CSV vs Structured Workouts: What Your Training Platform Actually Needs
CSV is excellent for importing a whole calendar. Structured workouts are what devices and workout builders need for intervals, targets, and sync-ready execution.
CSV and structured workouts solve different jobs. CSV is the fastest way to describe a training plan as rows on a calendar. Structured workouts describe how a single workout should be executed.
CSV Is Best for Calendar Import
A CSV row can carry day, sport, title, duration, TSS, description, and phase. That is enough to create a usable plan quickly, especially when the plan came from AI, a coach spreadsheet, or a PDF you converted.
TrainingDojo's free importer uses that format for TrainingPeaks and Intervals.icu calendar uploads because it removes the worst manual-entry problem first.
Structured Workouts Are Best for Execution
Structured workouts need more detail: repeat blocks, interval lengths, intensity ranges, ramps, distance or duration mode, and platform-specific wire format. This is the data that makes a workout feel like a real builder session instead of a note in a description field.
Use Both Together
- Import the full plan with CSV.
- Identify key workouts that need exact interval structure.
- Convert those rows with the structured builder or bulk converter.
- Push the structured workouts to TrainingPeaks or export compatible rows as Zwift .zwo files.
TrainingPeaks is the supported structured upload workflow today. Intervals.icu supports basic CSV calendar import today, while Intervals.icu structured push is planned separately. The underlying structured model is platform-neutral, which is why TrainingPeaks upload and Zwift .zwo export can build on the same conversion step.