From my previous pieces, you know that I’m not only writing for CrewLAB, I’m a dedicated CrewLAB user myself. I get just as excited to explore new features as anyone — and occasionally get just as stumped on how things work.
What is the Race Readiness Graph?
In using CrewLAB recently, I became increasingly interested in the Race Readiness graph, a module accessible in the personal dashboard page. The graph runs on a percentage scale from zero to 160, and you can see multiple color-coded bars: losing fitness, race zone, productive training zone, and danger zone. Race readiness is kind of an umbrella term — it’s not measuring one thing, it’s measuring everything, and it could be your new secret weapon.
CrewLAB doesn’t make you check in just for fun (although if you do, all the better) — all the information you input regarding sleep, mood, balanced meals, recovery and hydration all factor into the holistic Race Readiness scale. More granular information on those other categories is listed on your dashboard too, but the Race Readiness graph pulls it all together.
Acute Load and Chronic Load
The primary components are acute load (fitness), and chronic load (fatigue).
Acute load is the quantity of training, especially when compared to past training periods. Acute load covers how much, how long and how intensely you’re training. Is your body keeping up?
Chronic load is how that training interacts with everything else in your life. Are you sleeping well, fueling appropriately, and recovering enough to make you feel strong and refreshed?Or are you on the brink of burnout?
“In other models, heart rate is the driving factor,” said Simon Hoadley. “It’s only measuring the readiness of your cardiovascular system, which is really just one part of the engine.”
Load Management
Load management has always been a part of CrewLAB’s focus, and now it’s easier to see how those loads interact with other aspects of your life.
Not only that, but different exercises are calculated accordingly — a cycling workout is measured differently than a strength workout, and certainly differently than a stretch or recovery posting.
“ Our model is different because we use subjective human data more and we have different weightings and factors for the different intensities. Some of the models really devalue high intensity and strength work. They almost don’t even feature on some of them because it doesn’t move the heart rate data,” said Hoadley. If I go to the gym and I do five by fives of deadlifts, the heart rate barely moves. And again, because the traditional model of this is doing your endurance cardiovascular load management, [you’ll be told] you’re good to go tomorrow. My legs are done! I can barely walk up and down stairs tomorrow. The load is actually there. So, we’re trying to include some of that in there as well, so you get a greater sense of the load on the human, compared to the cardiovascular load on the heart.
CrewLAB’s load management scale complements the rising usage of Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE), which provides a more personalized insight. Because we all have different physical capabilities and outside circumstances, RPE can help athletes and coaches get a more well-rounded picture — because it’s subjective, not in spite of it. RPE can be a really valuable tool to compare how different athletes respond to the same workout, or even how one athlete responds from one day to the next, as well as when it might be time to take a break to reduce injury risk.
“Injuries are very easy to predict, and the bad performances are very easy to predict because [athletes are] trying to do peak performances when their readiness is in the danger zone or even in the productive zone, but they’re fatigued,” said Hoadley.
Race Readiness
The Race Readiness scale factors this in by keeping track of the objective aspects (length of workout, distance, previous workouts from the week) but also how much you think the workout took out of you. A workout you rate a 2/10 effort won’t tank your score as much as one rated a 9/10. Simply, the more effort you exert, the more fatigued you’ll be, and thus, the lower your score.
It’s tempting then, at this point to think that a higher score is better. It can be, depending on your goals and where you are in a training cycle. Easing up on training before a race is a good idea, and is likely to lift you out of the training zone and into the race zone. But too much rest will set you back too — seeing the numbers climb into the “losing fitness” zone means you’re not being active enough. This was what was most confusing to me personally: I felt like I was being rewarded for not working out while on vacation or without access to my usual routine. So learn from my mistakes!
Two-Way Data
Instead of taking the graph as a one-way sign, think of the top and bottom levels as buffers. As Hoadley notes, these zones are places “you want to visit, but not live.” Staying in the middle, the aptly-named productive training zone for the most part, and easing up for races or big events should serve most of us well.
Of course, there’s no true secret to success, but keeping yourself accountable, getting to know your mind and body, and seeing progress over time all make a difference.
“It’s a matter of almost just charting the journey so that you’re more likely to be able to replicate it or change it successfully if it was a good or a bad performance. The short answer is there are no magic answers. But it gives you a sense of being able to anchor your future changes to increase the adaptations and, and, and get a better performance.” Hoadley noted.
CrewLAB has a lot more interesting data available! If you want to know more about this tool or any of our others, feel free to reach out to us on the CrewLAB Community page.
