What your training scores mean
lope tracks four scores that together describe your readiness for a specific kind of race: Foundation, Durability, Threshold Readiness, and Speed Maintenance. The composite is goal-weighted, which is why a marathoner and a 5K runner can have the same component scores and very different overall readiness.
The four dimensions
Foundation
The aerobic base. Built by consistent, easy mileage at low intensity. Slow to build, slow to lose.
Inputs
- Weekly mileage trend over 8 weeks
- Easy-run consistency (how often easy days were truly easy)
- Zone-2 time as a share of total training
- Long-run regularity
Durability
Resistance to fade. Whether you can hold form and pace deep into a long effort.
Inputs
- Long-run distance progression
- Cardiac drift on long runs (lower = better aerobic durability)
- Cumulative time on feet
- Back-end pace consistency on the longest runs
Threshold Readiness
Sustained hard-effort capacity. The ability to hold a tempo for 20-60 minutes at lactate threshold.
Inputs
- Threshold and tempo session count over 4 weeks
- Threshold pace trend (faster pace at the same effort)
- Quality session density (enough recovery between hard days)
- Marathon-pace and half-marathon-pace volume
Speed Maintenance
Top-end neuromuscular readiness. Strides, repetitions, and short fast intervals that keep your fast-twitch fibers firing.
Inputs
- Strides Presence (up to 25 pts) — counts both pure stride sessions AND lap-detected strides inside easy runs
- VO2max session count (8-week window)
- Top-End Speed Retention — interval lap pace trend, with a small bonus for stride frequency
- Cadence stability across training types
Each component scores 0–100. Each is computed from raw activity data over a rolling window (mostly 4–8 weeks), not from a survey or self-report.
Why your goal changes the math
The four scores combine into a single composite that signals your overall readiness for your primary goal. The weights flip based on what you're training for, because what makes a 5K runner ready isn't what makes a marathoner ready.
| Goal | Foundation | Durability | Threshold | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5K | 20% | 15% | 30% | 35% |
| 10K | 20% | 20% | 30% | 30% |
| Half Marathon | 25% | 25% | 30% | 20% |
| Marathon | 30% | 30% | 25% | 15% |
| Ultra | 30% | 35% | 20% | 15% |
| General Fitness | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
So a Speed Maintenance of 80 is a great signal for a 5K runner (35% of their composite) and almost irrelevant for a marathoner (15%). That's the point. The composite tells you whether you're ready for your race, not whether you're generically “fit.”
Where the strides credit comes in
Speed Maintenance has a Strides Presence component worth up to 25 points. Stride sessions count two ways:
- Pure stride sessions — runs classified as Strides (a short run named “strides” or similar)
- Lap-detected strides inside easy runs — lope scans every easy run for stride-like laps (under ~241m, faster than 1.2× your typical easy pace) and credits those as stride sessions even though the run itself stays Easy
Four sessions over four weeks gets full credit. The Top-End Speed Retention sub-score then layers on a small bonus (up to 5 pts) proportional to how recently and consistently you've done strides — recognizing that strides preserve neuromuscular economy independent of any other speed work.
Net effect: if you toss 6×100m at the end of two easy runs a week, lope sees that and credits it — even if you never said the word “strides.” See run classification for how the lap-level detection works.
Composite trend, not just composite score
A score of 72 doesn't mean much without context. lope shows two things alongside the composite:
Direction (improving / stable / declining)
Calculated by comparing your current composite against the 4-week moving average. A 72 that was 68 three weeks ago is improving. A 72 that was 79 three weeks ago is declining.
Per-component deltas
Foundation up 4 / Speed Maintenance down 6 over the last 4 weeks. The composite hides this; the components don't.
Data quality
Scores need a baseline to mean anything. lope checks data quality before it'll show numbers:
Minimum: 4 weeks of synced data with at least 3 runs per week. Below that, the scores are too noisy to be trustworthy and lope shows a placeholder (“I'm building your training scores — need 4 weeks with 3+ runs/week”) instead of misleading numbers.
Even past the minimum, certain components require certain data to score:
- Foundation, Durability: need HR data on enough runs to assess zone time
- Threshold Readiness: needs at least one tempo or threshold session in the recent window
- Speed Maintenance: needs at least one stride session or quality interval in the recent window
Components without enough data are shown as gray (not scored), not as zero. A 0 in a component means “you're missing this kind of work”; gray means “we don't know yet.”
How the coach uses the scores
The scores aren't just dashboard wallpaper — they feed into the coach's context. When you ask the coach for a workout suggestion or weekly plan, it sees:
- Your composite score and direction
- Your weakest and strongest components, weighted by your goal
- The component-level inputs (e.g., “Strides Presence: 8/25 — only one stride session in the last 4 weeks”)
The coach uses this to bias its recommendations toward your weakest goal-relevant component. If you're training for a 5K and your Speed Maintenance is at 40, expect the coach to push more strides and short intervals for a few weeks — not because the algorithm said so, but because the coach saw the score and made the call.