Planned sessions on your watch or bike computer

What is sent, and when

• The sessions come from the program your Coach or your trainer wrote for you, and only the endurance ones (running, cycling and a few more sports: each path below lists its own).
• Gym sessions are never sent. Neither are sessions you add to the calendar by hand.
• Nothing is sent while the app is closed. Forgade sends when you open it, when you come back to it and when the calendar changes. If a session is missing, open the app.
• Every switch is off until you turn it on. With the switch off, nothing leaves your phone.
• The last step belongs to the device brand's own app (Garmin Connect, the Wahoo app and so on): the session reaches the device when that app syncs.

Garmin, Suunto, COROS or Wahoo, through Intervals.icu

Forgade writes your sessions into your Intervals.icu calendar, and Intervals.icu passes them to the devices you have connected there. You need an Intervals.icu account.

Steps

1. Connect your device in Intervals.icu

   On intervals.icu open Settings, find the connection for your brand (Garmin Connect, Wahoo, Suunto or COROS), connect it and tick “Upload planned workouts”. The brand asks you to authorise Intervals.icu: accept. You can also limit which workouts go up.

2. Get the API key and the athlete ID

   Still in Intervals.icu Settings, under “Developer Settings”, generate an API key. The athlete ID is the code that starts with i in the address of your calendar (for example i12345).

3. Enter them in Forgade

   Open Settings › Cloud & Sync › Intervals.icu. Paste the athlete ID and the API key, then tap “Test connection”. You should read “Connected to Intervals.icu.”

4. Turn on the sending

   Turn on “Send planned sessions to Intervals.icu” and tap “Send now”. A line under the switch says how many sessions are in sync.

5. Sync your device

   Open Garmin Connect, the Wahoo app, or the app of your brand, and let the device sync. The session is on the device for its day. Where it shows up depends on the model: look in the Training or Workouts menu.

What to expect

• Forgade creates in Intervals.icu the sessions of the next 14 days, as workouts with the session's title and steps. The brands take less: Intervals.icu describes about the next 7 days for Garmin, Wahoo and COROS, and “the next week or so” for Suunto. Later sessions arrive when they enter the window.
• Moves, edits and removals in Forgade follow on Intervals.icu. If you edit a session on Intervals.icu, Forgade writes its own version back the next time that session changes. An event you delete on Intervals.icu is not recreated until the session changes in Forgade.
• Sports sent to Intervals.icu: running (also on the treadmill), cycling (also indoor), walking, hiking, swimming, rowing and cross-country skiing. Whether your device takes each one is up to Intervals.icu and the brand.
• Turning the switch off leaves the sessions already sent. Delete them from the Intervals.icu calendar.
• Wahoo: through this path the ELEMNT gets the sessions from the Wahoo app. Use this path or “Wahoo ELEMNT, straight from Forgade”, not both: each one writes its own copy and you would see the session twice.
• Suunto: Intervals.icu sends the sessions as SuuntoPlus Guides. When it announced this, in 2022, it listed the Suunto 3, 5 and 9 families. Check that your model is supported.
• COROS: Intervals.icu sends a 7-day plan called “Intervals.icu”. The first time, start it in the COROS app (Profile › Training plan library › Intervals.icu training plan › Start training plan).
• Polar is not among the brands Intervals.icu uploads to in the pages we read. See the Polar section.

Sources:

• Intervals.icu forum: Upload planned workouts to Garmin Connect (the developer, August 2020)
• Intervals.icu forum: Upload planned workouts to Wahoo (the developer, 2 May 2024)
• Intervals.icu forum: Upload workouts to Suunto watches (the developer, 29 March 2022)
• Intervals.icu forum: COROS and structured workouts
• Intervals.icu forum: API access to Intervals.icu (where to generate the API key)

Wahoo ELEMNT, straight from Forgade

Forgade connects to your Wahoo account and creates the sessions there. It needs your Forgade account; Intervals.icu is not needed.

Steps

1. Sign in to Forgade

   The Wahoo connection goes through your Forgade account. If you are not signed in, the app tells you.

2. Connect Wahoo

   Open Settings › Cloud & Sync › Wahoo and tap “Connect Wahoo”. Read the notice, continue and accept on Wahoo's page. You come back to the app with Wahoo connected.

3. Turn on the sending

   Turn on “Send planned sessions to Wahoo”, which is off by default, and tap “Update now”.

4. Sync the ELEMNT

   Open the Wahoo app and let the head unit sync. On the ELEMNT, look in the Workouts menu. The exact steps depend on the model: see Wahoo's articles below.

What to expect

• Window: today and the next 6 days. The ELEMNT shows a planned workout only inside this window. Later sessions are sent when they enter it, and only when you open Forgade.
• Sports: structured and easy sessions of cycling (road, gravel, mountain bike, e-bike, indoor) and running (road, trail, treadmill). Other sports are not sent and are counted in the line under the switch.
• Wahoo has no ramps: Forgade splits a ramp into steps of one minute.
• Targets in % of FTP or % of maximum heart rate need your FTP or maximum heart rate in the Forgade profile. Without them the session is not sent and is counted.
• Moves, edits and removals in Forgade follow on Wahoo. Turning the switch off leaves the sessions already sent.
• Disconnecting Wahoo removes from Wahoo the sessions Forgade sent from today on, revokes the access and deletes the tokens from the phone.

