Remote coaching before it was normal
In the early 2000s César Ottaviani was a professional triathlete, travelling the world to race. On those trips he saw something that barely existed in Argentina yet: coaches guiding their athletes remotely, without sharing a track or a pool.
In 2001 he started doing it himself. Plans went out as Word documents, and later as Excel sheets. In 2005 he took a step that was rare for the time: he built his own web platform, with a shared calendar where he uploaded the workouts and each athlete logged in to see theirs.
"All very basic, but very new for the time."
Over the years the technology changed, and César looked for a professional platform to raise the quality of his work. In 2022 he moved to TrainerPlan. Today he runs Otta Training Team from Miramar, with more than 250 athletes across trail running, running, MTB, cycling, triathlon (Ironman included) and swimming.
Analysis, every day
What César uses every day in TrainerPlan is athlete analysis. With six sports and more than 250 athletes, everyone trains with their own watch, bike computer or app: Garmin, COROS, Suunto, Polar, Wahoo, Apple Watch, Strava. TrainerPlan syncs all of those devices, and completed workouts land in the calendar on their own, right next to what was planned.
"Every day I use the athlete analysis you can do, because being able to sync such a wide range of devices makes keeping track of training much simpler."
- One place for every device — whatever watch an athlete wears, their sessions arrive in the same calendar and read the same way.
- Planned against completed — every finished workout sits next to the one that was prescribed, without having to ask the athlete what they did.
- Load and form for each athlete — fitness, fatigue and form are calculated from the synced workouts, session by session.
- Several sports, one calendar — a triathlete who swims, rides and runs has everything in one place.
Quality, not quantity
With more than 250 athletes, you might expect the platform to be about serving more people. César uses it for something else.
"I use the platform to improve the quality of the work, not so much the quantity."
Once every session's data is already in order, a coach's work comes down to what matters: reading it and deciding. And for someone who built his own online calendar in 2005, the bar is high. What he values most isn't the technology itself.
"What matters most to me is that, beyond the technology, it's simple and very professional."
Twenty-five years later
César started coaching remotely when there were no tools designed for it, and for years he had to build them himself. Twenty-five years later those tools exist, and the one he uses every day is TrainerPlan.
"Over the years they were built, and TrainerPlan is an excellent tool for any coach: it simplifies my work and makes it more professional."