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.

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.

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.

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 → "Week plan": 7 day cards, drag-and-drop, file upload with automatic AI parsing across days, a workout clipboard (works across athletes too). 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.

Several levels: the "Workout facts" dashboard block (who hasn't uploaded a workout for yesterday/the day before), red counters for unviewed facts and ratings, the 👤 icon on workouts edited by the athlete, RPE/feeling/reports with follow-up questions, and per-athlete analytics (PMC, ACWR, overload risk, plan execution) with an overall leaderboard.

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 — a step builder: phases, duration by time/distance/lap button, zone targets, repeat blocks of 2–99, step comments (the athlete sees them on the watch screen). "Save and send to Garmin" puts the workout into the athlete's Garmin calendar (their Garmin must be connected); cycling workouts can also go to Wahoo/ELEMNT. The AI can build steps from the text description — review 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 "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 "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. Search is free and doesn't spend UE.

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. Requests to Claude are billed under your own Claude subscription, not through PaceTrack's account balance.

The profile comment is a single always-current field per athlete. The "Athlete Diary" (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.

Units (UE) are the platform's internal currency for paid features: the built-in AI Assistant and buying ready-made training plans from the shop (1 UE = 1 ₽). The first time you open your personal balance page (/wallet.php) you get a free 100 UE welcome grant. In club context the assistant is shared by all club coaches (one chat history) and billed from the club account; a new club starts with 200 UE. After that, top up with presets (e.g. 100–2000 UE) via YooMoney; the ruble amount already includes the payment processor's fee and tax, and the full UE amount is credited to your balance. A coach balance, a club balance, and an athlete-cabinet balance are not shared.

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, account balance, AI assistant) work in that club's context; assistant chats are shared and spend comes from the club account. Pick "Coach (individual)" — you're back to personal athletes, your personal account 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.

There's no commission on your athlete income — athletes pay you directly. You can support the project with a donation.

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.