Set up your training plan

Three steps, about 15 minutes, before your first run. You only do this once.

Create a free intervals.icu account

Your plan lives on your intervals.icu calendar, dated to your race. intervals.icu is a free training log that sends each workout to your watch and shows how your runs went. Sign up with your email or with Strava.

Already have an account? Skip to step 2.

Connect your watch

  1. In intervals.icu, open Settings → Connections.
  2. Connect your watch's account: Garmin Connect, COROS, Polar, Suunto, Wahoo, Amazfit or Huawei Health.
  3. Tick "Upload planned workouts". It's off by default, and without it your workouts won't reach your watch.
  4. Tick "Download activities" too, so your runs come back to intervals.icu and show against your plan.

Workouts usually reach the watch within a few minutes, and on Garmin they appear in your training calendar. If one doesn't arrive, check the "Upload planned workouts" tick first.

Set your three numbers

Every pace and heart rate in your plan is worked out from these, so your workouts fit you. Enter them in intervals.icu under Settings → Run.

  • Max HRThe highest heart rate you've seen, at a race finish or in an all-out effort. Your easy runs are 60–70% of it.
  • Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR)The highest heart rate you can hold for about an hour. It's the ceiling for your sub-threshold sessions.
  • Threshold PaceAbout the pace you could hold for an hour. Your session paces are set from it. Work it out from a recent 5K or 10K with the race time calculator.

Finding your heart-rate numbers

Threshold heart rate: from a recent race (best)

Use the average heart rate from a race you ran hard from start to finish.

  • A race lasting 45–75 minutes (a 10K or 15K for most runners): your average is your threshold heart rate.
  • A half marathon: divide your average by 0.96. An average of 160 gives a threshold of about 167.

Threshold heart rate: the 30-minute test

  1. Warm up with 10–15 minutes of easy running.
  2. Run 30 minutes as hard as you can hold evenly, on your own, on flat ground or a track.
  3. Press the lap button 10 minutes in. Your average heart rate for the last 20 minutes is your threshold heart rate.
  4. Cool down for 10 minutes.

Only know your max?

Your threshold heart rate is about 0.88 × your max. A max of 190 gives a threshold of about 167.

Work it out

Wrist heart rate can jump around in hard efforts. If your race average looks far from 0.88 × your max, use a chest strap or the 30-minute test. There's no need to retest: if a later race of 45 minutes or more gives a different figure, update it the same way.

During your plan

  • Moving a workout: drag it to another day in your intervals.icu calendar. Keep an easy day or a rest day between two hard sessions.
  • After each time trial: put the result into the race time calculator and update your Threshold Pace. Every session pace updates with it.
  • Want a different plan? You can change plan from MyRaceHub at any time up to race day. With a subscription you can also move race day.

Need a hand?

Email support@myracehub.com.au with your plan name and what you're stuck on.