Coach Leo and Strava
Strava is Coach Leo's primary data source, and the one that makes the coaching work: your training history is already there, so Leo starts from what you actually ran instead of a questionnaire. Because almost every watch on the market syncs to Strava, connecting Strava is usually the only step you need — whatever brand is on your wrist.
Read-only
What you need — Any device that syncs to Strava — Garmin, Apple Watch, COROS, Polar, Suunto, Amazfit, Fitbit, or your phone alone.
What Leo reads
- Every activity: distance, moving time, pace, heart rate, elevation gain, cadence and GPS track
- Sport type — road, trail, cycling, swimming, hiking, nordic ski — so cross-training counts toward your weekly load
- Your gear: shoes and their mileage, so wear tracking and replacement alerts work without manual entry
- Your athlete profile and timezone, which is how Leo knows when your day starts
How the sync works
Real time. Strava notifies Leo through a webhook the moment an activity lands, so a run uploaded from your watch usually reaches your coach within seconds. A background worker also sweeps every 30 minutes to catch anything a missed webhook would have dropped.
What it does not do
- Read-only, by design. Leo never posts an activity, never edits one, never kudos and never changes anything on your Strava account.
- Leo cannot send a session to your watch through Strava — Strava's API does not allow it. If you want your planned workout on your wrist, connect Suunto instead.
- Private activities need the "View data about your private activities" permission. Leave it unchecked and Leo sees an empty training history, which is the single most common reason a new account looks broken.
One source at a time
Leo reads one activity source at a time. Strava, Suunto, Polar and your phone's health store all carry the same workouts — a health store is fed by the same watch — so connecting a second one would duplicate every outing and leave you unable to tell which source Leo is actually reading. Switching sources takes two clicks on your connections page.
Your data
Leo requests read access only. You can revoke it at any time from Strava's own settings or from your connections page, and revoking stops the import immediately.
Your data, already in sync.
Coach Leo starts from the runs you have actually done — not from a questionnaire. Connect your source and get a plan built on your real training.
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Everything about this integration
Frequently asked questions
Does Coach Leo work with my Garmin, Apple Watch or COROS?
Yes, through Strava. Leo reads pace, heart rate, elevation and cadence from Strava regardless of which device recorded the run, so no watch brand is excluded. Suunto and Polar can also connect directly, without Strava.
Will Coach Leo post on my Strava?
No. The connection is read-only. Leo has no ability to create, edit or delete anything on your Strava account.
How much history does Leo import?
Enough to coach from day one: Leo derives your easy, tempo, interval and long-run paces from roughly eight weeks of real activity, and keeps reading forward from there.
I connected Strava but Leo sees no activities. Why?
Almost always a missing permission. Reconnect Strava and keep every box checked, including "View data about your private activities" — if your runs are private and that box is unchecked, the import returns nothing.
The other data sources