I recently started using Elevate for Strava out of curiousity. I’m in the last week of SSB Mid Volume 1 and start MV 2 on Sunday with a Ramp Test. Couple of screenshots of the analytics from Elevate appear to tell me maybe I should skip or reduce a workout or two in this last week to get some more recovery. I’m a little fatigued so I was thinking of skipping at least one of the two longer workouts anyhow but I’m more interested in what the analytics are showing. What are your thoughts on me skipping or reducing more workouts to recover more going into MV 2?
I’ve used the elevate fitness/form in the past and found it had no correspondence to my actual form, I raced best and trained best when I was seemingly hugely fatigued and then produced poor results when I was supposedly rested. Basically I found that since it didn’t reflect my off bike stress , it was a poor guide to what i should be doing on the bike.
Judging my form by mood, motivation and RPE works much better for me so in the situation you describe, I’d probably reduce workouts to go in to the new plan recovered, rather than carry in excessive fatigue. I think its probably safer to do less than to push yourself through workouts and feel drained going in to the next plan!
That Elevate chart shows your Form line as being in the Optimal zone (-30 < Form < -10).
Overload zone is: Form < -30
Whether this is a useful metric to you (see 1st reply) is another matter, but perhaps worth ensuring you’re actually reading/interpreting the chart correctly (the zone labelling could be a lot clearer…).
My thought was if I do all this week’s workouts I’ll go into MV 2 close to what Elevate deems the Overload zone and be worried I’ll certainly hit the Overload zone in MV 2, perhaps early on. Just looking to learn how useful this tool might be and how much of a concern that would be.
That is essentially true for the Fitness, Freshness & Form via the Strava Summit (formerly Premium) services.
However, the info above is from the Elevate Chrome plugin, that is far better and works the way that charting should work. So, it is fine to use as applied above.
I use Elevate extensively (and Trainingpeaks PMC before that - same thing). I cant personally handle much more than form of about -20 before a rest week. Based on my history I rarely touch -30 at the end of a “big” training block. Would be good to look back at your history and what negative form you have experienced previously and correlate with how you felt at the time.
Are these a percentage based metric saying that I am 76.4 fit out of 100% and that I am 98% fatigued out of 100%?
Ive read a bunch of topics and watched a few videos on this and to be honest I never really seem to get a defined answer!!! What does it mean? Am I severely over training?
Fitness (CTL) is an exponentially weighted average of your last 6 weeks of TSS. Fatigue is your exponentially weighted average of your last 7 days of TSS. Form is just the difference between those two numbers.
Edit–and for what it’s worth (I’m no expert), averaging 75ish TSS per day over the span of 6 weeks seems like an awful lot for a rider with a 2.78 w/kg.
Yes. Looking at it I think Ive overdone it as well. But then I’m about to be off the bike for six weeks starting Thursday as I go in for Inguinal hernia surgery. I was doing as much riding as possible the last while including a trip to Cancun where I turned 50 and did a lot of riding while it was plus 29C vs -29C here. My fatigue is going to drop to 0 lol.
