Here is a better way to compare fitness, no race times required

What is the best way to see how you stack up against other runners?

The typical answer is to compare race times with other runners.

That can be a pretty good solution, actually.

Race times can be a great measure of performance.

However, a single race time does not do much to really help guide you towards improving.

The most you can learn by comparing your race time against someone else is learn how much faster you need to run.

Duh! We all want to run faster.

There is simply not much else to learn from someone's race time.

In fact, unless you are comparing race times from the same day on the same course, race times can be rather misleading.

Some runners like to show off their times from a net downhill course or on a day when they had an aiding tailwind.

You should be wary of any comparisons based on race times.

I think a lot of you know that already.

But, we all still do it because there is no other way to reliably make comparisons.

What if there was a better way?

You really want a more comprehensive method of comparison that tells you:

- What enabled that runner to beat me and what can I learn from them?

- What skills does that faster runner have that I do not?

- How can I build those skills so I can log a similar or better performances?

In order to determine the answers to those questions, you need to start comparing more than race times.

You need to know:

- How much endurance does that runner have?
- What is their raw, top speed?
- How resistant are they to fatigue?
- What is their max race performance?

These questions are hard to answer.

I doubt many runners would even know how to answer these questions if you asked them.

Well, fear not.

If you want to learn from faster runners to see what skills you need to focus on to race faster...

We are going to help reveal the answers with the help of the Training Distribution feature in the new PowerCenter.

Here is a look at that:

The Training Distribution chart looks at your recent Stryd data and compares you against similar Stryd runners, based on age, gender, and race goal, to see how your skills stack up.

This feature will help you identify what skills you are lacking in and what skills you are exceeding in.

From this info, you can focus your training efforts to shore up your weak areas and maintain your strengths.

For example, my endurance score is already considerably higher than similar runners, but my fitness is lacking.

That means I could focus less on my long runs and focus more on my speed work to balance and improve my performance.

If you are serious about improving your run, let's go a level beyond race time comparisons.

A goal race time can only give you a goal to shoot for.

Training Distribution gives you a path to achieve that goal by telling you which skills to focus on by comparing you to your peers.

Training Distribution is one of the highlight features in the new power analysis platform we launched yesterday

Our new power analysis platform, PowerCenter, analyzes all of your running power data and extracts previously unseen insights from the data.

To make all of this analysis happen... you first need running power data.

If you want to start collecting running power data and populating your PowerCenter to use features like Training Distribution, you will need to get Stryd at the link below.

https://store.stryd.com/