Load: one score for every workout

An hour in the pool, three hours on the bike and a half-hour run — how do you tell which week was harder? You can't add up the kilometres: they mean completely different things in the three sports. Adding up the hours doesn't work either: an easy spin and an interval session of the same length cost your body very different amounts.

So every session is turned into a single number — a load score.

One scale for all three sports#

The reference point is simple and the same for everyone: an hour of work exactly at your threshold is about 100 points.

Everything else is measured from there. An easy hour's run gives 40–60 points, a hard interval session of the same hour gives 70–90 (part of the hour goes on the warm-up and the rest between reps), an easy hour's swim gives its own 40–60. The numbers become comparable, and a week finally adds up to one figure.

Inside the platform this figure is called LU, and on the scale it matches the TSS familiar from the triathlon world. If you're coming from another service, the size of the numbers won't surprise you.

Comparing absolute scores between services is still a bad idea: they're calculated from a threshold, and every system has its own. What means something is the trend within one system.

What the score is made of#

Two things: how long the work lasted and how hard it was.

The second part is described by intensity: 0.7 is easy, 1.0 is exactly at threshold, above 1.0 is harder than threshold. Intensity enters the calculation non-linearly: work well above threshold gets expensive faster than its duration grows. That's exactly why twenty minutes of hard intervals can cost more than an hour of easy running.

The fallback ladder: what we measure with#

Not everyone has a power meter, and not every session calls for one. So the platform picks the most accurate signal available, working down the list:

1. Power. The most honest thing there is: a direct measurement of work. Used on the bike.
2. Pace. For running and swimming — with the corrections described below.
3. Heart rate. Works for steady aerobic work. During intervals, during strength work and when the signal is poor, heart rate lies — there the platform steps down a rung.
4. Effort rating. Your own judgement of how hard it was, on a scale of 0 to 10. An hour rated 7 gives about 100 points.

This ladder is why there are no “uncounted” sessions in TriCoo. A swim without a watch, strength work in the basement, a day hiking in the mountains — all of it gets an honest score, as long as you give it an effort rating.

The accuracy differs, and the platform doesn't hide that. The lower the rung, the more cautiously it adds load and the more often it will suggest firming up your threshold.

Why terrain and surges are counted separately#

Running uphill at the same pace as on the flat costs your body more. A choppy ride full of accelerations costs more than a steady one, even when the average power is the same.

So the score doesn't lie, the platform brings such work to a comparable figure: normalised power and pace account for both the terrain and the unevenness. Without that, hill running would be systematically undervalued and stop-start city riding overvalued.

Cardiac drift is a story of its own: late in a long session, or in the heat, heart rate climbs at the same speed. The platform doesn't “correct” it. Instead it lowers the confidence of the heart rate calculation and keeps the observation itself — it comes in useful when we get to durability.

One score, several consequences#

A session has one load score, but it affects more than one thing. Aerobic work builds fitness. Running, jumping and strength work also load muscles and joints, and that is tracked by a separate, fast-moving counter — muscle load.

The point is that your heart and your legs recover at different speeds. After a long run you may be aerobically ready tomorrow while your legs are not. These circuits are counted separately, and the score isn't doubled in the process.

What the score doesn't mean#

It doesn't tell you whether a session did you any good. Three hours in the grey zone will score more than a well-built session with intervals — and give you less. The score measures the cost, not the benefit.

It doesn't measure your health and it isn't a verdict on you as an athlete. It's a unit of account, handy for adding up weeks and seeing what's happening to your form.

And it isn't absolute. The score is calculated from your threshold — if the threshold is out of date, every number slides with it. That's why the platform keeps an eye on threshold confidence and reminds you when it's time for an update.