Calendar feed (Outlook, Google, Apple)
The calendar feed puts your Coachbox workouts next to your other appointments, in the calendar you already check every day. You subscribe once to a personal feed URL; after that, planned and completed workouts appear automatically in Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar.
How do you subscribe to the calendar?
Step 1: Open the calendar feed in Coachbox
- Go to the Calendar of yourself or your athlete.
- In the toolbar at the top right, click the feed icon (next to the calendar and View buttons).
- The Calendar feed window opens with your personal feed URL.
In the Coachbox mobile app you find your feed under Settings: Calendar feed, with the same buttons to open the feed or share the URL.
Step 2: Add the feed to your calendar app
Click Subscribe to hand the feed to your device's calendar app, or click the arrow next to it and pick the calendar you use. Your browser cannot tell which calendar app is your favourite, so you choose it yourself.
Google Calendar
This happens in Google Calendar, not in Gmail. Gmail has no calendar of its own: in Gmail, click the Google apps grid at the top right and choose Calendar, or go to calendar.google.com.
You can only subscribe on a computer. The Google Calendar app on your phone or tablet has no button to add a calendar by URL.
- Choose Google Calendar in the menu next to Subscribe. Google Calendar opens in a new tab with the feed URL already filled in.
- Click Add calendar.
If that does not work, add the feed by hand:
- In Coachbox, click Copy URL.
- On a computer, go to calendar.google.com.
- At the bottom of the sidebar, click + next to Other calendars and choose From URL.
- Paste the URL into URL of calendar and click Add calendar.
Leave Make the calendar publicly accessible unticked: your workouts should not be public.
You only do this once. After that the calendar also shows up in the Google Calendar app on your phone. If you do not see it there, switch it on in the app's settings.
Google describes the steps in Add a calendar using a link.
Outlook
Outlook comes in several versions and the buttons are not called the same everywhere. Find the version you use below. The Outlook button in Coachbox always takes you to Outlook.com; with a work or school account, use Copy URL and the steps in the table.
| Your Outlook | How to subscribe |
|---|---|
| Outlook.com (personal account) | Choose Outlook in the menu next to Subscribe. Outlook.com opens with the URL already filled in; confirm with Import. By hand: Add calendar, then Subscribe from web. |
| Outlook on the web or new Outlook for Windows (work or school, Microsoft 365) | Click Copy URL. In Outlook, go to Calendar, click Add calendar, choose Subscribe from web, paste the URL and click Import. |
| Classic Outlook for Windows | Click Copy URL. Go to Calendar, click Open Calendar and choose From Internet. Paste the URL and confirm. |
| Outlook for Mac | Outlook for Mac cannot subscribe to an internet calendar itself. Do it in Outlook on the web with the same account; the calendar then appears in Outlook for Mac on its own. |
| Outlook on your phone | The app has no subscribe button. Subscribe on a computer first: the calendar belongs to your account and follows into the app. |
Microsoft describes the steps in Import or subscribe to a calendar in Outlook.com or Outlook on the web.
Apple Calendar (Mac and iPhone)
- Click Subscribe, or choose Apple Calendar from the menu. Your device hands the feed to Calendar, which asks you to subscribe.
- Confirm, and optionally choose how often Calendar refreshes the feed (5 minutes to weekly).
Another calendar app
Click Subscribe, or choose Another app from the menu. Your device hands the feed to the calendar app it manages. If nothing responds, use Copy URL and paste the URL into your app's "subscribe to calendar" function.
What does the feed show?
Every workout title starts with a sport icon (🚴 cycling, 🏃 running, 🏊 swimming, ...), so you can tell the sport at a glance in your calendar. The description also spells out the sport.
- Planned workouts: with a start time when one is scheduled, otherwise as an all-day event. The description contains the sport, the planned duration or distance, the workout blocks with your zones resolved to concrete values (for example "Warm-up 10:00 @ 110-120W"), and your coach's workout description.
- Completed workouts: up to 30 days back, marked with a checkmark before the title.
- Races: always visible, even further in the future.
If you are an athlete, the feed shows exactly what you see in Coachbox: if your coach limits how many weeks ahead you see your planning, the same limit applies in your calendar app. A coach subscribing to an athlete's calendar sees the full planning.
Good to know
- Every feed URL is personal and secret. Anyone who has the URL can read the calendar, so do not share it. If the URL does leak, click Reset URL in the Calendar feed window: the old link stops working immediately and you get a new one.
- Calendar apps refresh on their own schedule. Outlook.com fetches the feed roughly every 3 hours, Outlook on the web roughly every 6 hours, and Google Calendar can take up to 24 hours. Apple Calendar lets you pick. The calendar app controls this pace, Coachbox cannot speed it up.
- The feed is read-only. To move or edit a workout, use Coachbox itself or the Coachbox mobile app; the change reaches your calendar automatically.
- Prefer workouts on your sports watch instead of in your calendar? See Setting up synchronisation.