Running Stress Balance

Running Stress Balance explained

Your Running Stress Balance (RSB) is the difference between your accumulated long-term running stress (42-day weighted average) and your short-term running stress (7-day weighted average). As such, more recent runs have a higher contribution to these average values. 

In general, your 42-day average is an expression of your fitness. It captures the long-term trend in your stress that contributes to your fatigue resistance. Your 7-day average is an expression of your fatigue and encapsulates the period of time before your training stress results in fitness gains.

I just started using Stryd and my RSB doesn’t seem accurate...

Because the value is the difference between your 42-day average and 7-day average, the value won’t be accurate until you have approximately 42 days of training. 

So, if you jump into using Stryd in the middle of a training block, please ignore the value until you have at least a few weeks of data. This will be remedied in a future update.

Why does Stryd focus on the balance instead of the averages?

We focus on the balance between the 42-day average or the 7-day average because we find the trend (accumulating stress or losing stress) to be more valuable than the less tangible and more individual nature of the values themselves. 

What are the different ranges?

Overreaching -45 to -40

When your running stress is beyond advised for sustained training.

Cautionary -40 to -25

A state of heavy training. Be cautious of increasing your running stress.

Productive -25 to -10

When your running stress is quickly adding to your fatigue. With proper recovery, it will contribute to your fitness.

Maintenance -10 to 5

The state of balancing your running stress and recovery.

Performance 5 to 25

The state where your running stress is low and you’re primed to take advantage of your current fitness.

N/A 25 to 45

Your running stress is too low to contribute to your fitness.