Hi,
What can we consider that is the optimal form for racing day if we are talking about a 5k race? It becomes ‘blue’ over 5%, is 0% still too much fatigue? Higher level around 20% doesn’t mean you have lost a bit too much fitness?
Thanks
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Well, in my opinion, it depends on many factors and so much on you. Do not forget that your body do not know about numbers.
Personally, it is not about the race distance, it is about if it is an A race (primary goal) or B race (secondary goal). For my primary goal, I want my legs as fresh as possible, and my tapering will be very strict to accomplish that. No matter the distance, the race day I will give all my best and reach my limits, so I need my body fresh from the beginning. For a secondary race, I need to accommodate the tapering into my primary goal training, so I do it but I will not arrive totally fresh to the race day and I will not give it all because next week I intend to continue with training.
Talking about numbers, fitness and form will help you with your workouts calendar. You will know what load you need on each stage to go as far as you can without reaching limits. You will also schedule your tapering and see in the form number that it is enough or not. That’s the way this numbers help to me. Anyplace between 0 and 5 of form is good enough for me for a B race. Around 10 form is what I look forward for an A race.
But again, they are just numbers. They help a lot, but in the end, it’s all about you and your body.
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Thanks for really helpful answer!
The reason why I trust in this form value it’s because it has been pretty accurate compared to my feeling. Weeks pushing hard I was feeling tired and it was going red and when I was felling more recovered it was going green or grey.
So, taking into account your comments it means that probably I’m not arriving to Sunday with the best speed. Even if I stop now I won’t go better than 10% form and anyway I don’t think that being 3 days resting is the best idea.
On the past weeks you have been training for a pace goal, right? So, on Sunday, just go for it. You have done your part. Do not focus on the form percentage at this moment. Just go and enjoy.
If you feel like go for an easy run these days or even make some km to your goal pace, it is just ok. If you feel that you need some rest to do your best, do rest. I have no problem with a 3 day resting, if I feel my legs tired.
Disclaimer: I am not a professional, not even semiprofessional 
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I finally run the 5k in 17:22 which is I would say a bit faster than my expectations. Thanks to your advice I took basically 100% rest 2 days before and got to raceday in 12% form. I know it’s just numbers but maybe it helps somebody as orientation.
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This is where I don’t get these numbers because you hade a fitness level of 25 and ran a sub 18 5km, and I am currently sitting on fitness of 43 (Granted a fatigue of 53 because i am marathon training) and no chance of running a sub 18. Either you are running well under your potential or it is somehow age related
The fitness number can’t be compared in between individuals. It’s a ‘Training Status’ that gives you an idea of how hard you’ve been working for the past 6 weeks. Two people with the exact same fitness number can perform hugely different. That’s because the fitness number is relative to your FTP. If you have a fitness of 40 now with an FTP of 160W, you will not win many races. But if you train several years, you may find yourself with the same fitness of 40 and an FTP of 300W. The chances of getting on the podium will be way higher.
I keep repeating myself the last couple of weeks: fitness isn’t telling you anything regarding performance compared to others, even not compared to yourself. Fitness is a number that helps you plan the correct training load, relative to your actual performance level. And if you keep training a similar amount of time, the number will plateau. But your FTP (performance) will still improve and you will go faster and faster.
interesting. I have always used fitness as way to compare how I am doing in relation to previous marathon training plans and progress how my current marathon train is progressing. So really that is only giving me an indication analysed in relation to load and fatigue and form. I really need to determine my FTP
Also, fitness is created according to the Load level of your training, and this load level is based on the heart rate (or power) during your session compared to your LTH (or FTP). This means that depending on this setup of your LTH it will change a lot the load and so on the Fitness level.
I have some colleagues doing easy runs for less that an hour and getting 65 of Load which for me I must do a super hard session to get there. Maybe their setup for heart rate zones are not well adjusted but basically it doesn’t matter because you can only compare with yourself.
For information, this was written 1 year ago. Now my fitness level is 42 and I have been doing 100km average for the last 3 months with 3 quality sessions per week and fighting for a sub 33 in 10k (not yet there). When I wrote that I was doing something like 60 kpw
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That is very good practice. It allows you to repeat things that went well in the past and avoid things that turned out wrong. But you should look at the trend and not only absolute values. Also, as explained above, your performance level could be totally different this time, with a higher or lower FTP. That will influence the total event time.
The important things are:
- What ramp rate of Fitness was I able to sustain in the past?
- How much tapering will I do before the event?
- What was the resulting Form the day before the race?
If you performed well, try to reproduce those conditions. If performance was not good, try something different.
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If they are using Power for load calculation, that’s not an easy run, unless their FTP setting is totally wrong. One hour endurance at 70% FTP yields a TSS load of 49. And for most people 70% is no longer an ‘easy’ run. That’s more like steady work around long-event race-pace.
Agree, it’s a mix between wrong LTH set and lack of aerobic base.