How it works
Simple setup.
Works every day.
How onboarding works, what the coach does day-to-day, and a few tips to get the most out of it. Whether you’re self-coached or working with a human coach, the flow is the same. Full command reference is in the docs.
Signup to first plan in about 5 minutes
Free tier with a 14-day Premium trial — no card needed. Sign up on the homepage and you’re coaching from the same evening.
- Your sport — running, cycling, triathlon, swim, or hike
- What matters to you — a race with a target, or staying consistent
- Your coaching style preference — direct, supportive, or minimal
- A confirmation card showing the training baseline inferred from your Strava history — correct anything that looks off
- Any injuries, niggles, or preferences the coach should remember
- For cyclists and triathletes: your FTP (used for power-based load tracking)
Refining the basics: after onboarding, /settings is the one place to tune HR zones, FTP, body weight, personal bests, coaching style, engagement tier, sport filter, and morning check-in time. Tap a row, send a number or sentence, done.
Write descriptive activity titles
OpenPacemaker reads distance, pace, heart rate, elevation, cadence, and power — but the single biggest signal is your workout title and description.
"Easy 10k, kept it conversational" tells a very different story than "10.0 km". Include effort level, any niggles, or why the session went the way it did — it becomes part of the coaching memory.
Easy recovery jog — legs still heavy from Sunday
Tempo 3×2km @ HM pace, felt strong
Long ride 80km — bonked at 60, nutrition off
Activities sync automatically from Strava. Trigger a manual sync with /sync.
What the coach does between sessions
Morning briefing before you train. Post-session feedback after. Ask anything in plain English.
Check today's session
Easy aerobic run · 10 km · Z2 HR
Keep pace conversational. Focus on time on feet, not speed.
Post-session analysis
Avg HR 168 bpm (Z4) · 4:12/km avg pace
✅ Effort matched plan · 72% time in target zone
⚠ Last 2km HR drifted to Z5 — consider 2×4km next week.
How did it feel? Rate effort 1–10.
Ask anything
Swap Thursday for a true Z1 jog or rest day. Want me to adjust the plan?
A connector answers. A coach acts.
Strava now has a Claude connector, and it’s good for a quick look — plug in, ask a question, get an answer from your own data. But it waits for you to ask, forgets you between chats, holds no plan, and only ever sees Strava.
Everything on this page is the opposite. It reaches out first, keeps a plan and rewrites it as the week actually goes, remembers you across months and across plans, reads your Garmin recovery, and pushes structured workouts back to your watch. The connector tells you what happened — when you ask. OpenPacemaker tells you what to do tomorrow, before you do — toward a goal.
Getting the most out of it
Rate your effort. When the coach asks for an RPE (1–10) after a hard session, answer it — this single input shapes the next plan more than any other.
Log niggles early. Mention them in chat or use /wellness. The coach tracks patterns across sessions and dials back automatically.
Adjust freely in plain English. “Move Saturday’s long run to Sunday” works. So does “I’m travelling next week — lighter load please.”
Ask the bigger questions. Try “how has my training changed this month?”, “what patterns do you see?”, or “am I ready to race?” — you’ll get an honest read across your full history.
Your data is yours. /delete confirm wipes everything. Or revoke Strava access — same effect.
Full command reference: /docs
Ready to get started?
free to try & keep · upgrades available · ~5 min setup