What is YOUB?
YOUB is a chat-first coach for runners, cyclists and triathletes. There's no plan grid to open every morning. The coach, called Ben, messages you in the app or over WhatsApp: how did that ride feel, you slept badly again, Thursday's session doesn't fit, here's what I'd do instead. The plan gets built through that conversation in the first place, after a few starting questions about max heart rate, age, weight and height.
What's underneath it is your data. YOUB reads training from Garmin, Strava, WHOOP, Oura, Polar, Suunto or Wahoo (COROS is listed as coming), and it reads your Google Calendar to see where the training time actually is. When it wants to change something, it compares planned load against sleep, HRV, recovery, what you actually completed, what you've told it, and how much time you have, then proposes keeping, moving, shortening, or replacing the session, with the reasoning attached rather than a silent edit to your week.
It's new: the iOS app landed in May 2026 and was rebuilt as a fully native app in August, and it's built in Austria, which shows in the race calendar (80+ running, cycling and triathlon events across the DACH region, with course profiles and the buildup to match). Planned sessions go to Garmin, Wahoo and Suunto devices with their structure and targets intact.
There's also a way to use it without the coach. YOUB publishes an MCP server at mcp.youb.app; add it to Claude or ChatGPT as a custom connector and your own assistant reads your sessions, plans workouts, rebuilds the week and sends sessions to your watch, with the plan showing in the YOUB apps. That tier is free. YOUB's own caveat is that the answers are your assistant's, with no injury guardrails and no sports-science review behind them.
Key Features
Coaching that arrives, rather than waiting for you
Ben starts the conversation: after a session, when recovery numbers drop, when the week looks unrealistic. In the app or on WhatsApp, whichever you're already looking at.
A plan that moves when your week does
Tell it your legs are wrecked or that a work trip ate Thursday, and it reworks the week around the goal instead of leaving you to improvise or bail. Sessions get kept, moved, shortened, or swapped.
Calendar-aware scheduling
Google Calendar integration means meetings, travel and family time are part of the input. The coach knows a two-hour session doesn't fit Wednesday before it prescribes one.
Explanations instead of a verdict
Every adaptation comes with why the change was made, what risk it avoids, and what it protects, plus a follow-up question when the data doesn't tell the whole story.
Recovery signals in context
Sleep, HRV and recovery from your wearable are weighed against training load rather than shown as another number to interpret yourself.
DACH race calendar
Over 80 regional events with distances, elevation, and the training approach each one asks for.
Workouts on your watch
Planned sessions land on Garmin, Wahoo or Suunto through your existing connection, with intervals, repeats and targets by heart rate, power or pace. COROS is listed as coming soon.
Bring your own Claude or ChatGPT
Free over MCP: your assistant does the planning and analysis against your YOUB data, and you skip Ben. Reads are the default; writing to your plan needs a separate grant per category, revocable in the app.
Who It's For
- Athletes with a real race date (marathons, cycling events, long-course triathlon) who want the buildup to survive a normal, busy year
- People who won't open a dashboard but will answer a message
- Data-rich, time-poor trainers already wearing a Garmin, WHOOP or Oura who want something to actually decide with it
YOUB is direct about who it isn't for: their site says skip it if you're just starting out in endurance sport, don't use a wearable or training data, or deliberately train without structure.
