> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.absurdrunning.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Your first plan

> Turn a route into a race-day strategy. About five minutes start to finish.

A plan is your race-day strategy — pacing, fueling, gear, drop bags, and alerts — built around one of your [routes](/get-started/first-route).

## Before you start

Make sure you have at least one route in your library. If not, [add one first](/get-started/first-route) — the planner needs a course to plan around.

## Open the planner

<Steps>
  <Step title="Go to Plans">
    Click **Plans** in the sidebar.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Pick how to start">
    On the empty Plans page, you'll see three options: choose a saved route, upload a GPX file, or draw a new route. Pick **Choose from Your Routes**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select your route + name the plan">
    Pick the route you added earlier. Give the plan a name (something like "Race name — A goal" so you can tell sibling plans apart later).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Continue to Editor">
    Click **Continue to Editor** — the five-step planner opens.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## The five steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="1. Route & Pace">
    Confirm the route, set a target finish time, and tune per-segment pace and effort.
  </Card>

  <Card title="2. Checkpoints & Segments">
    Tune what's on the route — cutoffs, aid-station details, segment boundaries.
  </Card>

  <Card title="3. Gear">
    What you carry, what's mandatory, what you swap at each checkpoint.
  </Card>

  <Card title="4. Fuel">
    Calories, carbs, hydration, and electrolytes per hour, per segment, per checkpoint.
  </Card>

  <Card title="5. Dropbags & Tasks">
    Contents of each drop bag and per-checkpoint reminders the mobile app fires on race day.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

You can skip any of the steps if you just want something simple, or you can go in-depth and build out a detailed plan. Skipped steps won't be saved to the plan, and won't be visible on the plan summary page.

## Save and sync

The plan saves automatically as you go. When you're done — or when you want to step away — it's already in your library.

Once a plan is saved, it will automatically be synced to your mobile app, so you can run the plan there right away. See [Mobile app setup](/get-started/mobile-app) if you haven't installed the app yet.