‍TrainX®

Your TrainX® Score

Your TrainX Score is a single number between 1 and 100 that lets you know how you're doing with your Optimized Training™.

TrainX is our proprietary analytic algorithm that evaluates your “training execution” of your prescribed Optimized Training relative to its value and impact on your overall performance improvement.  It scores individual training sessions, weekly training, and multi-week training periods.

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TrainX Scores measure your training execution for training that was uniquely prescribed for you.

The most effective training isn’t measured only by how much (or even how fast) training is done, but by comparing what training could and should be done (individually optimized training) to what training actually was done and how it was done.

TrainX helps you get more improvement from your training by helping you 1) do the right training and 2) do the right training right.

TrainX is quite different from your other Optimized Training metrics (such as Normalized Training Stress™, Residual Training Stress™, Normalized Training Load™, and Performance Readiness™). These other metrics are focused on the training itself and your response to it.

Regardless of what these other metrics are for a given training session or training period, TrainX evaluates only how well you executed whatever training was prescribed.

TrainX Scores measure your training execution for training that was uniquely prescribed for you.

The power of TrainX is realized through the cumulative effect of Optimized Training™ being consistently executed with a high level of intentionality to the best of your ability.

TrainX Scores

TrainX scoring starts with your optimized daily training sessions and expands to your weekly training and longer multi-week periods. Each of your sessions are specifically designed for you relative to your athletic profile, biometrics, genetics, performance ability, training history, environment, race goals, training preferences, and so forth. Your objective is to perform them to the best of your ability, realizing that training execution is something that will take practice and education to improve.  Maximizing your training effectiveness is directly aligned with maximizing your TrainX Scores. Here’s a breakdown of the three types of TrainX Scores:

TrainX Session Score

Your TrainX Session Scores evaluate multiple training execution factors related to individual session objectives, training intensities, intervals, and duration, among other things.

Tips for Maximizing TrainX Session Scores:

  • Connect your training devices to RunDot or TriDot and make sure that your actual training files are used to complete your training sessions and produce your TrainX Session Scores. Because sessions that are manually marked as complete are subjective and not supported by actual data, the maximum TrainX Session Score for these sessions is 90.
  • Make sure you know your target intensities before executing your session. Be sure that your training location and time of day are correct so that these intensities are correctly environment normalized. Your TrainX Session Score algorithm will use intensities based on the actual location, time, and environment data included in your training file.
  • For “quality” sessions (sessions with prescribed intensities above zone 2), prioritize completing all of the intensity efforts at the prescribed levels and durations over just completing the total duration of the session at a lower-than-prescribed intensity.
  • When performing non-recovery bike or run sessions, use power for the bike and power/grade-adjusted pace for the run as your primary training intensity metric to manage your effort. This will produce better results than using HR or RPE.
  • When performing recovery bike or run sessions (all zone 2), use HR as your primary training intensity metric.
  • Using exported workout files on a smart trainer for your bike sessions enforces strict workout adherence and will result in the highest TrainX Session Scores.

TrainX Weekly Score

Your TrainX Weekly Scores evaluate your execution of prescribed training for the current and past weeks. It considers the TrainX Session Scores of completed sessions and many other factors related to session objectives, session quality, session priority, and discipline priority, among other things.

Tips for Maximizing TrainX Session Scores:

  • For weekly long sessions for each discipline, prioritize completing the prescribed duration over hitting any prescribed intensities within the session. But the overall objective is to hit both the total duration and all prescribed higher intensity efforts.
  • If you can complete some, but not all, of the prescribed sessions in a given week for a given discipline, prioritize the longest session of the week, especially if you are in a race prep phase where the week-to-week long session durations are building. The next sessions to prioritize are “quality” sessions with the most intensity.
  • Try to avoid moving sessions from their prescribed days. But if you must, do it and don’t sweat it. That’s life.
  • Avoid moving a low-priority session such that it impacts your ability to execute another higher priority session on the following day.  Scoring well on your long and quality sessions is much higher priority than merely “accumulating” time, distance, or completed sessions.

TrainX Multi-Week Score

TrainX Multi-Week Scores evaluate all training weeks within multi-week periods.  The most common periods evaluated are 4- and 8-week training blocks which generally cover one or two mesocycles, respectively.

Tips for Maximizing TrainX Session Scores:

  • Be consistent with your training. If for any reason you miss a few days, get back to it right away. Rather than telling yourself “I’ll get back on track ‘next week’,” get back on track today!
  • Don’t worry about life getting in the way or having a bad week. Just like a single session is unlikely to make or break a training week, a single week is unlikely to make or break a training phase.

Score Ranges

TrainX Scores your training execution on a 1 to 100 scale. Our athletes commonly refer to a TrainX Session Score of a 100 as a unicorn, because it feels rare.

1-49

poor

50-60

Below average

60-69

Average

70-79

Good

80-89

very Good

90-100

Excellent

The TrainX Mindset

Keep in mind that a high TrainX Score is NOT the ultimate objective. The ultimate objective is your performance improvements that result from consistently executing the right training right, to the best of your ability. TrainX is a crucial tool to help you do this. Having a strong TrainX mindset is key.

  1. Use your TrainX Scores as a target, for motivation, and for fun! But whatever you do, don’t stress out over your TrainX Scores.  Focus on consistency and improvement.
  2. Recognize that there are always factors beyond your control. Manage what you can control.  Use what is beneficial. Let the rest go.
  3. Perfection isn’t the goal.  Sustained improvement is. It’s easy to set and perfectly achieve an “accumulation” goal of training X hours or times per week. This may make you “feel” good in the short term, but this will not result in sustained improvement. Keep your eyes on the prize and press into the process that’ll get you there.
  4. Take your training one step at a time.  Set small achievable goals and consistently achieve them—day by day and week by week.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • How do my TrainX Scores affect my training optimization?

    TrainX Scores are designed to be used by athletes, not RunDot or TriDot's optimization engine. TrainX Scores themselves don’t directly affect your training optimization. However, the same training data that is used to produce your TrainX Scores is also used to optimize your training but at a much more granular level.

  • What do I do if I get a "Poor" TrainX Session Score?

    Aside from the expected reasons for poor scores such as training sessions that are executed substantially differently than how they were prescribed, there are several other causes for “poor” scores such as missing or corrupt data, changing training environment, injury, mechanical issues, and so forth. In any case, don’t worry about a poor TrainX Session Score. Learn from it, if possible, and adjust in the future.

  • If I get a low TrainX Score for a session, should I redo the session to get a better score?

    No. Perform each session to the best of your ability. If you get a lower score than you’d like or expect, try to determine why and make adjustments to your training execution in the future.

  • Why aren’t athlete-created sessions or extra sessions scored?

    Only sessions that are prescribed are scored. Athlete-created sessions in most cases will negatively impact recovery from prior sessions, hinder performance on future sessions, will be detrimental to overall training progress, and will unnecessarily increase injury risk. At this time, these sessions have no impact on TrainX Scores.