Hi, I’m a recreational cyclist and have been tracking my training using with intervals this year. it’s been pretty neat to see the fitness graph. I have to admit that most of the data is way over my head, but one measurement in particular isn’t super clear to me.
How is fatigue, or rather the rate of recovery in fatigue calculated? It’s seems that if I do nothing for a day, my fatigue number drops by about 7-8 points. What is this based on? I’m particularly interested because I feel that for whatever reason, I recover slower than the fitness graph suggests, so the form “zones” don’t quite line up with how I feel. Shouldn’t the rate of recovery (drop in fatigue) be unique to the person? Or am I completely misunderstanding how to use that measurement?
Fatigue is the 7-day exponentially weighted moving average of your training load.
Example (linear average):
Mon thru Sun you have the following daily TSS:
0-75-50-65-40-150-200 = 580 / 7 = 83 (fatigue).
If the next Mon is a rest day and you take the Tue off, then your fatigue score is as follows:
50-65-40-150-200-0-0 = 505 / 7 = 72
As I mentioned, this is a linear average, and not an exponential weighted average, but is should be simple enough to explain how the 7-day score changes based on the workout “score” for each day.
There is a question begged, is it possible to adjust the rate of recovery for those of us who have slower healing/recovery rate? IOW, that fatigue lingers longer due to age, genetics, underlying physical condition/illness, or other reason?
It’s another part of what Alan Couzens calls responder/non-responder.
You can adjust the days for fitness and fatigue via the calendar entry/adjust fitness days. Try setting it to 8 or 9 days and fatigue number will decay slower.
I don’t understand why this is a calendar entry that requires a date. Does it mean that setting the entry to a date in the past causes the fatigue to be recalculated from that date forward?
Probably, but don’t take my word for it.
Now you need to understand that this is a tool to help you guide your training load and not something written in stone. To give you an example, someone with a physically challenging day job, will react quite differently then someone sitting at a desk. Changing the fatigue days might not be the best solution because you need a lot of experience to correctly judge that. The more practical solution, that I use, is to monitor the Form number (TSB) and compare that to how you feel. Form is in the “green zone” from -10 to -30, which is a quite big frame. By coupling that number to a feel that you consider as “thriving” you can use a smaller frame of Form to plan your training load and make sure that you’re not getting overy fatigued.
Hmm, once a Fitness Days entry is made, is there any way to find it again? IOW, when that entry was made? And FTM, it would be nice to know the current set points for fitness and fatigue days (assuming that it was changed at some point).
You can find the current setting by clicking on add calendar entry - Fitness Days on the calendar page. You can set a starting point too.
Not sure how to find last modified date because it is not under columns in activity list view.
Yes, see my previous post (reply to my reply to you). That’s how I found my previous change. But I can’t click on it to change it. Nor does it show in the list of events at the bottom of the fitness chart. Hmm.
And FTM, it would be nice to know the current set points for fitness and fatigue days (assuming that it was changed at some point).
