---
title: "Training load"
description: "How Runima quantifies the stress of each session and your accumulated load over time."
canonical_url: "https://runima.fit/docs/metrics/training-load"
---

> Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://runima.fit/llms.txt)

Training load expresses how much physiological stress a session imposes, so you
can compare an easy 10K against a hard interval workout on a single scale.

## Acute vs. chronic load

Runima's ACWR compares two windows of training stress:

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Term
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Window
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Meaning
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Acute load
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      7 days
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Recent total training stress.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Chronic load
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      28 days
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Average weekly stress over four weeks.
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The ratio between them (acute ÷ chronic) is the **acute:chronic workload
ratio (ACWR)**. It describes recent load relative to your usual load;
it is not a validated injury predictor or readiness test.

```text
ACWR = last 7 days' TSS / (last 28 days' TSS / 4)

  < 0.8   below usual load
0.8–1.0   light load
1.0–1.3   near usual load
1.3–1.5   above usual load
  > 1.5   well above usual load
```

<callout color="warning" icon="ph:shield-warning-duotone">

These are descriptive bands, not safe zones. ACWR alone does not trigger
a plan adjustment or next-week cutback in Runima. Use session distances,
symptoms, and recovery alongside load history.

</callout>

## Session-distance comparisons

Runima compares each proposed session with the longest completed run in its
preceding 30-day window. A large observational running study associated increases
above 10% with higher overuse-injury rates. This does not estimate your personal
injury probability, and staying below the reference does not guarantee safety.

Generated plans do not have scheduled session dates, so comparisons use the week's
start, or today for the current week. Coach-authored plans use scheduled workout
days. Planned runs never count as completed history; comparisons can become
unavailable when existing history expires.

For generated plans, you can explicitly choose a fixed session-distance ceiling.

Runima reduces the weekly session mix and recalculates running load and fitness projections.
Changing an active plan's ceiling enables auto-adjust. The ceiling remains a
chosen planning limit until changed or removed; it is not a rolling safety limit.
Coach-authored workouts receive warnings without being rewritten.

Weekly growth percentages, recovery factors, block structures, ramp cutoffs, and
gentler loading presets are coaching assumptions rather than validated
injury-prevention or rehabilitation protocols.

## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](https://runima.fit/sitemap.md) for all pages.