Frequently Asked Questions

Paced is a training app for cyclists. Log every ride — distance, duration, elevation, route, type, power, heart rate and notes — and Paced turns it into your stats, personal records, training load and fitness trends over time. The core is free forever, with optional Pro and Max subscriptions that add advanced analytics, a training plan and Paced AI coaching.

The core is free forever — logging, stats, personal records, streaks and communities — with no card and no time limit. Optional paid plans (Pro and Max) unlock advanced analytics, your training plan and Paced AI coaching, but you'll never be charged unless you choose to upgrade, and you can cancel any time.

Yes. Creating a free account with your email and password lets us securely save your rides so they're there every time you log in, on any device.

There's no separate app to download from the App Store or Google Play — Paced is a web app. But you can add it to your phone's home screen and it opens full-screen with its own icon, working just like a native app. It's free, with nothing to install.

Open Paced in your phone's browser and add it to your home screen: on iPhone, use Safari's Share button → “Add to Home Screen”; on Android, use Chrome's ⋮ menu → “Install app” / “Add to Home screen”. It then launches full-screen, just like an app. It takes about 20 seconds and the full step-by-step is in our install guide.

From your dashboard, tap "Log ride" (or the + button) and fill in the details: distance, duration, elevation, a route name, the ride type, and any notes. If you have them, add your power and heart-rate figures too — that's what unlocks the deeper analysis. Save it and the ride joins your history and updates your stats.

Open the ride from your ride history and choose Edit to change any detail, or Delete to remove it. Your stats, records and trends recalculate automatically.

Paced automatically tracks your bests from every ride you log — such as your longest distance, biggest climb, longest ride and, with power, your best efforts across key durations — so your progress is captured without any extra work.

No. Paced works from whatever you give it — distance, time and effort are enough to get going. Adding heart rate sharpens your zones and load, and power sharpens everything further, but the app is genuinely useful without either.

FTP (Functional Threshold Power) is roughly the power you can hold for about an hour — the anchor for your zones and training load. You can set it manually any time, and on Pro, Paced also estimates and refines it from your riding and keeps a history so you can watch it climb.

Zones split your effort into meaningful bands — easy, endurance, tempo, threshold and above — so you can see how hard each ride really was and train the right system on the right day. Basic zones are free; advanced zones come with Pro.

They're the classic training-load picture (CTL, ATL and TSB): Fitness is what you've built up over weeks, Fatigue is recent strain, and Form is the balance between them — how fresh or buried you are right now. Together they tell you when to push and when to back off. This is a Pro feature.

Every ride is scored by how much real strain it put on you, based on duration and intensity. That single number is what feeds your Fitness and Form, so hard days and easy days both count for exactly what they're worth.

On Pro, Paced builds you a full periodised plan around your goal — Base, Build, Peak and Taper — that schedules every session, tracks how well you're sticking to it, and adapts as you ride. It's a clear path to your event instead of guesswork.

Yes. You can log measurements like weight, body-fat, resting and max heart rate, and see each one trend over time with its own history and detail view. You choose what to add, and you can remove it any time.

Paced AI is your personal coach inside the app. It reads your own training and turns it into a plain-English read of what's going well, what to watch, and the one thing worth focusing on — grounded in your real numbers, not generic tips. Every rider gets a coaching read on each ride; Pro adds a daily digest, and Max weaves the full coach across every screen.

A coaching read on each ride is free. Pro adds a daily coach digest — your read of the day. Max is the full experience: the coach woven into every screen, self-updating after each ride, with deep multi-signal analysis, your rider profile and plain-English ride breakdowns.

Its insights are built from the data already on your account, so they're personal to you — but they're there to inform your training, not to replace your own judgement or professional and medical advice, and no outcome is guaranteed. Your data is never sold or shared with advertisers.

Rider (free) covers unlimited ride logging, stats, records, streaks, basic zones and communities — free forever. Pro adds Fitness/Fatigue/Form, your adaptive training plan, full ride analytics, advanced FTP and zones, and the daily coach digest. Max adds the full Paced AI coach across the whole app, self-updating reads, coach notifications and deep multi-signal analysis.

Open Plans & pricing in the app, pick Pro or Max and choose monthly or annual (annual works out cheaper). Payment is handled securely by Stripe — Paced never sees your card details.

Yes — eligible first-time subscribers can try Max free for 7 days. Your paid subscription only begins when the trial ends, and you can cancel any time before then and pay nothing.

Yes, in one tap from your account. Paid plans renew automatically until you cancel; when you do, you keep your paid features until the end of the period you've already paid for, then drop back to free — with every ride and all your history intact.

Nothing is lost. Your rides, records and measurements all stay exactly as they are — you simply lose access to the advanced analytics and coaching until you upgrade again.

Use the billing portal from the Plans page (the "Manage" button). It lets you change your card, switch plans, or cancel — all handled securely through Stripe.

Paid time is generally non-refundable, but you can cancel any time to stop future charges and you keep access until your period ends. If something has genuinely gone wrong, get in touch and we'll do right by you.

Share your referral link, and when a friend signs up you can earn free months of Pro. Rewards apply while you're not already on a paid plan, have no cash value, and are for genuine referrals only.

Communities are optional groups you can join or create to ride alongside others — share activity, take part in challenges and earn badges. They're a free feature, and joining is entirely your choice.

Only what you choose to share within a community you join is visible to its members — such as your display name and the activity you contribute there. Your ride history and account stay private otherwise, and if you don't join a community, nothing of yours is shown to other users.

Go to Settings → Units and choose kilometres or miles. Distances and stats across the app update to your preferred unit.

Yes. Paced opens in dark mode by default; switch to light any time in Settings, and your choice sticks on that device.

Yes. Your account is protected by Firebase Authentication and your data is stored under your own account in Cloud Firestore, encrypted in transit and at rest. Only you can access your rides, and we never sell or share your data with advertisers. The one exception is anything you deliberately choose to share in a community.

Go to Settings → Danger zone and choose to delete your account. This permanently removes your profile, rides and measurements from our database. It cannot be undone.

Send us a message through the contact form — it lands straight in our inbox, and we read every one. Choose a category (bug, billing, privacy request or general) so we can get back to you quickly.