When a ride beats your best power for a given duration, or a run beats your fastest time over a distance, IntervalCoach now tells you, in your analysis and on a card you can share. Personal records are part of every Pro, Max and trial account.
What counts
On the bike, IntervalCoach keeps your best power over nine durations, from 5 seconds to 60 minutes. On foot, it keeps your fastest time over eight distances, from 400 metres to the half marathon, including the mile. Rides, indoor rides, gravel and mountain bike rides count towards power; road and treadmill runs count towards running.
Every effort is compared with two numbers: your all-time best and your best of the current season. All-time bests get rarer the longer you have been training. Season bests keep coming as your form builds through the year, often on a hard group ride or a fast parkrun where you were not testing anything. Your season follows the one you set in Intervals.icu, with the last 12 months standing in if you never set one.
A record has to be clearly better than the best it beats, by at least 2 watts and 1% for power, or 2 seconds and 0.5% for a running time. Power meters drift a little between sessions and GPS gives a second or two either way, and a record should mean you went faster.
Where you see it
In your analysis email. A session that sets a record opens with it: the effort, the new value, the best it beat (with the date it was set, where we can find it) and the improvement. The written analysis opens with it as well. When one session sets several records, as a strong hour often sets 20, 30 and 60 minutes together, you get the single most notable one: all-time ahead of season, then the largest improvement.
As a story card. The record becomes a card sized for an Instagram story, with the effort, your new best, the previous best and the difference. Open it on your phone, from the email or from the activity in IntervalCoach, to share it or save the image. For an outdoor session the card shows your route faintly behind the numbers, with the first and last kilometre left off so your start and finish stay private. Tag @intervalcoach when you post it; we may feature it on our socials.
An example card. Yours shows your own effort, numbers and route.
As a milestone. Your first all-time record earns the Record Breaker badge, and its email carries the story card.
You can also ask Coach+ whether a ride or run was a personal best. It answers with your numbers at each duration or distance next to your bests from before that day.
Who gets it
Personal records are part of Pro, Max and the free trial. They appear in the post-workout analysis, which the free plan does not include. There is nothing to switch on: the first ride or run you record is compared with everything you have done before it.
Frequently asked questions
Which efforts does IntervalCoach track as personal records?
On the bike, your best power over 5 seconds, 30 seconds, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 60 minutes. On foot, your fastest time over 400 m, 800 m, 1500 m, the mile, 3K, 5K, 10K and the half marathon. Each one is tracked twice: as an all-time best and as a best for your current season.
Why didn't my ride count as a record?
A ride needs a power meter and a run needs distance data. The effort also has to fit inside the session, so a 50-minute ride cannot set a 60-minute best. A new best must beat the old one by at least 2 watts and 1% for power, or by at least 2 seconds and 0.5% for a running time, so that measurement noise is not celebrated. A smaller improvement is still saved as your new best and becomes the number to beat. The first time you ever ride a duration or run a distance sets the baseline and is not announced as a record.
What counts as a season?
Your season as you have set it up in Intervals.icu, so it can start in any month. If you have never created a season there, or your current one covers your whole history, IntervalCoach uses the last 12 months instead. The first effort at a duration or distance in a new season sets that season's baseline rather than counting as a record.
Do runs count?
Yes. Road runs and treadmill runs count towards your running records. Trail runs do not, because terrain decides so much of the time that a fast flat run would otherwise keep beating records set on hilly ones.
Who gets personal records?
Everyone on Pro, Max and the free trial. Records are reported in the post-workout analysis, which is part of those plans and not of the free plan.