Is anyone out there making use of all those new metrics on SYSTM (Fitness Score [FS], Training Capacity [TC], DTL etc.)? I’ve (tried to) read the online documentation, but find it kind of dense and not completely clear. The two main things reported on my home screen are the FS and TC - but the interpretation of FS is kind of not-to-be-found (other than up is presumably good and down, not so much). I also find that the DTL is not easy to grasp… Maybe they need a “for dummies” version for people like me with goat brains.
Would love to hear others’ experience with these metrics.
I am keeping an eye on them to see how they relate to how I’m feeling. I don’t find that training capacity matches my actual, because I have no way to add the drains of caregiving, show shovelling, illness etc into Wahoo. I still use my Garmin body battery to second if I’m really as exhausted or recovered as I feel (is quite accurate for me).
As for the graphs alone, I’m so far finding that the short term load and training capacity graphs lines form inverse mirrors of each other.
Long term load and fitness score seem to rise together in the same curve over the long term.
I tried to attach a screenshot but for some reason this isn’t working for me these days.
I’m still trying to get a grasp of them but the training capacity line colour is most obviously helpful to me. (white or blue go for it, orange, think about how deep a hole I Want to dig for myself).
I’m still not entirely sure either - I get the principle of training readiness and fitness, but it would be helpful to understand WHY it goes up and down.
Fatigue is (I think) straightforward, but eg over the last ten days I’ve done some hard sessions initially, and then five days very little, and my fitness has been declining by 0.2 every day throughout - that’s counterintuitive on the face of it (unless I was overtraining at the beginning, which is possible, but hard to know without an explanation why the numbers are changing.
I also double record a workout in Systm and Zwift sometimes, and while I usually delete one of them from Systm to not skew the training data, the fitness numbers seem to not change whether I delete the double session or not. Does Systm automatically recognise if it’s a parallel recorded session?
Thanks Isa and Malte. Training Capacity is kind of like Body Battery for me as well.
I am really curious how (or even “if”) the Fitness Score correlates or adds to things like FTP and VO2M. Maybe a question for the technical people at Wahoo.
Also TC seems bounded by 100/-100. Is the FC also capped at 100 or some other number - or is it free ranging? And more importantly, how might you use it? Again, questions for the Wahoo team (who are probably out on vacation).
Most of the time, SYSTM doesn’t record doubles. Once in a while, I get a double on SYSTM but it’s irregular. I connect SYSTM to my Garmin to record the rides on my watch. SYSTM and Garmin are both connected to my free Strava. It’s not a very smart setup but just haven’t put the time in to figure out the best way to layer stuff.
I think Isa is correct. To me fitness score appears to be a moving average of the long term training load. i.e. a smoothened, and somewhat delayed, version of it.
That would mean it has no direct relation to FTP or VO2max, although you will likely improve over time as you keep your fitness score up (even if it plateaus). It would make it a heuristic, but your metabolism and its adaptation in response to training is obviously more complex than a single metric.
Fitness Score is free ranging. I’ve gotten over 100.
If you’re just cycling, DTL is pretty close to TSS. Right now it kinda sucks for other activities, it really undercuts my rowing and running activities.
FC is calculated a little differently than the usual 6 week TSS fitness - for your cycling activities the 4 different DTL components have different decay rates; fitness from NM doesn’t hang around as long as fitness from FTP. It also lags a bit - you don’t feel fitter the day after a big ride and FC reflects that.
Training Capacity isn’t rigidly linked to FC - it takes into account your daily readiness result.
Richie: That clarifies much! Thanks. [Assuming what you’re labelling “FC” is actually what I’m calling FS=Fitness Score.] So looking at my own numbers, I think it says “you’re relatively strong but not terribly fit, but generally improving when you actually put in the effort” which makes sense given my personal situation. Thanks again!
One thing different between DTL and other metrics is that when you do a big ride it doesn’t automatically immediately jump your fitness. There’s a delay since you’re fatigued. Then as you recover your capacity grows and your fitness continues to climb. This makes lots of sense to me. More so than the standard TSS model where your fitness immediately drops if you don’t keep riding again.
That’s how it seems to work for me as well. But: off topic and on a different note for a different platform, MAP/AC/NM kinds of rides (like Bavaria Burgberg yesterday) often drop my VO2Max on my Garmin (which, admittedly, is only an algorithmic estimate), while rides at 60/70% of FTP will up it. Everything I read says that AC/MAP rides should increase your VO2 and that zone 2 stuff not so much.
The general observation is that it’s nice when you can understand the logic of increase and decrease of a metric as it seems for the DTL, FS, TC measures - so thanks to Wahoo for that.
Thanks for this. I listened on my commute this morning, really useful. It mentioned that the metrics can account for load from strength training too. What do I need to record to achieve this? Just use my watch with HR rate during a workout and then give a post workout rating or do I need to track which exercises I did (e.g. 10 squats, 10 deadlifts etc etc)?
Question :I feel like there’s a lot of content I don’t know exists since I’m only on systm and this forum. Are the blog, these podcasts, etc FrontPage on the Wahoo app? Or where exactly would one expect to find out a new podcast or blog article is out?
I really don’t understand these new metrics. It shows my fitness decreasing (despite I can feel it getting much stronger) even after using the WA to apply ‘feels like’ metrics to non-cycling workouts.
It confuses the heck out of me and the numbers I get from STrava and Garmin seem far more reflective of the reality of how I am feeling (and noticing on workouts that I struggled with at the start of my plan).
So I’ve noticed that DTL and TSS are pretty close for cycling, over time.
However, for my other sports (running, indoor rowing) I have to rate higher on the RPE to get DTL close to the TSS I got in those sports or it would undercount them.
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