Calibration

Calibration is the first few weeks, when TriCoo gets to know you. The plan is calmer than usual: less volume and no hard sessions. The platform watches how you actually train, and only then starts adding.

Think of a new gym. A good coach does not load the bar with the weight from your form on day one. First they watch you move. Even if you honestly wrote that you bench a hundred.

What happens in these weeks#

Calibration lasts at least two weeks. On the home screen the Phase card says Calibration, and the week in your plan carries the same label.

• Weekly volume is at most 70 percent of what you usually train.
• The platform does not assign hard zones on its own. Targets go by feel and the talk test.
• All sessions in these weeks are easy. A beginner gets RPE 2 to 4, technique and light strength.
• For experienced athletes the methodology allows at most one moderate session a week, at RPE 5 or 6. But the platform does not put such a session into a calibration plan on its own.
• No threshold test is offered in these weeks.

These weeks should feel like something in reserve, not a stress test. That is fine.

Why experienced athletes get it too#

Calibration is switched on by what the platform sees in the data, not by your experience. Experience changes what is inside calibration, not whether it happens. Here is when a strong athlete gets it too.

No history. You signed up but did not connect a watch or load past workouts. To TriCoo you are a blank page for now. Your answers in the questionnaire matter, but the platform has not yet seen the training behind them.

A break of four weeks or more. Holiday, illness, a crunch at work. A month without training takes a clear bite out of fitness, even if your head still remembers the old volumes.

A break of two to four weeks usually brings not calibration but a gentle return: less volume than before and no new intensity. But if the platform had not yet seen your usual training before the break, there is nothing to lean on, and you get calibration.

Too few sessions. Fewer than six days with swimming, cycling or running in the last four weeks. Strength does not count here. Six days are not enough to see your usual rhythm.

There are workouts, but they cannot be assessed. For example, Strava sent a record with no data, or a workout is waiting for your effort rating. The platform counts such a day neither as rest nor as work. Seven such days in a row, or seven of the last fourteen, bring calibration. That is why rating your effort after a session matters more than it seems.

One sport has been idle for a long time. You run every day but have not swum for a month. Then only swimming is calibrated: two short easy sessions a week, no long swim and no intensity. The rest of the plan goes on as usual. The same happens if the sport is new to you. It ends after two weeks in a row with a session of that sport in each.

Thresholds do not affect calibration. If you know your threshold, it sets your zones, but it does not replace a training history.

Why it matters#

The most common mistake at the start is taking on too much at once. People remember their best form and train as if it never went away. A sharp jump in volume more often ends in overload and a forced pause.

Calibration takes that jump out of the plan. It does not guarantee against injury, nothing does. But there will be no sharp start in the plan. It also gives the platform what a plan needs so it is not a guess: your real sessions, pace, heart rate and effort ratings. They feed your load and form, and in time your thresholds too.

When it ends#

The exit is based on facts, not on the calendar. Two conditions must hold: at least two calibration weeks have passed, and the data no longer gives a reason for calibration. For example, there are at least six training days in the last four weeks and your sessions are rated.

If the planned sessions are not done, calibration continues. It is not a penalty. The platform simply still has nothing to lean on.

After calibration, growth comes in a small step. The first regular week is at most 10 percent bigger than the last calibration week. Then the usual cycle begins: a few load weeks and one easy week. More in How the plan is built.

How to make the most of it#

• Connect your watch through intervals.icu or Strava. Workouts will arrive on their own.
• If you have been training regularly in recent weeks, press Import history on the connection card. The platform will fetch six months of workouts. Best do it right away, before the first plan: then calibration may not be needed. If the plan is already built, the history counts at the next recalculation. It runs once a week on its own, from the Recalculate plan button in plan settings, or right away if the history yields a threshold.
• Do the planned sessions and rate your effort after each one. This is the most valuable data of the first weeks.
• Do not add extra on top. An extra hour now will not get you out of calibration sooner, but it may bring fatigue.

Calibration elsewhere#

The word calibration shows up in other places in TriCoo too. They are related but separate things.

• A grey readiness light means the platform is still learning your normal: heart rate variability, resting heart rate and check-in answers. This takes three to four weeks of daily data.
• The form card shows calibrating for the first 42 days and gives no hints. Form is built from your load history, and there is not much of it yet. If you imported six months of history, those 42 days are already behind you.

In all three cases the idea is the same. While there is little data, the platform says honestly that it is still looking, and does not pass off a rough guess as an exact answer.