Useful cycling training insights, without the subscription.
SurgeIQ is a Yippify project focused on making useful cycling training insights and statistics accessible, without requiring cyclists to pay for a subscription just to understand their own training data.
The free SurgeIQ cycling training tools work out power zones in watts, show what a workout will ask of you, explain the numbers in plain terms, and turn them into structured workouts that load onto a bike computer.
A Yippify product, designed, built, and run by Yippify.
- Warmup10 min50–65% FTP
- Work × 45 min105–110% FTP
- Recover × 43 min50–60% FTP
- Cooldown10 minbelow 60% FTP
01Problem
Plenty of numbers. Not much explanation.
Cyclists already record power, heart rate, and cadence. The harder questions come afterwards: what are my zones in watts, how hard was that session, and am I getting fitter or just more tired?
Other platforms may reserve that kind of analysis for paid plans. And many training plans are still written as notes that leave the rider to work out the session on the day, in a form a bike computer can’t follow.
Written as a note
“Threshold intervals, around an hour.”
How many intervals? How long, how hard, and with how much rest? The rider decides on the day, so the session is hard to repeat or compare.
Written as steps
- Warmup15 min50–70% FTP
- Threshold × 310 min95–100% FTP
- Recover × 35 min45–55% FTP
- Cooldown10 minbelow 60% FTP
Every step has a duration and a target, so the session can be repeated, compared week to week, and run by a bike computer.
02The numbers
What the training numbers mean.
Stats only help if you know what they are telling you. These are the metrics SurgeIQ is built around, with what each one means for a ride.
3.47 W/kg250 W FTP ÷ 72 kg
FTP, the number most targets are built on
Functional threshold power is usually described as the highest power you can sustain in a quasi-steady state for about an hour. Few riders test it that way; a common estimate is about 95% of a well-paced, maximal 20-minute effort.
Writing targets as a percentage of FTP makes one workout fit every rider. Dividing FTP by body weight gives watts per kilogram, which compares riders of different sizes.
Six power zones from one number
SurgeIQ divides power into six zones as a percentage of FTP. Watts are shown for an FTP of 250 W.
- Z1Recoverybelow 55%below 138 W
Very easy spinning: recovery rides and the easy half of interval sessions.
- Z2Endurance55–75%138–188 W
Long, steady riding. Most endurance training time is spent here.
- Z3Tempo75–90%188–225 W
Sustained, moderately hard efforts. The upper part is often called sweet spot.
- Z4Threshold90–105%225–263 W
Efforts around FTP, usually in blocks of about 8 to 20 minutes.
- Z5VO2max105–120%263–300 W
Hard intervals of roughly 3 to 8 minutes with similar recovery.
- Z6Anaerobic120–150%300–375 W
Short, very hard efforts from a few seconds to about two minutes.
Load, fitness, fatigue, and form
- Training load
- One number for how much a session asked of you. Duration and intensity both raise it; an hour ridden at FTP scores about 100.
- Fitness
- Training load averaged over roughly six weeks. It climbs slowly with consistent riding and drops slowly when you stop.
- Fatigue
- Training load averaged over roughly one week. It jumps after hard days and clears quickly with rest.
- Form
- Fitness minus fatigue. Negative during a build, when you are carrying fatigue; positive after an easy week or before an event, when you are fresher.
Above zero: fresher Below zero: carrying fatigue
Show the weekly numbers
| Week | Weekly load | Fitness | Fatigue | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 325 | 34 | 44 | −9 |
| 2 | 358 | 37 | 51 | −14 |
| 3 | 391 | 40 | 56 | −16 |
| 4 | 164 | 37 | 36 | +2 |
| 5 | 358 | 40 | 48 | −8 |
| 6 | 391 | 42 | 55 | −13 |
| 7 | 424 | 45 | 61 | −16 |
| 8 | 164 | 42 | 37 | +5 |
| 9 | 391 | 44 | 52 | −8 |
| 10 | 424 | 47 | 60 | −13 |
| 11 | 456 | 50 | 66 | −16 |
| 12 | 164 | 46 | 39 | +7 |
Fitness, fatigue, and form at the end of each week, from SurgeIQ’s published example. Values are rounded, so form can differ by one from fitness minus fatigue.
03Structure
Structure turns a plan into a ride.
A plan is a sequence of weeks, each week holds workouts, and each workout is a list of steps with a duration and a target. The value is in the arrangement: the same four workouts do different things depending on what surrounds them.
Plan → Week → Workout → Steps
SurgeIQ uses one model for all four levels, so applying a plan puts real workouts on real dates.
- Plan
- Goal
- Up to 12 weeks
- Week
- Hard days
- Easy days
- Rest
- Workout
- One purpose
- Steps
- Duration
- Target
One example week
Each row is drawn from the workout’s steps, and block width follows duration.
