Coach FAQ

Three ways: manually on the add-athlete page (name, email, payment day, amount), by importing an Excel .xlsx file (columns name / email / payment_day / amount, up to 5 MB), or by accepting an athlete's request from the coach directory. In club mode, added athletes belong to the club and are visible to all its coaches.

For payment tracking — no: the athlete gets reminder emails and presses "I have paid" via a link, no account needed. Registration is needed for everything else: the athlete gets a personal account, and you get their calendar, actual workouts, ratings and analytics.

The most reliable way is the "✉️ Invite to register" button in the athlete's profile: they receive an email with a link to a form where their name and email are pre-filled. Or they can register themselves at athlete-register.php — with the exact email from their card in your base: linking happens automatically by email match.

The athlete guide explains what to do after signing up; it is open without signing in, so you can share the link right away: pacetrack.ru/en/help-athlete.php.

Almost always the same cause: the registration email doesn't match the email in the card. Ask which address the athlete registered with, correct the email in the card and send the invitation again — or have the athlete find you in the directory and send a request for you to accept.

A "Directory request" banner appears in the athlete's profile: "Accept" — the athlete is linked, you get access to their calendar, plan and ratings (payments are not created automatically — set them up manually if needed); "Decline" — the request is dismissed. Until accepted, the athlete's calendar is not visible to you.

Deleting the card removes the athlete and their payments from your records. The athlete's personal account (if they registered) is not deleted — their own workouts and calendar stay with them; you simply lose access.

Yes. Your profile (in coach mode) has an "Athlete cabinet" block — the "Enable athlete cabinet" button creates your personal athlete cabinet with the same email: a calendar, watch sync, analytics, your own plans. The coach account stays, and the menu gets an "As athlete" / "As coach" switcher; at sign-in the platform opens the mode you used last. If another coach has already added you as an athlete under this email, the link is picked up automatically.

Yes — PaceTrack Coach on the App Store and on Google Play. On the phone: today’s dashboard, an athlete’s calendar, chat, workout review, payment confirmation and a video call. Creating and editing plans is still easier on the website. Athletes have a separate PaceTrack Athlete app (also on Google Play) with in-app recording and Apple Watch import.

With both roles, the profile has a separate "Delete coach cabinet" button: a confirmation link arrives by email, and the deletion is irreversible. Your athlete cabinet, workouts and integrations are preserved; registered athletes are unlinked from you, while athlete cards and payment history remain in the club. If you own a club with other coaches, transfer ownership first. With two roles, full account deletion becomes available only after the coach cabinet is deleted.

The Athletes → Import from Final Surge menu item (/finalsurge.php). It transfers, once, the history of athletes from your Final Surge teams — assignments, actual workouts, comments and self-ratings, by default for the last two years — and, with separate access, can keep PaceTrack assignments synced to Final Surge while some athletes still look at the plan there. It works under your Final Surge coach account (teams you own); access is temporary and granted by a PaceTrack admin on request from the import page.

No. Athletes team up in groups on their own, with no coach involved (Community → Groups in their dashboard): an announcement board, chats, a shared workout feed, their own events and challenges. Groups aren’t linked to you or your club: you see neither an athlete’s groups nor their feed and chats, and your chat with the athlete doesn’t mix with group chats. The athlete’s workouts in your calendar and analytics stay the same. Groups can also run their own challenges — free and only for the group’s members; they aren’t linked to your challenges.

Money does not go through PaceTrack — the athlete pays you directly (bank transfer, card, cash), while the platform handles reminders and tracking. The cycle: you add an athlete with a payment day and amount → on the payment day the athlete gets an email → transfers the money and presses "I have paid" → you get notified and confirm. The next payment record is created automatically.

"Upcoming" → "Notified" (email sent) → "Payment reported" (they pressed "I have paid" — your confirmation needed) → "Paid". Plus "Overdue" (2+ days without a reaction after notification, or your "No payment" button) and "Skipped" (you skipped the period). Any record can be manually moved to any status — for fixing mistakes.

A daily background job at 9:00 Moscow time: creates "Upcoming" records 3 days before the date, emails athletes on the payment day and then daily until paid, marks overdue records, and reminds you about unconfirmed ("Payment reported" older than 24 hours) and overdue payments. Nothing to configure; inactive athletes and closed payments get no emails.

