Fitness / Freshness Tweaks...
TheBigYin
Posts: 5,686 Member
One for the Premium guys I guess here, Strava have updated the basis that their "Fitness/Freshness" charting is based on. Previously, it was purely a metric for the power meter (or pseudo powermeter like the Cycleops Powercal belt) user, but after a bit of analysis, it seems that they've managed to crunch out a way of taking an approximation of the relevant data directly from heart rate information as well by using the "suffer score" for a ride.
Why is this a good thing? Well - for the existing power meter users, the odd ride on a different bike (say the CaadX for me, when the Stages is attached to the Dolan) doesn't "slip under the radar" or get completely discounted in terms of calculating fatigue. Okay, there's a chance that the suffer-score calculation from heart rate may not be quite as accurate as a properly metered figure, but it's better than no data at all, and showing a gap in the data that is interpreted as a day off...
For example - something like THIS is probably my typical autumn afternoon ride. Say I do that 3 times a week, and maybe go out once purely on the road on a Sunday for a 4h ride, my fitness/freshness score would be out by six hours of riding... now I know for a fact that the "suffer score" is a little low on that ride, because I've ridden something similar but shorter in the past WITH a powermeter on the bike, and had a far larger score - perhaps Strava's formula for calculating suffer scores is too related to speed and perhaps doesn't take into account the rolling resistance of riding in 3" deep mud for at least 5km of the loop
But - the point is, i'd rather have low-estimate data than no data at all...
Have a read at the Strava Engineering Blog on this feature, and see what you think - http://engineering.strava.com/fitnessfreshness-updates/
Why is this a good thing? Well - for the existing power meter users, the odd ride on a different bike (say the CaadX for me, when the Stages is attached to the Dolan) doesn't "slip under the radar" or get completely discounted in terms of calculating fatigue. Okay, there's a chance that the suffer-score calculation from heart rate may not be quite as accurate as a properly metered figure, but it's better than no data at all, and showing a gap in the data that is interpreted as a day off...
For example - something like THIS is probably my typical autumn afternoon ride. Say I do that 3 times a week, and maybe go out once purely on the road on a Sunday for a 4h ride, my fitness/freshness score would be out by six hours of riding... now I know for a fact that the "suffer score" is a little low on that ride, because I've ridden something similar but shorter in the past WITH a powermeter on the bike, and had a far larger score - perhaps Strava's formula for calculating suffer scores is too related to speed and perhaps doesn't take into account the rolling resistance of riding in 3" deep mud for at least 5km of the loop
But - the point is, i'd rather have low-estimate data than no data at all...Have a read at the Strava Engineering Blog on this feature, and see what you think - http://engineering.strava.com/fitnessfreshness-updates/
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Interesting. I just had a read of the update and I like the fact that you can now choose the source of the graph details (PM only, HR only or PM and HR).
I have a PowerTap which of course is wheel specific so when changing to another set of wheels I was SOL. Finally bought a PowerCal as a back-up and for use with other wheel sets/bikes.
I think if you use power for the most of the rides and and HR to fill in the blanks, the overall picture is pretty accurate. I looked at my data over the last 3 months or so and the combined PM + HR data is entirely believable.
I do find the fitness and freshness chart useful for training purposes and you can clearly see the effect of hard training and tapering. After 3 months hard riding (for me) I had a fitness score of 121 but a fatigue score of 188. My form was -67 and yes I felt knackered!!
But after tapering before the Six Gap ride, my fitness score dropped to 104 but more importantly my fatigue score dropped to 63 and thus my indicated form jumped to +41. A huge difference and indeed I felt great throughout the grueling Six Gap ride (104 miles, 12,200ft climbing)
Strava continues to make small but meaningful improvements to the site, a lesson MFP and Garmin could both learn from IMO.0 -
Yeah - sadly, the whole chart makes somewhat depressing reading for me...
Haven't been anywhere near 100% all year tbh - "contact point" issues running up to the Giro, On-Going lateral epicondylitis through LeTour and Vuelta, and for the last 6 weeks or so, this damned cold/chest infection thing and it's current issues...
fitness going downhill faster than a Four Fat Birds in a Bobsleigh.
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Yeah it's easy to lose fitness even if you're riding regularly. Just hard to do the long intense rides in the winter time.
You can see what happened to my fitness levels when I went for it during Le Tour and La Vuelta. Now down considerably since then.![:\](https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/resources/emoji/confused.png ":\")
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