Training Programs

Follow a run or walk plan that builds up week by week. Pick a program, start it, and SparkyFitness keeps your place, shows when each workout falls and puts the workout in your Diary on the days you train.

The same program is on web and mobile. It is stored on your account, so a change on one device (or by the Sparky assistant) shows on the other.

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Finding it

• Web: open the Exercises page and use Open training programs in the Training programs section, or go to /exercises/training-programs.
• Mobile: Library > Training programs.

Training programs are personal. They are not available while you are acting on behalf of a family member, and a delegate cannot see or change yours.

Starting a program

With no program yet, the page lists the built-in programs with a short description, how the weeks are laid out, and what week 1 looks like. They run from walking for fitness and return-to-running plans, through 5K and 10K plans, to half marathon and marathon plans.

Some programs come in two versions. Use 3 runs a week or 4 runs a week on the card to choose; the four-run version adds a short easy run so the long run is a smaller share of your week.

1. Choose Start program on a program.
2. Pick when the first workout is: Start today, or pick a later date and choose Start on that date.

If you already have a program, choosing a different one asks first. Switching starts the new program at week 1 and switches it on; your place in the old one is not kept, but your run days, first day and goal date stay.

The programs you made in the mobile app appear under Your plans and start the same way. Creating and editing your own plans, and the race plan builder, are in the mobile app only for now.

Following the program

Once a program is running, the top of the page shows the program card:

• Today's workout and your place, such as "Workout 4 of 27 done". A change Sparky or you made to the plan in the last two weeks is shown under it.
• Mark workout as done moves on to the next workout. Use it when you did the workout somewhere else; the web app does not record runs itself. The server only moves on if that workout was the one due, so pressing it twice does nothing extra.
• Skip moves on without doing the workout. Start over goes back to the first workout.
• Choose a different workout jumps to any workout, to repeat one or start further in. Finished workouts are ticked.
• The switch at the top turns the program on or off. Off keeps your place but stops the Diary offering workouts.

Schedule

• Run days are the weekdays you plan to train. The Diary shows the workout on those days, one workout per day. A workout you miss is not skipped: it stays due and the dates after it move along. Leave the days empty to be offered the next workout every day.
• First workout sets the first day the Diary offers a workout. Nothing shows before it.
• Goal date is optional, for example a race day. Nothing is scheduled after it, and the schedule says whether the program fits before it.

The schedule and calendar

Below the card, Schedule lays the workouts on a month view:

• Days with a finished workout are green, the workout that is due is blue, and workouts still to come are a lighter blue. Select a day to see its workouts.
• With run days chosen, it shows the day the program finishes and, with a goal date, whether you are on track or finish after it.
• Coming up lists the next workouts and their dates.

Catching up

If the last workout would fall after your goal date, the schedule offers to skip the fewest of the next workouts that makes it fit, for example "Skip 2 workouts". At most 3 are skipped and the last workout (the race, in a race plan) is never skipped. If more than that is needed, it only tells you how many workouts do not fit, so you can add run days or move the goal date. Nothing changes until you press the button.

In the Diary

On a day the program has a workout for you, the Exercise card in the Diary shows it in the style of a scheduled workout plan:

• Scheduled Today on a run day, with a Mark as done button.
• Scheduled on a later day, showing what is coming.
• Up next when you have not chosen run days.

Nothing shows before the first day, after the goal date, once today's workout is done, or when the program is off or finished. Open program goes to the training programs page.

Related

• GPS Activity Recording: record the workout on your phone.
• Interval & WOD Workouts
• Running Trends