# Form as a percentage of fitness

**URL:** <https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869>\
**Category:** Announcements\
**Created:** [8 May 2020 04:24 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869 "2020-05-08T04:24:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![david](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/david/32/30189_2.png) [@david](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/david)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 04:24 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/1 "2020-05-08T04:24:25Z")

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The /fitness page and other places that display form can now show it as a percentage of fitness instead of an absolute number. This makes the form zones (optimal training etc.) more applicable to athletes with less than 100 fitness. This setting is available in “Options” on the fitness page and in /settings. “Percentage of fitness” is the default setting for new athletes.

 ![Screen Shot 2020-05-08 at 06.17.25](https://forum.intervals.icu/uploads/default/original/1X/17675df70fa2c963121ff97824d11b5b30371744.png)

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**Author:** ![Cyclopaat](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/cyclopaat/32/1946_2.png) [@Cyclopaat](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/Cyclopaat)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 06:59 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/2 "2020-05-08T06:59:02Z")

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It messes with the labels a bit more, but this is a nice addition 😎

 ![Screenshot 2020-05-08 08.57.16](https://forum.intervals.icu/uploads/default/original/1X/7b4c387eb9ae980a4d8e4f9461f97c66081014fc.png) ![Screenshot 2020-05-08 08.57.33](https://forum.intervals.icu/uploads/default/original/1X/98b4d2f3a33dbc9a603353b4e1a252ec90a6df02.png)

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**Author:** ![Andrew\_Fraser](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/andrew_fraser/32/4558_2.png) [@Andrew\_Fraser](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/Andrew_Fraser)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 09:20 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/3 "2020-05-08T09:20:14Z")

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This helps a lot, thanks!

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**Author:** ![Kosio\_Varbenov](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/kosio_varbenov/32/29313_2.png) [@Kosio\_Varbenov](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/Kosio_Varbenov)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 09:49 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/4 "2020-05-08T09:49:46Z")

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I just tried out the % scaling and it makes the whole form much more volatile. Are the recommended values (defining what is optimal training, high risk, etc.) still valid? Come to think of it, it would make more sense that they should apply to relative and not absolute values, but this would also mean that staying in the right zone will be trickier, as fluctuations are much larger, at least in my case.

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**Author:** ![david](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/david/32/30189_2.png) [@david](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/david)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 10:36 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/5 "2020-05-08T10:36:38Z")

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I think they are. Joe Friels blog post on this had an athlete getting up to more the 100 CTL/day so I used the absolute numbers e.g. -30 as a percentage (so scaled to 100 CTL/day). I have read elsewhere that a TSBr (ATL \* 100 / CTL) of more than 130 is risky which corresponds to -30% form.

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**Author:** ![Kosio\_Varbenov](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/kosio_varbenov/32/29313_2.png) [@Kosio\_Varbenov](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/Kosio_Varbenov)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 10:59 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/6 "2020-05-08T10:59:39Z")

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Maybe then it would make sense to adjust the y-axis so that it is more sensitive in the values between ±20% than the edges, possibly logarithmically, so that extreme values from a month off do not result in compromised “resolution” during normal training.

 ![form](https://forum.intervals.icu/uploads/default/original/1X/5374ba6773532288e911e89ba20d3e41673b45e6.jpeg)  
Most of the time, I am close to the interval of [-30%, 20%], but the few times I drastically distance myself from it make the graph less pretty than the absolute one 😃 _And they told us not to be superficial_

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**Author:** ![asdfqwerty](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/asdfqwerty/32/45142_2.png) [@asdfqwerty](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/asdfqwerty)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 11:53 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/7 "2020-05-08T11:53:52Z")

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This is a really nice feature, thank you. With the % scaling, the form zones more closely resemble how I’ve been feeling throughout this season.

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**Author:** ![david](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/david/32/30189_2.png) [@david](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/david)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 12:23 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/8 "2020-05-08T12:23:48Z")

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Would be nice to come up with a solution for this. Maybe log scale for the top and bottom bands. Anytime you get properly injured or sick you are going to have a huge transition section which isn’t that interesting. Or I could just cap those at a certain percentage?

