It’s easier to hit your peak with the help of a training app — here’s how

If you’re serious about training for an event, or if you’ve planned an entire season of racing, chances are you’re using some form of training software.

The extent to which the user researches the available tools is entirely up to the user. Athletes can simply manually log the hours and minutes spent cycling, or they can use the software as a daily journal of every element of their physiology and mind.

Those looking to use the software to train their bodies to prepare for specific events on specific dates may further explore the capabilities of their software of choice, using graphs that track metrics like fitness, fatigue, and form.
Most training software options provide a pictorial view of an athlete’s fitness in terms of their training load, fatigue levels, and the resulting freshness.

Popular training software options on the market are Training Peaks (and its more advanced sibling WK04), Today’s Plan, Golden Cheetah, and to a lesser extent Strava.

Each of them uses their own terminology and algorithms. To make a rather complex subject easier to explain, we’ve stuck to the terms (and in some cases trademarked) used by Training Peaks.