Switching an athlete's zone system: what to expect

The change is display-only

Switching an athlete from Yousuli to Coggan (or back) is a display-only change. It does not change:

• The athlete's threshold metrics (CP, FTP, W', etc.).
• Their training load (Load, Fitness, Fatigue, Form).
• Their stored activity time-in-zone data.
• Their existing race plans or saved calculator results.
• Their assessments or wellness logs.

It only changes how the bike power zone table is named and how time-in-zone bars are labelled.

How to switch

1. Open the athlete edit page: /coach/athlete/<public_id>/edit/.
2. Find the Zone system bike dropdown.
3. Pick the new system.
4. Save.

The new band display appears on next page load.

What changes immediately

• The dashboard zone table on the athlete's dashboard now shows the new system's bands.
• Activity detail pages render time-in-zone bars with the new band names.
• The sport analytics page reflects the new bands.
• The PDF sport report renders the new bands when regenerated.

What you should communicate

If the athlete is actively training off the Hub's prescriptions, tell them about the change. Example message:

I switched your bike zones to Coggan today. Your threshold numbers did not change. The band names did. Z3 in your new view is what we used to call Zone 3a + Zone 3b (sweet spot).

Send the zone system selection article for context.

If the athlete is between training blocks and not actively reading the dashboard, an information note is enough.

Existing coach notes

CoachNotes are free text. If you previously wrote "do 4 x 12 min in 3b" and switched the athlete to Coggan, the note still references the old band name. The Hub does not rewrite your notes.

Options:

• Leave old notes alone: the band name from the old system stays in the historical record. Athletes who can read both systems are fine; athletes new to the reference may need translation.
• Edit recent notes: rewrite the band reference in the new system's terms. Useful for race-week notes the athlete is actively using.
• Add a translation note: drop a CoachNote summarising the system change, marked visible to athlete, so they have a permanent reference.

Existing race plans

The saved race plan outputs include target watts (numeric), not zone names. So the saved race plan does not need to be regenerated when you switch systems.

The wizard's calculator output captures the watts at the moment of run. If you want the watts re-derived, rerun the relevant wizard step.

Switching repeatedly

There is no penalty for switching back and forth. Switch back to Yousuli if the Coggan view confuses an athlete more than it helps. The athlete record holds whatever the last-saved value was.

Per-athlete scope

The setting is per-athlete. If you coach 20 athletes and 3 of them prefer Coggan, you can set those 3 to Coggan and leave the other 17 on Yousuli. Your roster page does not unify or summarise the choice across athletes (it is a per-athlete preference, not a coach preference).

See also: Choosing a bike zone system, Coggan reference, Writing coach notes.