Open-ended steps in the Structured workout builder help provide you with the flexibility to more effectively follow your structured workout by allowing you to choose when to advance to the next step in your workout.
When "End step on lap button" is selected for a given step in a Structured Workout then that step will continue to display (the target power, heart rate, or pace will not change and the lap timer won't reset) until you hit the lap button on a compatible device. This option can be set for each step in a workout to help you adjust your workout to the variables that may interfere with riding outside or to the specific demands of the workout. Some ways that you can use open-ended steps include
- Plan a warmup with a minimum duration and an open-ended step so that you or your athlete can make it to an ideal stretch of road before starting the main workout intervals regardless of traffic
- Set approximate work interval durations with open-ended steps to use hills or other terrain features to perform intervals
- Set the recovery intervals to be open-ended to do "full recovery" or heart rate drop or RPE based recovery before starting the next interval
- Set the last step as open-ended to allow additional riding time without the activity ending
It is still recommended to set the duration for an open-ended step as close as you can estimate to the actual duration is as not all devices support open-ended steps and the set duration is still used to calculate the planned TSS and other values.