Strain Target
A Strain range for today, set by your Recovery and recent load.
What goes in
- Today’s Recovery
- Picks the band. Without a Recovery score there is no target.
- Your last 28 days of Strain
- The average of the days with Strain, today not included, is your base.
- Training load (ACWR)
- Your last 7 days of Strain against your last 28, up to yesterday.
How it is weighted
- Green Recovery
- Base × 1.0 to base × 1.25
- Yellow Recovery
- Base × 0.8 to base × 1.0
- Red Recovery
- Base × 0.5 to base × 0.75
If your training load is above 1.3, the top of the range is capped at your base, since load is already climbing fast. Below 0.8, both ends rise by 10%. The range is then kept between 4 and 19 and at least 2 wide; a range that is too narrow widens downwards. A base of 12 on a green day gives 12.0 - 15.0.
What the bands mean
- Below the range
- A lighter day than your body can take today.
- Inside the range
- Training builds fitness without digging a recovery hole.
- Above the range
- More strain than today’s Recovery suggests; expect it to show tomorrow.
Limits
With fewer than 14 days of Strain in the last 28, Pulse uses a starting range for your band, marked as an estimate: green 14.0 - 18.0, yellow 10.0 - 14.0, red 6.0 - 10.0. The target does not know your training plan, races or injuries. It is a guide, not a prescription.
Sources
The full specification, with formulas, constants and worked examples, is strain-target.md on GitHub. The code is tested against those examples.