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**Author:** ![Kosio\_Varbenov](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/kosio_varbenov/32/29313_2.png) [@Kosio\_Varbenov](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/Kosio_Varbenov)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 12:38 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/9 "2020-05-08T12:38:34Z")

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Both could work I guess, some experimantation will be necessary.

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**Author:** ![spinetrak](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/spinetrak/32/1921_2.png) [@spinetrak](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/spinetrak)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 13:20 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/10 "2020-05-08T13:20:51Z")

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Interesting, but doesn’t seem to work for me, but maybe that’s because I only recently started using Strava and a HR monitor etc., so I don’t have a lot of data there. With %ages, I have been solidly in the red for weeks now, which is not how I feel 🙂 Somehow absolute numbers seem to be a better fit for me.

percent:

 ![percent](https://forum.intervals.icu/uploads/default/original/1X/2239c1274a21e7cb67a19dd25b22de0b40dfc63e.png)

absolute:

 ![absolute](https://forum.intervals.icu/uploads/default/original/1X/4308c90bd5ef4ac4ccd3ec27ba92b129f24c1512.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cyclopaat](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/cyclopaat/32/1946_2.png) [@Cyclopaat](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/Cyclopaat)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 13:36 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/11 "2020-05-08T13:36:41Z")

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> [@david](#):
>
> This makes the form zones (optimal training etc.) more applicable to athletes with less than 100 fitness.

@spinetrak - I guess that you fall into that category?

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**Author:** ![spinetrak](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/spinetrak/32/1921_2.png) [@spinetrak](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/spinetrak)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 13:50 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/12 "2020-05-08T13:50:25Z")

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yes - I am like a 40 and change in fitness atm, which is why I thought I’d be the target audience for this new feature 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/david/32/30189_2.png) [@david](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/david)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 13:55 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/13 "2020-05-08T13:55:58Z")

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If you only started monitoring your fitness recently then you might be a lot fitter than the model indicates.

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**Author:** ![spinetrak](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/spinetrak/32/1921_2.png) [@spinetrak](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/spinetrak)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 14:13 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/14 "2020-05-08T14:13:32Z")

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yeah, ok - ofc I’ll take that as an answer 😇

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**Author:** ![Andrii\_Magalich](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/andrii_magalich/32/27821_2.png) [@Andrii\_Magalich](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/Andrii_Magalich)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 15:18 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/15 "2020-05-08T15:18:00Z")

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Fitness 85 here. Very interesting topic!

I’m switching to percent mode to test whether recovery metrics like HR and HRV will become better. In this mode my last 3-week build block is red. Will report back in a month after another mesocycle.

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**Author:** ![DavidU](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/davidu/32/45125_2.png) [@DavidU](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/DavidU)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 15:36 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/16 "2020-05-08T15:36:07Z")

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Interesting feature to have and compare against perceived form. When switching to percentage shouldn’t ramp rate also become percentage based?

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**Author:** ![nfkb](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/nfkb/32/30633_2.png) [@nfkb](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/nfkb)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 18:20 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/17 "2020-05-08T18:20:23Z")

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wow fitness 146 !! I guess you are training 20+ hours per week ?

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**Author:** ![Cyclopaat](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/cyclopaat/32/1946_2.png) [@Cyclopaat](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/Cyclopaat)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 18:23 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/18 "2020-05-08T18:23:53Z")

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Something like that - it’s not like clockwork, but during the outdoors season, that’s about the average.

 ![image](https://forum.intervals.icu/uploads/default/original/1X/23c407fa69df7d8c700b835869afac83003a5a81.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![James\_Jordan](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/james_jordan/32/692_2.png) [@James\_Jordan](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/James_Jordan)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 21:49 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/19 "2020-05-08T21:49:00Z")

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Brilliant. Provides a much greater level of accuracy in my case based on it fitting in with how I feel.

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**Author:** ![cfculhane](https://forum.intervals.icu/user_avatar/forum.intervals.icu/cfculhane/32/656_2.png) [@cfculhane](https://forum.intervals.icu/u/cfculhane)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 23:42 UTC](https://forum.intervals.icu/t/form-as-a-percentage-of-fitness/869/20 "2020-05-08T23:42:26Z")

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Thanks for this David, as someone coming back from a previously high fitness it much better correlates to my day to day perceived fatigue!

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