I’m relatively new to reviewing my Fitness, Fatigue, and Form. I got interested when reading some forum posts around the internet. I have Strava Summit, and they have Fitness, Fatigue, and Form, and just started using Training Peaks and Intervals.icu for their Fitness, Fatigue, and Form. (long intro, I apologize).
What I’ve noticed is that Strava and Training Peaks give similar Form numbers, while Intervals.icu gives me a Form that is more than double than what I’m seeing on Strava and Training Peaks. Please see below:
My understanding of Form is that, while training, I should be between -10 and -30, which I am, according to Strava and Training Peaks. With Intervals.icu, though, it seems I’m really out of bounds.
I’m just curious as to why the numbers are different on intervals.icu, and should I be concerned about overtraining/injury? As I mentioned, I’m new to understanding Fitness, Fatigue, and Form, as well as, cycling in general, and I wanted to be sure I’m not killing myself.
I notice that the Fitness numbers are similar but the Fatigue numbers are different. That explains the difference in the value of Form.
Whats the ATL/CTL constants set in TP and Strava. Same as Intervals.ICU?
What are the TSS values in TP and Strava, daily/weekly averages similar to TP and Strava?
I wanted to be sure I’m not killing myself.
That, I think only you can tell with accuracy
Prolonged fatigue, soreness, disturbed sleep, dehydration, high resting HRs, odd pee color. These are all signs. Monitor yourself. If none of these apply to you, keep calm 'n move on.
But seriously, I typically try to tune some of the time constants to match how I feel.
As @coach_ron said, I’d listen to my body and use the data as confirmation of what I already know.
Also if you regularly measure HRV, it can be another source of info (with a lot of caveats) to decide if it is time to slow down, or push thru.
Need to add that, beyond the data, Intervals has the best visualization, and tells me with just one glance, how an athlete is doing and if something needs attention (i.e. too much or too little load)
I had a look at your data and your FTP is currently set too low. This is causing your power data to be clipped as “spikes” (the orange bolt on the calendar and the note under the ride timeline chart). This will also cause training load to be much higher than it should be.
Intervals.icu numbers should be very close to TP if your FTP is the same in both systems. Not sure about Strava.
Thanks for the feedback and reviewing my data. I’m still new to all this, and I’m not even sure what my FTP is, so I went with a lower value. I went ahead and update the FTP on my activities to match what I have on TP, and the results look more in line.
I understand that this graph is fascinating. It has fascinated me for years and made me pay for TP.
But don’t give it too much importance and don’t chase CTL numbers. IMHO it’s a wrong path to true fitness.
Learning ones reaction to training is a long process, be cautious with what look likes shortcuts.
