This is a paid Wahoo subscription feature. The Training Progress panel on the Today tab and DTL summary panel are available to non-subscribers, but further data analysis requires a paid Wahoo subscription or active trial.
Training Capacity [TC] and Fitness Score are two of of the new Fitness Metrics Wahoo has released to provide a more complete picture of the impact of your training on the various dimensions of your cycling and running fitness, your capacity to train, and your overall fitness when compared to simple FTP, other existing cycling metrics and traditional running analysis.
For a summary explanation of all the new metrics together, see Wahoo cycling Fitness Metrics explained.
Training Capacity [TC]
The Training Capacity [TC] value represents your point-in-time readiness to continue training or perform in competition as a positive or negative number on a spectrum of Rested - Fatigued. Effectively it is the ratio of your recent short term training efforts to your long term training efforts.
It is calculated your Short Term Load [STL] (an average of approximately the last week of accumulated Dimensional Training Load [DTL]) relative to your Long Term Load [LTL] (a rolling average of your DTL across the past several months).
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A negative Training Capacity score, or Short Term Load [STL] > Long Term Load [LTL], indicates you are training harder than your baseline fitness, which is necessary for building fitness, but also increasingly produces fatigue. Sometimes maintaining a low Training Capacity value is part of the plan to push your limits, but too long without rest can stall progress. To gain fitness, aim for 2-3 weeks with negative TC value.
A positive Training Capacity value, or LTL > STL indicates your recent training has been lighter, allowing for recovery. To recover, reduce your Short Term Load relative to your Long Term Load.
Note: A negative TC value isn’t 'bad', depending on what you intend to do next. It just means you are relatively fatigued, which will limit your immediate capacity to train at a high level or perform well immediately. Likewise, a positive TC value isn’t 'good', but demonstrates your current capacity to increase your training load or perform your best in the near future.
For more details on Dimensional Training Load [DTL], see Dimensional Training Load (DTL).
For more details on Long Term Load [LTL] or Short Term Load [STL], see Short Term Load (STL), Long Term Load (LTL), and Cycling Trends.
Fitness Score and State
Your Fitness Score is a measure of your overall fitness level. The Fitness Score combines your long term load (LTL) and Training Capacity [TC] to provide a simple point-in-time measure of your fitness. It grows slowly over time as you accumulate training load, but by including your relative fatigue level (TC) in conjunction with that accumulated training load (LTL), it accounts for the impact of rest on fitness development.
Think about how you taper your training before a big race. You don't workout hard right up to race day. You taper for a few days, or perhaps more than a week, so that you can line up to the start feeling fresh. Your overall fitness has improved by allowing your body to rest after a consistent, progressive training program. You're fitness improves, even as you rest, because you're recovering.
You’re at peak fitness when you’ve built strength and are well-rested. Unlike fitness models that only reward accumulated training load, Wahoo's Fitness Score accounts for the benefits of proper recovery on fitness, more accurately predicting your capacity to perform.
The Fitness State is Wahoo's way of connecting all of this complex training data into an easy to understand snapshot of how your training is currently affecting you.
Fitness States connect training capacity and load into one clear actionable story: detraining, recovering, maintaining, building, or overtraining.
- Where you are today — whether your fitness is building, holding steady, or declining
- Why it’s happening — how recent training load and recovery are interacting
- What it means for training — whether to push, maintain, or back off
Fitness States Explained
Detraining
What it is: Training has eased off for an extended period, leading to a gradual decline in fitness.
How it feels: You feel a bit rusty—paces or power that once felt easy now take more effort.
How it changes: This state develops over multiple lighter days or weeks; a missed workout or short break won’t put you here.
Recovering
What it is: Your body is repairing and adapting after recent training stress so you can return stronger.
How it feels: Energy is coming back and soreness is fading, though it may take several days to feel truly sharp again.
How it changes: A string of easier days moves you into recovery; a single rest day during a normal training week doesn’t automatically trigger this state.
Maintaining
What it is: Training is supporting your current fitness without pushing for further gains or losses.
How it feels: Workouts feel familiar and manageable, and performance remains steady.
How it changes: Consistent, balanced training keeps you here; one unusually hard or easy day won’t shift your state.
Building
What it is: You’re training consistently with enough challenge to drive improvement—without overdoing it.
How it feels: Workouts are demanding but achievable, and progress shows up week over week.
How it changes: This state is maintained through repeated days of productive training; a single easy or rest day won’t knock you out of it.
Overtraining
What it is: Training stress has exceeded recovery for too long, increasing fatigue and the risk of declining performance or injury.
How it feels: Heavy legs, poor sleep, irritability, workouts feel unusually hard, and performance slips.
What to do today: Back off. Prioritize rest, easy movement, sleep, and nutrition.
How it changes: Leaving this state requires several easier days—or a lighter week—not just one day off.
By framing training in clear, easy-to-understand states, Wahoo helps you recognize where you are—and make smarter decisions about what to do next.
Data display in the app
For all Wahoo users, today's Fitness Score and Training Capacity [TC] score are available on the Training Progress panel near the top of the Today tab (left image below).
For Wahoo account subscribers, selecting this panel will open the Training Progress page (middle image below), which contains a Fitness Score and Training Capacity panel with both of today's values and any gain or loss across the last week as a numerical value and a graph. Selecting that panel will open the Fitness and Training Capacity page (right image below), which contains a multi-value graph which displays Short Term Load, Long Term Load, Training Capacity, and Fitness Score across the time window you select.
Wahoo app Today > Fitness or Training Capacity button > View Chart
The metrics are also available in the SYSTM app.
SYSTM > Home > Fitness or Training Capacity button > View Chart
In addition to being able to select your preferred time window for that graph, which helps to provide necessary context, each metric's trend line is toggle-able to allow for better visibility of the metric you wish to focus on. As with other Wahoo cycling Fitness Metric graphs, you can select a point of time in the window, and the values for each metric will reflect the selected date, and any activities completed on that day will appear in the section below.
The three images above are the same date shown with the 1 week, 1 month, and 1 year views. Long and Short Term Load are togged off in the 1 year view.