The payment details directory (requisites.php) holds the "where to send money" texts automatically inserted into reminder emails. Several are useful if you accept payments to different cards/banks: each athlete is assigned their variant, and there's bulk assignment for groups.

The "short month" rule: if the month lacks the day, the last day of the month is used (February → 28/29), and the next month returns to your day (the 30th). Nothing to configure.

Yes — they're independent processes. Many coaches use PaceTrack purely as payment tracking: athletes don't even need to register. Planning, the calendar and analytics can be added later if and when you need them.

The "No payment" button moves the record to "Overdue" — reminders to the athlete continue. Confirmed a payment by mistake? "Cancel" returns the record to "Upcoming". For unusual cases, any record can be moved to any status manually in the athlete's payment history.

Yes, in the "Athletes" section: bulk operations on selected athletes (including payments) and bulk assignment of payment details. The list also auto-refreshes — status changes appear without reloading.

Athlete’s calendar → Weekly plan: 7 days, each with one or more workouts (Add workout, From template), moving between days, file upload with automatic AI parsing across days, Edit with AI for a single workout, and a workout clipboard (works across athletes too). A saved running or cycling workout shows its structure sketch right on the week, with the Structure and Description buttons. Workouts can be kept as drafts — the athlete doesn’t see them until published. The Notify athlete button sends them a message in chat, push and Telegram when the plan is ready.

It appears on the "Week plan" page when the athlete has a macro plan. Two steps: "Build week structure" (day roles based on the macro plan phase and the previous two weeks' history) → "Build plan" (full workouts, inserted as drafts). At each step you can leave comments and regenerate. The result is drafts: the athlete won't see them until you review and publish.

The "Macro plan" page from the athlete's calendar, sport switched by tabs: running (5K — marathon), cycling (gran fondo, group race, time trial, stage race, peak fitness) and triathlon (sprint / Olympic / half / full — one plan for all three disciplines; creating it archives active running and cycling plans). The AI builds weeks with phases, volumes and focus; it rebuilds with your comments. It's a drafting tool — you review and correct the result.

The main volume is in hours, not kilometres; the mandatory input is the weekly time budget. An optional power layer: the athlete's FTP, a workout's target TSS (with FTP set), cycling HR zones and power zones as % of FTP. Structured cycling workouts support power targets (W / % FTP / zone), cadence and ramp steps.

Athlete's profile → "Training zones": heart-rate and pace zones for running, cycling HR and power zones plus FTP. Calculate from reference values (max HR, LTHR, threshold pace) or import from the athlete's Garmin Connect. The profile also has manual threshold heart rate (LTHR) entry, separate for running and cycling.

Start on the home page: Needs attention gathers athletes with problems (overload risk, no workout two days in a row, silence, a workout on an unavailable day, poor sleep and stress from the wellbeing diary, and more), Workout data shows who hasn't uploaded, Week completion shows each athlete's completion. Then there are red counters for unviewed workouts, the 👤 icon on workouts changed by the athlete, RPE/feeling/reports, and per-athlete analytics (PMC, ACWR, plan completion) with a shared leaderboard. Once a week it is handy to run Plan check for everyone at once.

Until you save your own layout, the home page starts with Needs attention, workout data, Needs a reply, payments awaiting confirmation, week completion, plans for today, tomorrow and next week, and the activity feed. Payments are confirmed right in the block. You can change the set and order of blocks (see the next question).

Yes — the ⚙ Customize button at the top right. Add block opens a catalog (attention and risk, plan and completion, communication, money, analytics — 27 blocks in all); blocks can be dragged, removed, and many have their own settings (for example, which signals Needs attention shows). Changes save at once. Your personal practice and each club have their own layout; you can copy it from another context or bring back the default with Reset to default.

Once the athlete has left their own workout rating, that workout's page shows a "Coach Rating" block — give your own score from 0 to 10 and an optional comment. This replaced the old chat-reply flow: the rating is given directly on the workout page, clears the reminder about an unreviewed athlete workout, and sends the athlete a notification (if enabled in their notification settings).