- TueVO2max 4 × 54 × 5 min at 105–110% FTP with 3 min recovery
- ThuThreshold 3 × 103 × 10 min at 95–100% FTP with 5 min recovery
- SatEndurance 9090 minutes steady at 60–70% FTP
- SunRecovery spin 4545 minutes below 55% FTP
Balance easy and hard
Studies of how successful endurance athletes train consistently find most of their time at low intensity, with a smaller share of hard work (Seiler, 2010). Keep easy days easy so the few hard sessions can be done well.
Recover at every scale
Between intervals inside a workout, between sessions with easy and rest days, and across weeks with a lighter week after each block.
Progress one thing at a time
A longer interval, one more repeat, or a slightly higher target. Because structured workouts are explicit, progress is visible: 3 × 10 minutes at threshold becomes 3 × 12.
Stay consistent
Missing a session is normal. The pattern over weeks matters more, and a plan you can finish beats a more ambitious one you abandon.
04Product
What SurgeIQ gives cyclists today, and what comes next.
The public tools use the same workout model and zone definitions as the app, so what a rider learns in a guide matches what they see in a workout.
Illustrative workout built from structured steps
Free today, no account
- Power zone calculator
Enter an FTP to get six power zones in watts, with watts per kilogram and what each zone is for.
- Structured workout builder
Warmup, intervals, repeat blocks, and cooldown with %FTP, watt, heart-rate, or cadence targets. It draws the workout, estimates duration, time in zones, and training load, and downloads a FIT workout file.
- Training guides
Plain explanations of FTP and power zones, structured training, recovery, workout types, and FIT workout files, each linked to a tool that applies it.
Onto the bike
Structured workouts download as FIT workout files for a bike computer such as a Garmin Edge, copied over USB, and as .ZWO or .ERG files for trainer apps. Downloading a file never sends anything to an account.
Coming with free, optional accounts
- A library for the workouts you build
- Training plans of up to 12 weeks, applied to a calendar from any Monday
- Ride import from Strava, with sessions marked complete
- Training load and form tracked over time
- Coaches assigning plans to athletes as drafts, then publishing
Not yet
- Direct sync to Garmin Connect or Wahoo, which requires developer-program approval
- Running workouts with pace targets
- Medical advice or promised performance gains
05What it demonstrates
Making data useful is a product problem, not a chart problem.
SurgeIQ shows how Yippify approaches a data-heavy product: model the domain carefully, compute the numbers correctly, then explain them well enough that people can act on them.
- Domain modeling
- One model for plans, weeks, workouts, and steps, shared by the public tools, the guides, and the app.
- File-format engineering
- FIT workout files written to Garmin’s published specification, plus .ZWO and .ERG files for trainer apps.
- Training analytics
- Load estimates and 42- and 7-day weighted averages turned into numbers a rider can read.
- Explaining data
- Every metric shown with what it means, so a number leads to a decision rather than another question.
- Honest scope
- Clear about what is free today, what is coming, and what the product does not do.
- Content that teaches
- Guides that explain one topic properly and link to a tool that applies it.
Understanding your own data shouldn’t require a subscription.
That idea shaped SurgeIQ from the first tool. The same thinking applies to any product whose users have the data but not the explanation.
06Questions
Questions about SurgeIQ
More detail on each topic is in the SurgeIQ training guides.
Is SurgeIQ free?
Yes. The power zone calculator, the structured workout builder, and the training guides are free today, with no account, trial, or card details. Optional accounts for saving workouts, following plans, and tracking rides are planned to be free as well.
What is FTP, and why are cycling workouts written as a percentage of it?
Functional threshold power (FTP) is usually described as the highest power a rider can sustain in a quasi-steady state for about an hour. Writing targets as a percentage of FTP means one workout suits riders of any fitness: 105% of FTP is 263 watts for a rider with a 250 W FTP and 210 watts for a rider with a 200 W FTP.
What are fitness, fatigue, and form?
They are running averages of training load. Fitness is load averaged over about six weeks, so it rises and falls slowly. Fatigue is load averaged over about a week, so it jumps after hard days and clears with rest. Form is fitness minus fatigue: below zero means you are carrying fatigue, which is normal during a build; above zero means you are fresher.
What is a FIT workout file?
FIT is a compact binary format defined by Garmin for fitness data. A FIT workout file describes what to do, as steps with durations and targets, while a FIT activity file records what happened on a ride. SurgeIQ exports structured workouts as FIT workout files that can be copied to a Garmin Edge over USB.
Does SurgeIQ sync with Garmin Connect, Wahoo, or Strava?
Not directly with Garmin Connect or Wahoo yet, because both require developer-program approval. Workouts download as files instead, and downloading a file never sends anything to an account. Importing rides from Strava is part of the free accounts that are coming.
Who builds SurgeIQ?
Yippify designs, builds, and runs SurgeIQ as its own product. It shows how we approach a data-heavy product: model the domain carefully, explain the data in plain terms, and say clearly what the software does not do yet.
Is your data hard to read?
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