 8–12. The first time you do one, the app starts from a light guess based on your body weight and lifting experience (Settings → Strength), then moves the next set up or down from how many reps you had left. After that, once every set reaches the top of the range with a rep or more to spare, the weight goes up to your next dumbbell and the reps start again from the bottom. Two sessions short of the range drops it about 10%, and after more than two weeks off it starts 10% lighter. If you had a hard ride in the last 24 hours, or your Form is very low, it holds the weight rather than going up. Body-weight moves suggest a harder version when they get easy, and holds go up 5 seconds at a time. The reason for each suggestion shows above the weight, and you can always change it.

Strength programmes. Under Programme on the TrainerStrength page, pick a multi-week block: Cyclist Strength (12 weeks: Build, Strength, then Maintain, with deloads in weeks 4 and 8), In-season Maintenance (one short, heavy session a week), Home Dumbbells, Bodyweight Start or Knee & Hip Support. Each phase changes the sets, rep range and rest. Sessions appear on Today and the Calendar. If you follow a training plan, they use its strength days first, then rest days, and avoid the day before a ride where they can. Without a plan, the programme is your plan.

Set the dumbbells, kettlebells and other kit you own in Settings → Strength. The weight buttons then step through only the weights you have. Your lifts on the TrainerStrength page shows every exercise you've logged with a chart, and your best sets appear under Records.

Build your own session. Under Workout on TrainerStrength, tap + Build a session: name it, pick exercises, and set the sets, rep range (or hold time) and rest for each. Tick Superset with the one above to do two exercises in rounds (one set of each, then rest). To start from a library session, pick it and tap Copy and edit. Your sessions are listed under Your sessions, and you can add them to plans and calendar days like any other strength session. Weights and progression work the same way.

Strength around your riding. If a leg-heavy strength session lands the day before a hard ride, test, race, brick or fast run, Today suggests moving it to a nearby day that keeps your legs fresh. In a big riding week (well above your usual riding, or Form below -20), sessions start as a lighter version with 2 sets of each exercise; tap Do the full session to do it all, or turn this off in Settings → Strength. Leg-heavy sessions also count a little more towards your training load than upper-body or core sessions.

Goals and retests. Tap See your lifts and goals, pick a lift and tap Set a goal: a weight and reps (or reps, or a hold time for bodyweight moves and planks), with a date if you want one. Your goals show under Your lifts with how close you are, and a goal is ticked off the moment you log a set that meets it. Retest these lifts builds a short session of one all-out set for each of your main weighted lifts, then compares your estimated max with your best from 2 to 4 months ago. If you follow a programme, a Retest link appears in its last week and compares against your first two weeks.

During a session. The menu bar hides so the session fills the screen (tap × at the top right to bring it back). The strip at the top shows each exercise filling up as you go; tap it to see the whole session. The headline is the weight and reps to aim for, and Log set is always at the bottom. While you rest, a ring counts down and Up next shows the next exercise with its weight, so you can set up. The timer beeps and vibrates for its last 3 seconds; tap +30 s for a longer rest. Tap ⋯ to swap or skip an exercise, turn the beeps off, pause or stop. Swap exercise changes the current move to another version (which becomes your usual one) or to a similar move for that session only, for example when the bench is taken. Skip exercise drops its remaining sets. Barbell lifts show the plates to load on each side of a 20 kg bar, and the first set of a heavy lift lists warm-up sets to do first (these aren't logged). If the page reloads or your phone closes it, open TrainerStrength again within 12 hours and it offers to pick up where you left off, with your logged sets intact.

Progress → Strength. The Strength tab shows your hard sets each week by muscle group (legs, push, pull and core) with a note when they're lopsided, a trend for each lift (estimated max, best reps or longest hold), and your body weight. Log your weight there or in Settings; the latest weigh-in keeps your W/kg and starting weights up to date. During a session, a set that beats your best for that exercise shows New best on the rest screen.

When you finish, the session is saved to your history in Progress with every set, and ticks off the strength day in your plan or calendar. Stop part-way through and you can choose to save what you did. Strength sessions add a little to your training load: about 25 to 55 TSS an hour, more when your sets were close to the limit or worked your legs.

Reviewing rides

Every completed (or manually stopped) ride from Live Ride is saved automatically to Rides — no extra step needed. Each entry shows duration, average power, Normalized Power, Intensity Factor, and heart rate stats.

Rides and runs brought in from Strava show their route on a map. Activities imported before maps were added get their routes over the next few Strava syncs.

Suggested rides

On days with nothing planned, Today suggests a ride from the library. It looks at:

Pick how long you want to ride and it picks a workout of that length, or within 5 minutes of it. If nothing in the library is that close, it shows the nearest length and says so. Tap Something else for a different kind of ride, and Tired or Fresh if you feel different from what your numbers say. On a plan day, Short on time? finds a shorter workout in the same zone that still ticks off the day.

The same suggestion is at the top of Workouts, and Live Ride has it ready when nothing else is planned.

Fitness, performance and records

Progress has four tabs:

Your account

Settings is also where you manage your subscription — update your card, view invoices, or cancel, all through the Manage Subscription button. Something not working, or got a question? Use the Contact Support button right there too.

Tips & troubleshooting