Plan strength training around your runs and rides with Claude

With IcuSync and your gym log both connected, Claude can see your runs, rides and gym sessions at once, and plan strength work around your key endurance sessions.

Why strength and endurance need to be planned together

Most runners and cyclists know strength training helps. The hard part is timing. Heavy squats the day before an interval session or a long run leave your legs flat, and a full gym program during a taper works against the race.

The problem is that your training lives in two places. Your runs and rides are in Intervals.icu, and your gym sessions are in a strength app. Ask an AI coach about one, and it cannot see the other. Connect both to Claude, and it can plan the whole week together.

What you need

There are two ways to set this up. Both use Claude, IcuSync and the Hevy app. The difference is how Claude reaches your Hevy workouts.

Both routes also need Claude and an IcuSync subscription for your runs and rides. The Hevy Pro route uses two custom connectors (IcuSync and Hevy), so it needs a paid Claude plan: the Free plan allows only one custom connector.

Free route: Hevy's sync to Strava includes every exercise, set, rep and weight, and Strava's connector (paid Strava subscription) also returns the muscle groups each exercise works.

For the Hevy Pro route: Hevy only gives API access to Pro subscribers. You create a personal API key in the Hevy web app settings, and the connector uses it to read and write your workouts and routines.

Setup

Setup takes about ten minutes if IcuSync is already connected.

Free route

1. Install Hevy on your phone and create an account.
2. In Hevy, connect Strava so your workouts sync there.
3. In Claude, connect Strava's own connector (it needs a paid Strava subscription).
4. Make sure both IcuSync and Strava are switched on for your conversation.
5. Log a session in Hevy, then test it: ask Claude for your latest strength workout from Strava and your last three runs.

Hevy Pro route

1. Install Hevy on your phone, create an account and upgrade to Hevy Pro.
2. On a computer, open the Hevy web app settings at hevy.com/settings?developer. Create an API key and copy it. Keep it private: the key gives full read and write access to your Hevy account.
3. In Claude, go to Customize, then Connectors. Click "+ Add", then "Add custom connector".
4. Name it Hevy and enter https://mcp.hevy-mcp.dev/mcp as the URL. Complete the sign in, and paste your Hevy API key when asked.
5. Make sure both IcuSync and the Hevy connector are switched on for your conversation.
6. Test it: ask Claude for your last three Hevy workouts and your last three runs.

How it works: plan, train, log

Claude puts each strength session in two places, your watch records it, and Claude only steps in afterwards if something changed.

1. Plan. Claude plans your week with IcuSync and adds each strength session to your Intervals.icu calendar as a WeightTraining workout. On the Hevy Pro route, Claude also creates the session in Hevy as a routine. On the free route, you add it in Hevy yourself.
2. Train. At the gym, start the routine in Hevy on your phone and a Strength activity on your watch. Intervals.icu pairs the watch recording with the planned workout, so your heart rate and training load are captured automatically.
3. Log. If you changed something important, such as weights or skipped exercises, ask Claude to check Hevy and update the activity notes in Intervals.icu. If the session went as planned, there is nothing to do.

Treat Hevy as the record of what you lifted, and Intervals.icu as your schedule and training load. If you edit a routine in Hevy, the Intervals.icu version doesn't change.

Logged it in Hevy only?

If you didn't record the session on your watch, Claude can still add it to Intervals.icu. It reads the session from Hevy, adds it to your calendar with your sets, reps and weights, and marks it as done, which creates a completed activity. Just ask, for example: "Log yesterday's Hevy session in Intervals as done." Claude never marks workouts as done unless you ask.

Don't do this for a session your watch already recorded, or it will be counted twice.

Using a Coros or Suunto watch?

We tested this guide with a Garmin watch. Other watches handle strength training differently.

Coros. Coros watches have their own strength mode, so you may not need Hevy at all. In the Coros app, you can build a strength workout from its exercise library with reps, weight and rest, then send it to your watch. The watch guides you through each exercise and counts your reps. After each set you can correct the reps and weight, and the app shows a muscle heatmap (Coros Strength Mode).

• What IcuSync sees. Intervals.icu imports your Coros strength activity with its time, heart rate and training load, so Claude can plan your runs and rides around it. Intervals.icu doesn't import exercises, sets, reps or weights from any watch, so IcuSync can't see those.
• What Claude sees through Strava. Coros is one of Strava's strength partners, so your exercises, sets, reps and weights sync to Strava (Strava Support). With Strava's Claude connector switched on (it needs a paid Strava subscription), Claude can read them, the same way as the free route above.
• Building the workout. Claude can't create workouts in the Coros app, so build the routine there yourself. Claude can still add the session to your Intervals.icu calendar, so your week is planned around it.

