The training load focus data screen provides you not only with a graphical depiction of how your training load is distributed among the three major intensity categories but with qualitative feedback as well.
- Shortage: You are lacking exercise in a training intensity category.
- Balanced: Your training is well distributed across different levels of intensity.
- Focus: Your training variety is reasonably well structured but is particularly focused in one area.
In addition to the above three categories of load focus feedback, it is also possible to get feedback that your overall training load is too low (“Below Targets”) or too high (“Over Targets”).
The work you do to achieve a balanced training load is all about the fundamentals. It’s about laying a strong foundation upon which you can build. With a balanced foundation in place, you gain the confidence you need to focus on the aspects of preparation that will give you the edge you need to succeed in your challenge of choice.
Balance Is Needed for a Strong Foundation
When your training load is both optimal and balanced, it means you are active enough to support and gradually improve your fitness level, and the composition of your activities is diverse enough to provide a solid foundation for future improvement. It means your activities include enough time spent at high- and low-intensity aerobic efforts along with dynamic efforts to help enhance your explosive performance capabilities.
Focus for Winning
Every athlete knows that preparation is the key to success, and to be successful you must recognize and prepare for the unique demands of the challenge you face. With a balanced foundation in place, you can start to focus and guide the composition of your training load toward a performance profile that matches your ambition or phase of your periodization schedule.
Confirming that your training is properly targeted through training load focus gives you confidence that you are on the right track. When understood and utilized properly, this data can be transformed into your personal road map for achieving your goals and performing at a high level in a wide variety of pursuits. You can easily see when your training activities are lacking in one or more areas, and once you have a strong foundation in place, you are able to shoot for the stars by ensuring the composition of your training activities match up with the specific real-world demands of the challenge you want to tackle.
Training Load: Training Effect Label of Primary Benefit
In newer compatible products, you can get an idea of how your ride or run affects your training load focus as soon as you save your activity. A new color-coded label added to the training effect summary screen describes the primary benefit of what you have just done and where you can mostly expect it to contribute.
Note that the background of these labels are color-coded (purple, orange and light blue) to match the anaerobic, high aerobic and low aerobic bars used for your training load focus. When a recorded activity has no meaningful impact in one of the intensity categories or it cannot be identified, the label background is simply gray, and no descriptive text is displayed.
