Routebook is a geospatial visualization application for cycling routes and ride data. It combines satellite mapping, cinematic route animation, performance overlays, training-load analytics, and an AI coach. This guide covers map viewer controls, performance data, points of interest, the fitness model, and the AI coach.
Import new Rouvy / Zwift / head-unit FIT files to add routes to your library. Most users prefer connecting Strava (one-time, automatic backfill), but direct FIT upload works for athletes without Strava.
Quick access to starred routes for frequently viewed rides. Year and month filters are not applied when viewing favorites.
Global route overview showing all rides with geographic distribution.
Access to settings, account management, integrations (Strava, MCP tokens), and logout.
Filter routes by calendar year with visual activity distribution.
Bar chart visualization showing ride frequency by month.
Choose which metric is displayed on the month bar chart: Distance, Ascent, Time, or number of Routes.
Text search across route names, locations and POIs for quick access to specific rides. Year and month filters are not applied during search.
Scrollable library of all routes with location indicators for geotagged rides.
Initiates or pauses the cinematic ride-through animation along the route path.
Returns the animation to the start of the route.
Drag to navigate to any point along the route. Displays current distance position.
Adjusts playback speed of the animation (1x to 40x multipliers).
Standard zoom in/out for map detail level.
Adjusts camera angle from top-down to oblique perspective for terrain visualization.
Rotates the map orientation and camera heading.
Locks camera to follow the route path during animation playback.
Toggle between route reveal (yellow progressive path display) and gradient path (slope-based coloring).
Gradient mode colors the route path by slope percentage:
Real-time elevation profile with current altitude, grade percentage, and maximum elevation. Interactive chart shows terrain along the route.
Current, maximum, and average power output in watts. Time-series graph displays power fluctuations throughout the ride.
Current, maximum, and average heart rate in bpm with continuous monitoring visualization.
Current, maximum, and average pedaling cadence in rpm. Shows cycling rhythm patterns across the route.
Current, maximum, and average speed in km/h with velocity profile over time.
Long-click (click and hold) on any map location to open the POI creation dialog. Enter POI details including name, description, and category.
Click a POI marker to display its popover, then click the popover to open the edit dialog. POIs can be modified or deleted from this dialog.
Long-click and drag a POI marker to reposition it on the map.
POIs can also be added in bulk in JSON format in the route details editor.
The route edit dialog includes a “Copy Coordinates” button for start and end GPS coordinates, copying latitude and longitude to the clipboard.
Each POI dialog provides a “Copy Coordinates” button to capture the exact GPS location. This can be used to obtain coordinates for any map position.
Routebook derives training load directly from your rides — no FTP test, no weight entry, no zone setup. The ride tells its own story.
In Edit Menu → Integrations, click “Connect Strava.” You'll be redirected to Strava's consent screen. After approval, Routebook backfills your full ride history and subscribes to webhooks so new rides appear automatically. Disconnect at any time.
Routebook fits a Critical Power model from a rolling 16-week window of your most recent rides (capped at 60 rides, minimum 10-minute duration). The window is relative to the ride being viewed — a ride three months ago is analysed against your fitness at that point, not today.
NP weights harder efforts more heavily than easy spinning, giving a truer read of metabolic demand than average power. IF is NP ÷ CP — how hard the session was relative to your current fitness. TSS combines IF and duration into a single training-load number, with one hour at CP defined as 100 TSS.
| IF Range | Workout Zone |
|---|---|
| < 0.65 | Recovery / very easy spin |
| 0.65 – 0.75 | Easy endurance / active recovery |
| 0.76 – 0.85 | Moderate endurance / tempo |
| 0.86 – 0.94 | Threshold / hard sustained effort |
| 0.95 – 1.05 | Very hard / sub- or over-threshold |
| > 1.05 | Extremely intense — VO₂max / anaerobic intervals |
CTL (Chronic Training Load) is your long-term fitness — exponentially-weighted average of TSS over ~42 days. ATL (Acute Training Load) is short-term fatigue over ~7 days. TSB (Training Stress Balance, or “form”) is CTL − ATL: positive means you're fresh, negative means you're carrying fatigue. Charts show all three over time so you can see whether you're building, holding, or burning out.
Each ride gets an AI-generated narrative — a short, readable summary that classifies the session, calls out the hardest climb, and notes anything unusual (HR drift, power-balance fade, surging on what should have been steady). Insights are derived from the ride's FIT data and the CP model at that point in time.
Start with IF — was the intensity right for the goal? Then TSS — was the load worthwhile? Compare NP to average power — when they're close, the effort was steady; when NP is much higher, the session was variable (good for intervals, possibly unintended on steady rides).
The coach is a tool-using agent that knows your training load, can search your ride history, and generates structured workouts. It has memory across conversations.
Open the chat panel and ask anything — “how was my last week of training?”, “am I overdoing intervals?”, “suggest a session for tomorrow given my fatigue.” The coach searches your rides, pulls fitness state, and answers from your actual data.
The coach remembers durable facts about you (FTP, goals, equipment, injuries, preferences) across conversations, plus relevant snippets from past chats via hybrid semantic + keyword search. You can review and edit profile facts in Settings.
Coach calls are rate-limited (default 25 per day per user, UTC reset). The current count is shown in the chat panel.
From any ride detail page, generate a Zwift .zwo workout based on that ride's metrics. Pick a skill type — endurance, threshold, tempo, VO₂max, strength, climbing, cadence, recovery — and the coach produces structured intervals (warmup, work blocks, ramps, steady-state, cooldown). Download the .zwo and import into Zwift directly. Quota: 3 workouts per ride.
Routebook ships an MCP server. In Settings → Integrations, generate a Personal Access Token with the scopes you want (e.g. rides:read, insights:read, chat:send, workouts:generate). Add the Routebook MCP endpoint and PAT to your Claude Desktop or Goose config — the coach's tools (search_rides, get_ride, get_fitness_state, generate_workout, ask_coach) become directly callable in your client.
Routebook is tested for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices. Devices newer than iPad Air 4th generation (released October 23, 2020) should render terrain and animations smoothly.
Routebook should work on modern Windows and Android devices using Chrome web browsers. Performance may vary depending on device capabilities and browser version.
Routebook uses three-dimensional terrain to bring your rides to life, showing the climbs and descents of your route as they actually look in the real world. If you're using Safari on a Mac, iPad, or iPhone, you may notice that the terrain looks unusually flat compared to other browsers like Chrome. This is a known limitation with how Safari renders 3D graphics, and it affects Mapbox-powered maps across many applications — not just Routebook. We're actively investigating a fix, but in the meantime, opening Routebook in Chrome will give you the full terrain experience as intended.
Need help or want a feature? Email info@orbital.co.nz.