Suunto. Suunto watches don't log sets and reps natively yet. A community SuuntoPlus app, Strength Tracker, counts reps on the watch and saves each set as a lap in the Suunto app. Intervals.icu imports the activity with its heart rate and training load. Suunto isn't one of Strava's strength partners, so your exercise details don't reach Strava. For full exercise details, log your sets in Hevy as described above.

Example prompts

The best prompts name your key sessions and ask Claude to fit strength around them.

• "Plan my strength sessions for next week, create them in Hevy and add them to my Intervals calendar."
• "Look at my planned runs for next week in IcuSync and my last two weeks of gym sessions in Hevy. Plan two strength sessions that don't land within 48 hours before my intervals or my long run."
• "I'm in a marathon taper. Reduce my strength work for the next two weeks and update my Hevy routine."
• "Create a 30 minute runner's strength routine in Hevy focused on glutes, hamstrings and single leg stability."
• "I changed the weights in today's gym session. Check Hevy and update today's strength activity in Intervals."
• "Log yesterday's Hevy session in Intervals as done."
• "My legs felt heavy on Saturday's long ride. Did my gym session on Thursday have anything to do with it?"
• "Compare my running load and my strength volume over the last six weeks. Am I doing too much of either?"

Prompts that create or update Hevy routines need the Hevy Pro route. When Claude creates a routine in Hevy, it appears in the app ready to start. The app may take a few minutes to show it.

Limitations and tips

• Hevy doesn't sync with Garmin watches. Hevy says Garmin turned down its application for API access, so you log gym sessions on your phone, not your Garmin.
• Strength workouts don't reach your watch as guided sessions. Intervals.icu's workout builder doesn't support strength exercises yet, so a WeightTraining workout arrives on a Garmin watch as timed steps without exercise names, reps or weights (open feature request). Follow the session in Hevy on your phone instead.
• Log your sets in Hevy, not on the watch. In our test with a Garmin watch, the watch recorded a whole gym session as a single "Unknown" exercise with a rough rep count. Hevy captured every exercise, set and weight.
• You'll see the session twice in Strava on the free route. Hevy's copy has your sets and reps, and your watch's copy has your heart rate. That's expected. Intervals.icu gets the watch recording directly from your device, so your training load only counts once. If Intervals.icu also imports from Strava, check it doesn't pick up the Hevy copy too.
• Hevy's free plan has limits. 4 routines, 7 custom exercises and 3 months of history (Hevy Help Center). Enough for a runner's two or three strength sessions, but older sessions drop out of view after 3 months.
• The Hevy connector is a community project, not made by Hevy. It's open source and widely used, but Hevy doesn't support it. If it stops working, check its GitHub page first.
• Your API key is powerful. It allows full access to your Hevy account, and there is no read only option. If you stop using the connector, create a new key in Hevy to cancel the old one.
• Dumbbell weights are logged as typed. Tell Claude whether you log one dumbbell or the pair, so it reads your weights correctly.
• Large histories are read in small pages. Hevy's API returns 10 items at a time, so a question about months of history can take Claude a little longer.
• Claude can't delete from Hevy. The API has no delete option, so remove unwanted routines in the app yourself.

Why Hevy and not another strength app

Hevy is the only popular strength app we found with an open API that lets Claude both read your workouts and create routines in the app.

Prices for Hevy, Strong and Fitbod are from SensAI's comparison, checked September 2026. Check each app for current local prices.

Strava added structured strength logging in May 2026, with sets, reps, weights and muscle maps, and lists Hevy among its strength partners. Strava's own Claude connector can read those details, including the muscle groups each exercise targets, but it's read only and needs a paid Strava subscription. That's what makes the free route possible.

FAQ

Do I need Hevy Pro? Not to start. On the free route, Claude reads your Hevy sessions through Strava's connector (needs a paid Strava subscription), but you add routines in Hevy yourself. Hevy Pro is needed if you want Claude to create and update routines in Hevy directly, because Hevy only gives API access to Pro subscribers.

Does IcuSync see my Hevy data? No. Claude talks to each connector separately. IcuSync only handles your Intervals.icu data.

Does this work with ChatGPT? This guide covers Claude. We haven't tested the Hevy connector with ChatGPT yet.

Can Claude build a whole strength program? Yes. Ask for a program with a set number of sessions per week. On the Hevy Pro route, Claude creates the routines in Hevy for you. On the free route, Claude writes them out and you add them in Hevy.

Sources

• hevy-mcp on GitHub
• Using Hevy with Strava (Hevy Help Center)
• Strava adds dedicated strength training support (9to5Mac, May 2026)
• Strength training on Strava (Strava Support)
• Coros Strength Mode (Coros Support)
• Advanced strength workout builder request (Intervals.icu forum)