Sources:

• Wahoo: Planned workouts with ELEMNT ACE, BOLT 3 or ROAM 3
• Wahoo: Planned Workouts (ELEMNT)
• Wahoo: Planned Workouts on ELEMNT RIVAL

Apple Watch

Forgade can put your structured sessions in the Workout app of the Apple Watch. It needs an iPhone with iOS 17 or later and a paired Apple Watch: without them the section does not appear in the app.

Steps

1. Open the Apple Watch section

   Open Settings › Cloud & Sync › Apple Watch sessions.

2. Turn on the sending

   Turn on “Send structured sessions to Apple Watch”. The first time, iOS asks permission: allow it. A line under the switch says how many sessions are on the watch. “Send now” repeats the sending.

3. Or send a single session

   In the Training calendar, tap the watch icon on a session card, then “Preview” (Apple's preview, with the option to add it) or “Schedule” (on its day). In the cockpit workouts list, the “Watch” chip opens the preview.

4. Open the Workout app on the watch

   The sessions are listed in the Workout app with Forgade's name and icon, and in the Fitness app on the iPhone.

What to expect

• The automatic sending covers the next 7 days, up to 15 sessions at a time (Apple's limit). Beyond that, Forgade says how many were left out.
• Sports: running, cycling, walking, hiking, rowing and cross-country skiing. Swimming and gym are not sent.
• Only sessions with steps go this way. Easy sessions without steps are not sent to the Apple Watch.
• If a target is not supported for the sport, the session goes without it and Forgade says so.
• If you refused the permission, allow it in the Watch app, under Workout.
• Apple Health is for the workouts you have done. It is not a way to send planned sessions.

Sources:

• Apple, WWDC23: Build custom workouts with WorkoutKit

Polar

Forgade cannot send sessions to a Polar watch. The connection Polar offers to apps only lets Forgade read your data (workouts, daily activity, physical data) and nothing can be written to your Polar account. There is no switch and no file for Polar in Forgade. What you can do is create the session by hand in Polar Flow.

Create the session in Polar Flow

1. Read the session in Forgade

   Note the blocks: duration or distance, and the intensity of each one.

2. Create a phased target

   On flow.polar.com open Favorites in the top menu and choose “Phased”. In the Flow app: Training, add a target, Phased. Add a phase for each block, by duration or distance, with its intensity (heart rate, speed or power), and use Repeat for the sets.

3. Save and sync

   Save it to Favorites and to the diary on its day, then sync the watch with the Flow app or FlowSync.

Good to know

• Which targets a phase can have depends on the watch model. Polar's page lists the models that support power-based phases: check yours.
• After the session, connect Polar to Forgade (Settings › Cloud & Sync › Polar) to read the workout back in your history.

Sources:

• Polar: How do I create a training target in Polar Flow web service?
• Polar: Create a training target in the Polar Flow app
• Polar AccessLink API (the connection Forgade uses to read)

A file to import, FIT or ZWO

The workouts list of the cockpit can export a workout as a file. This is for the workouts in that list, yours and the built-in ones. The sessions of your program calendar do not export as files: they travel through the paths above.

Steps

1. Set your FTP and maximum heart rate

   The targets are written in watts and bpm. Without an FTP and a maximum heart rate in your profile, Forgade uses 250 W and 190 bpm.

2. Open the workout and tap ZWO or FIT

   In the cockpit open the workouts list (“WORKOUTS”). Each workout has a ZWO chip and a FIT chip. The phone opens the share sheet: save the file to Files, or send it to a computer.

3. Import it where you train

   Pick the destination below.

Where to import it

• Zwift (ZWO): on a PC or Mac, copy the file into Documents/Zwift/Workouts/ followed by your Zwift ID, then start Zwift. The workout is under Custom Workouts.
• Garmin (FIT): connect the device with a USB cable, copy the file into its Garmin folder, NewFiles (on some devices Workouts), and eject it. The workout should appear under Training › Workouts. Restart the device if it does not.
• Intervals.icu (ZWO or FIT): in the library (book icon) open the three-dot menu and choose Import workout, then drag the workout onto the calendar. Intervals.icu sends it to the device if you did the first path.
• Forgade writes FIT files for running and cycling. We have not been able to try the files on every device: if yours refuses a FIT file, import the ZWO into Intervals.icu.
• If you change your FTP or maximum heart rate, export the workout again.

Sources:

• Zwift: Custom Workouts
• 80/20 Endurance: How to load a FIT file on your Garmin device (not an official Garmin page)
• Intervals.icu forum: Import workout FIT file

Easy sessions, with a single step

Many easy sessions of a program say only how long and how hard. Intervals.icu and Wahoo cannot show a session without steps, so Forgade sends it as a workout with one step.

How it is sent

• The step lasts the planned duration of the session and carries the session title as its name.
• It has a numeric target only if all the work blocks of the session give the same closed range in the same measure: watts (cycling only), heart rate in bpm, or pace (running only). Otherwise the step is free: no target.
• If the session gives only the perceived effort (RPE), the step has no target and the effort is written in the text, for example “RPE 3-4”. On Wahoo it is in the name of the interval, which the ELEMNT shows.
• A session without a planned duration is not sent and is counted among the ones not sent.
• Walking and the sports Wahoo does not have are not sent to Wahoo. Gym is never sent. The Apple Watch path takes only sessions with steps.
• Moves, edits and removals follow, as for the other sessions.