Your Running Fitness metric reflects your overall abilities as a road runner by looking at the relationship between your pace and HR during those activities. In short, if your HR increases at the same pace, EvoLab will perceive this as a decrease in fitness, and vice-versa.
For Running Fitness to update, it requires specific criteria such as:
- Activities that are either road running or track.
- Activities that are +25min long.
- Activities that are not being paused (pauses alter the HR/Pace relationship).
EvoLab will update Running Fitness every 3-5 of those eligible runs if it perceives a noticeable change. If not, your Running Fitness will stay the same.
The fluctuations you may notice in your Running Fitness metric over time comes from the intensity of your runs. As mentioned above, Running Fitness looks at the HR/Pace relationship while training. At low-intensity, your HR has more day-to-day variations, which EvoLab may detect as an increase/decrease in fitness. At high-intensity, your HR is much more stable and better reflects your current fitness level. Therefore, we will suggest to:
- Wear an external HR monitor to ensure your HR readings are as accurate as possible.
- Include occasional high-intensity (zone 4+) workouts in your training (ideally 1-2x per week) to make sure you have a strong HR/Pace relationship.
- Remove EvoLab Analysis to the runs you believe do not reflect your current fitness level.
- COROS app > Activity > 3 dots in the top right corner > Edit > Toggle EvoLab Analysis OFF
- Complete a Running Fitness Test to immediately update your Running Fitness metric.
Reach out to COROS Coaches at coach@coros.com for further individualized insights on your training and data!