TrainingPeaks: Sharing Your Data with Coaches and Other Professionals

How do I share my TrainingPeaks?

Sharing your TrainingPeaks data primarily involves connecting your account with a coach or exporting specific workout files or data reports, allowing for collaborative training management, performance analysis, and communication.

Introduction to Sharing TrainingPeaks Data

TrainingPeaks stands as a cornerstone platform for endurance athletes and coaches, providing a comprehensive ecosystem for planning, tracking, and analyzing training. The ability to effectively share your training data is paramount for optimizing performance, fostering effective coach-athlete communication, and ensuring a data-driven approach to your athletic development. Sharing allows coaches to monitor progress, adjust plans, and provide timely feedback, while also enabling athletes to collaborate with other support staff such as physical therapists or sports scientists.

Primary Method: Sharing with a Coach

The most common and integrated method for sharing your TrainingPeaks data is by connecting your account directly with a certified coach. This provides your coach with real-time access to your training calendar, completed workouts, metrics, and subjective feedback, enabling dynamic adjustments and informed decision-making.

To connect with a coach:

• Coach Initiates Connection: Typically, your coach will send you an invitation via email from their TrainingPeaks coach account. This is the most straightforward method. You will receive an email with a link to accept the coaching relationship.
• Athlete Initiates Connection:
  1. Log in to your TrainingPeaks account on the web.
  2. Navigate to your Settings (usually found by clicking your name or profile icon in the top right corner).
  3. Select "Coaches" or "Coach Settings" from the left-hand menu.
  4. Enter your coach's TrainingPeaks email address in the designated field and send the invitation. Your coach will then need to accept this request.

Once connected, your coach gains a detailed view of your current and past training. They can assign workouts directly to your calendar, analyze your completed sessions (including power, heart rate, pace, cadence, and GPS data), review your subjective comments, and track key performance metrics like Training Stress Score (TSS), Intensity Factor (IF), and Normalized Power (NP). This direct access streamlines the coaching process significantly.

Secondary Method: Exporting Data

While direct coach connection is ideal for ongoing relationships, there are scenarios where you might need to export specific data from TrainingPeaks for other purposes, such as sharing with a physical therapist, a sports scientist, or for personal archival.

• Exporting Individual Workouts:

  1. Navigate to the specific workout on your calendar that you wish to export.
  2. Click on the workout to open its detailed view.
  3. Look for an "Export" or "Download" option, often represented by an icon (e.g., a downward arrow) or found within a dropdown menu.
  4. You will typically be given options to export the workout in various formats, such as:
     • .FIT (Flexible and Interoperable Data Transfer): A common format for fitness data, compatible with many devices and analysis software.
     • .GPX (GPS Exchange Format): Primarily for GPS track data, useful for mapping.
     • .TCX (Training Center XML): An older Garmin format that includes more detailed performance data than GPX.
     • .CSV (Comma Separated Values): A spreadsheet-compatible format that allows for raw data analysis. Choose the format most suitable for the recipient's needs.

• Exporting Data Ranges or Reports: TrainingPeaks offers various reports and charts that can be exported for a broader overview of your training.

  1. Go to the "Reports" section of your TrainingPeaks account.
  2. Select the desired report (e.g., TSS/CTL/ATL graph, Annual Training Plan, Workout Summary).
  3. Specify the date range.
  4. Look for an "Export" or "Print" option. Some reports can be exported as PDFs or CSV files, providing a summary of your training load, progress, or specific metrics over time.

Understanding Data Privacy and Permissions

TrainingPeaks is designed with user control over data sharing. When you connect with a coach, you grant them specific permissions to view and interact with your training data. It's crucial to understand what data is being shared:

• Workout Details: All metrics recorded by your devices (power, heart rate, GPS, pace, cadence, etc.), along with any manual entries.
• Subjective Feedback: Your comments, RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion), and feelings on specific workouts.
• Health Metrics: If you choose to track them, data like weight, sleep, or mood can also be visible.
• Future Plans: Workouts assigned to your calendar by your coach.

You maintain ownership of your data. If you decide to discontinue a coaching relationship, you can easily disconnect your coach from your settings, immediately revoking their access to your account data.

Best Practices for Data Sharing

To maximize the benefits of data sharing and maintain privacy:

• Communicate Clearly: Before sharing your TrainingPeaks account, have an open discussion with your coach or any other professional about what data they need, why they need it, and how they will use it.
• Regular Review: Periodically check your "Coaches" settings in TrainingPeaks to ensure only authorized individuals have access to your account.
• Data Integrity: Ensure that the data you upload to TrainingPeaks is accurate and complete. Consistent and clean data makes for more effective analysis and coaching. Manually enter any missing data or correct erroneous entries if necessary.
• Understand Export Formats: Familiarize yourself with the different export formats and their typical uses to ensure you provide the most appropriate file type when sharing outside of the direct coach connection.

Conclusion: Leveraging Data for Optimized Performance

Sharing your TrainingPeaks data is more than just a technical step; it's a fundamental aspect of modern, data-driven athletic development. Whether you're collaborating intimately with a coach, providing insights to a physical therapist, or analyzing your own progress, the ability to seamlessly share comprehensive training data empowers more informed decisions, leads to more effective interventions, and ultimately contributes to superior athletic performance and injury prevention. By understanding and utilizing TrainingPeaks' sharing capabilities, you effectively leverage your training data as a powerful tool for achieving your fitness and performance goals.