If the actual workout is linked to a plan with a text assignment, the workout page shows a "Generate analysis" button — AI compares the assignment with the actual execution (pace, distances, heart rate, interval structure) and produces an "Assignment match" score from 0 to 10 with a short breakdown. This is a reference tool — it does not replace your own rating.

The Structure button on a running or cycling workout — in the plan window, in the card’s ⋮ menu or on a weekly plan card — opens the step builder: phases, duration by time/distance/lap button, zone targets, repeat blocks of 2–99, step notes (the athlete sees them on the watch screen). You can assemble a workout with the palette buttons (warm-up, step, recovery, repeats, cool-down) or Generate from description; the reverse button writes a description from the steps, and you can edit the description right in the structure window. A workout with a structure can be published without any text. Sending: Garmin for running and cycling, COROS and Suunto for running, Wahoo (ELEMNT) for cycling; the athlete needs that service connected. The AI reading of a description is a helper — check the result before sending.

Yes, on three levels: a single workout (card context menu), a week (week menu) or the whole plan (a switch in the athlete's profile). The athlete sees 🔒 and can't edit/move/delete, but their device sync and workout ratings keep working. You never lose editing rights yourself.

Only if you've enabled access (the plan's visibility setting) — and then in view-only mode, without editing or rebuilding. By default the macro plan is visible only to you.

Yes, view-only: in the athlete's profile and on their workout page — shoes/bike, mileage and "time to replace" / "service due" badges. If the athlete pre-assigned gear to a planned workout, a compact icon appears on the calendar card. Only the athlete edits gear.

Yes — the template library: create from scratch or from an existing workout, step structure inside a template, assignment to an athlete on a date, preview, and forwarding a template to another coach.

The athlete (or you) sets an unavailability mark in the calendar: "+" on a day → Unavailable — can't train, or can train with limits with the allowed sports, with dates and a reason. You see a strip in the athlete's calendar, get a notification, and a signal in Needs attention on your home page. Workouts on those days aren't deleted but get a ⚠ — move them yourself; Plan check and the AI planning assistant take the marks into account too.

Once a day the athlete scores sleep, feeling, everyday stress and muscle soreness (1–5) and can add weight, nutrition, Sick / Injured flags and a note. They decide what to open to coaches; by default you see sleep, feeling, stress, soreness and the flags. Where you see it: the Wellbeing diary section in the athlete's profile (a 7-day table and a Suggest keeping a diary button), lines in their calendar, signals in Needs attention (illness, injury, poor sleep two days in a row, high stress), the Group recovery block and the Recovery tab in analytics. When the athlete marks illness or injury, you get a notification.

Planning ▾ → Plan check (/plan-audit.php): pick a week and athletes, each with their own set of checks (a preset). Some checks are rule-based and free — volume compared with past weeks, a rest day, the long run, unavailability marks, illness in the wellbeing diary and more — and some use AI and spend UE per athlete. The result is an OK / Warnings / Critical status and findings with a How to fix hint and a link to the plan day.

Yes — Planning ▾ → Ready-made plans: official Bulka-team cycles (5 km, 10 km, half marathon, marathon, different target times) and your own My plans library, where you can build your own. The Ready-made plan button in an athlete's calendar starts a wizard: pick a plan and a race date — the plan is laid out on the calendar counting back from it, and conflicts with existing workouts can be replaced or skipped.

The "AI Assistant" (/ai-chat.php) is a free-form chat: ask it for your athlete list, a given athlete's readiness this week, or the contents of a questionnaire or calendar — it calls the right tools and answers. It can also propose and save a draft day/week plan at your request in the conversation, but it only publishes a plan to an athlete, sends chat messages, or rates a workout after your explicit confirmation — nothing reaches an athlete automatically. Building and rebuilding the macro plan and "Weekly Plan" remain dedicated tools on their own pages — the AI Assistant can talk about them and nudge you toward action, but the main planning workflow still lives there.

The AI Assistant is paid in UE from your account balance (the Money menu): 1 UE = 1 ₽, charged by actual usage for each answer, and you get 100 UE free the first time you open the account. Top-ups go through YooMoney, and there is a promo code field. The AI part of Plan check is also paid in UE. The AI planner in Claude via MCP doesn't spend your balance — your Claude subscription covers it.

