Glossary
Relative Effort
A heart-rate training load for one run, scored against your own last 6 weeks. A hard week makes today score lower for the same effort.
What it is
A training load built from heart rate, then compared with your own recent history. The underlying number is a weighted sum of time in each zone, in the style Banister described in 1980.
The comparison is what makes it relative. The same 10 km (6.2 mi) run scores differently depending on what your last six weeks looked like.
| Your recent weeks | Today's 60-min easy run scores |
|---|---|
| light | high |
| average | moderate |
| very hard | low |
What it is not
It is not how hard the run felt to you. Runners put this plainly: _my body does not care if it is Monday_. The metric compares you to a rolling baseline, and your legs do not.
It is also not comparable between people. Two runners on the same run get different scores because their zones and their baselines differ.
What moves it
- Time in the higher zones. The dominant term.
- Your zone boundaries. A wrong maximum shifts every run's score.
- Your recent load. A hard block lowers today's number.
- Heat. More beats at the same pace means a higher score.
When to ignore it
Ignore it on a single run. The baseline makes one number close to meaningless in isolation.
Ignore it when your heart-rate trace has gaps or spikes. Zone time computed from a broken signal is a broken score.
Sources
- Banister EW, Calvert TW. Planning for future performance. Can J Appl Sport Sci 5(3):170-176, 1980 primary
- Morton RH, Fitz-Clarke JR, Banister EW. Modeling human performance in running. J Appl Physiol 69(3):1171-1177, 1990 primary
- Foster C et al. A new approach to monitoring exercise training. J Strength Cond Res 15(1):109-115, 2001 primary