Athlete Weekly Availability/Limitations Input

[Glen_Smetherham]

Hi @david and Intervals.icu community,

First off, thanks for the amazing platform! It’s incredibly powerful for analysis and planning.

Problem: One challenge in coaching is efficiently gathering athlete training availability before planning the upcoming week(s). Currently, methods like calendar notes or chat messages work but are manual for both athlete and coach, prone to inconsistent formatting, and can get lost in other communications. This often leads to needing revisions after the plan is posted if it doesn’t fit unexpected constraints. Knowing max available time, specific sport restrictions (e.g., no pool access, travelling without a bike), or time-of-day limitations upfront would make planning much more efficient and realistic. Several other coaching platforms (TrainingPeaks, Final Surge) have dedicated features to address this common workflow need.

Proposed Solution: Introduce a dedicated “Weekly Availability” feature.

• Athlete Input:
  • Accessed via a button on the Calendar or in Athlete Settings.
  • Presents a simple weekly grid (Mon-Sun).
  • For each day, the athlete can input:
    • Max Time: (e.g., 2h, 45m) - Maximum time available for training.
    • Sport Constraints: Checkboxes/toggles for permitted activity types (Ride, Run, Swim, Strength, etc.), perhaps defaulting to all allowed unless specified otherwise.
    • Daily Note (Optional): Brief notes like “AM only,” “Gym access only,” “Travel day.”
  • Could allow setting a “Default Week” template and then easily overriding specific upcoming weeks as needed.
• Coach View:
  • When viewing the athlete’s calendar, the coach can easily see this availability. Ideas for display:
    • Toggle Overlay: An icon (maybe a clock or availability symbol) toggles a display showing Max Time/Sport Constraints at the top/bottom of each day block.
    • Hover/Click Info: Hovering over/clicking a day reveals the availability details.
    • Planning Panel Info: Displaying the day’s availability within the workout planning panel when dragging/editing a workout for that day.

Benefits:

• Coach Efficiency: Saves significant time by reducing back-and-forth communication and plan revisions.
• Realistic Planning: Allows coaches to create plans that genuinely fit the athlete’s life from the start.
• Improved Athlete Compliance/Satisfaction: Athletes receive plans they can actually execute, reducing stress and improving consistency.
• Structured Communication: Provides a clear, consistent channel for this specific information.

This feature would significantly enhance the coach-athlete planning workflow within Intervals.icu.

Thanks for considering!

Cheers
Glen

[dieperid]

I agree with this article, I have an athlete who has a flexible work schedule and every week it changes so I have to adapt the plan. But to do that, I have to ask him at the beginning of each week what his schedule is, so @Glen_Smetherham idea is indispensable in this case!

I hope this will soon be a new feature

[havella]

This is a good feature to have

[Chris_Berry]

This would be an amazing feature!

[DoctorNerd]

Would very much like to see this feature!

[Giacomo_Rizzo]

I have been thinking about this, and came up with an idea: it would be nice to be able to define “usual” (recurring) time availability, and then make edits for a specific day (I might usually have 3 hours free on Wednesday afternoon, but this wed I have a meeting, so I can only go 1 hour and in the morning, before work)

I was imagining something alike “available slots” in a calendar, where workouts can then be used to “fill” the available time. This would also open up an opportunity for future enhancements, such as visually adding awareness of recovery time (color gradient?) to optimize workout placement within availability

[Antoinette_Tinker]

We have added availability fields to the following events: Holiday, Sick, Injured and Notes

The availability summary will display on the calendar

We plan to add default availability, but we are still evaluating how to add it to the UX.

[Glen_Smetherham]

This will be extremely helpful. Thank you

[Glen_Smetherham]

Hi again

I’ve been meaning for a while to request the ability to get a notification when a coached athlete adds a note. This new feature has reminded me of that as it would be very helpful if a coach got a notification when an athlete adds or changes availability on a note (or other calendar entry).
If a day becomes unavailable or the athlete has limited time, a notification would help stay on top of things quickly instead of waiting until looking at their calendar again.
In general, having the option to get a notification when an athlete adds any note would be very helpful.
Hopefully this is something that could easily be implemented.

Cheers
Glen