The "Workout Search" page (in the "More" menu, /plan-semantic-search.php) searches by meaning, not exact text: for example, "tempo run on a hill" finds similar assignments across all your athletes, with filters by athlete/sport/date. Results can be opened or copied straight into the plan clipboard. The same search is also available as a tool inside the AI Assistant — you can just ask in the chat.

Yes — the "AI Planner (MCP)" block in your profile: the "Connect AI Planner" button issues a connection token (shown once, copy it right away) for an MCP connector in Claude. Claude gets the same data and tools as the built-in AI Assistant, including drafting plans — but publishing a week, sending chat messages, and rating workouts still require an explicit request in your conversation with Claude. You can disconnect at any time; the token stops working immediately.

The profile comment is a single always-current field per athlete. "Coach notes" (a link on the athlete's profile, /athlete-diary.php?id=X) is a chronological list of separate notes with full-text search across them; PaceTrack titles each entry automatically. It's well suited to building up observations about an athlete over time without overwriting earlier ones. Visible only to you; also available to the AI Assistant and AI Planner as context.

Don't confuse them with the wellbeing diary the athlete keeps: those are the athlete's own entries on sleep and feeling, open to you as they choose (see Planning and control).

Community ▾ → Events → Create event: title, description, date and time zone, format — in person (city and address, with an option to show the address only to registered people), online (a PaceTrack room in the browser or your own link) or Other, a place limit, audience — Anyone or Only my athletes, and a weekly repeat. Publishing is free; texts are checked against the rules automatically. From there PaceTrack takes registrations (including guests without an account), keeps the limit, sends emails and reminders, and you get the participant list, attendance and a CSV export. You can list the event in the open catalog /events or share it only by link.

Community ▾ → Challenges: a competition on top of the workouts athletes already upload, with no manual entry. There are three kinds — total distance over a period, Beat yourself (improve a personal record) and Streak (a run of training days), including as teams. You set the dates, sports, how people join (open, by request or by invitation) and prize tiers; the leaderboard counts itself. In the club context you create a club challenge. Details are in the challenges guide.

You choose the team mode when creating the challenge. Fixed — you create the teams and assign participants on the management card. Open — athletes create teams themselves and invite each other with an 8-character code; they can move to another team. You can set the minimum and maximum team size and the team cap. A team result is the sum of its confirmed members’ results; a team below the minimum gets no place and no prize. Prize tiers apply to the team total, and every member of a prize-winning team gets the prize. A whole athlete group can enter an open-teams challenge as one team, but your challenge’s eligibility still applies: without external participants only your athletes count. A guide for athletes that is handy to send as a link is the challenges guide.

A club is a shared workspace for several coaches: a single base of athletes and payments available to all club members. Each coach's personal (individual) mode is kept separate — club and personal athletes never mix.

Creation — /club/create.php (you become the owner). Coaches are invited by email from the members page: the invitation link is valid for 7 days; if the invitee has no account, they can register right through it. The owner can rename the club, upload a logo, transfer ownership and delete the club.

A dropdown in the header: pick a club — and all sections (athletes, payments, dashboard, AI assistant) work in that club's context; assistant chats are shared. Pick "Coach (individual)" — you're back to personal athletes and personal chats. The choice is remembered between sessions. Athletes added in club mode belong to the club.

A coach without a club: profile → "Public card in the directory" → enable visibility. A club: club settings → "Show the club in the directory". If you belong to a club, your personal card is not shown separately — athletes see the club's card. The directory is visible to registered athletes in their "Coaches" section.

A photo or logo plus a description up to 2000 characters with formatting: specialization (running/cycling/triathlon, distances), experience and athletes' results, work formats and a price guide. The directory shows a preview of the first ~160 characters — lead with what matters most.

You get an email, the athlete gets a "Directory request" badge in your list, and their profile shows a banner with "Accept" / "Decline" buttons. Until accepted, their calendar is not visible to you. The athlete can message you in chat right after sending — reply promptly, it's their first impression.

Not yet — the directory is a simple list of cards without sport or city filters and without ratings. That makes the card description all the more important: athletes choose by it.