WHO THIS IS FOR
IS THIS YOU?
The rider overwhelmed by their training app
Your platform shows a dozen numbers after every ride and you don't know which ones to actually look at.
The self-coached amateur building a routine
You want a simple, repeatable habit for reviewing rides without turning it into a second job.
THE ROADMAN VIEW
The Roadman view
Modern platforms throw twelve numbers at you after every ride, and most riders either ignore all of them or obsess over the wrong one. Anthony's rule for the athletes he coaches is blunt: three numbers earn a look after every single ride, and everything else is a weekly job.
Power (or heart rate, if that's what you've got) is the anchor because it tells you the true intensity independent of how the ride felt. Cadence matters because it flags whether you were grinding or spinning, which shapes what you're actually training. And time in zone is the one most riders skip — it's the difference between a ride that averaged the right number by accident and a ride that actually held the target the session called for. A ride can average out fine while secretly containing twenty minutes of drift you never noticed.
Past those three you're into the numbers that matter for planning a season, not judging Tuesday's ride: Normalised Power smooths out variable efforts into a truer intensity picture, TSS quantifies total training stress, and CTL/ATL/TSB track fitness, fatigue and form over weeks. These are real and useful — just not daily numbers. Check them once a week, on a Sunday, and let the daily three tell you whether today's session did its job.
EXPERT EVIDENCE
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
- Joe FrielCo-founder of TrainingPeaks, author of The Cyclist's Training Bible
The value of tracking training data comes from consistency and honest interpretation, not from monitoring every available metric. A small set of numbers, checked regularly and understood properly, beats a dashboard full of figures nobody reads correctly.
Hear it: The Training Secret To Going FASTER After 40 | Joe Friel
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
DO THIS WEEK
Check three numbers after every ride
Average power or heart rate, cadence, and time in zone. That's the full daily review for most riders — takes under a minute.
Review load metrics weekly, not daily
Set a five-minute Sunday habit: look at CTL trend, TSB, and whether last week's TSS matched what the plan called for.
Don't let the dashboard replace the plan
Metrics describe what happened. They don't tell you what to do next unless you already know what the session was supposed to achieve.
COMMON MISTAKES
WHAT CYCLISTS GET WRONG
MISTAKEChecking CTL, ATL and TSB after every single ride.
FIXThese move slowly by design. Checking them daily creates noise and anxiety with no extra information. Save it for a weekly review.
MISTAKEIgnoring time in zone and only looking at the average.
FIXAn average can hide a badly executed session. Check whether you actually held the target intensity, not just whether the overall number looked reasonable.
MISTAKEAdding more metrics instead of understanding the ones you have.
FIXA short, well-understood list beats a long one nobody interprets correctly. Master three numbers before adding a fourth.
FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do I need a power meter to track meaningful cycling metrics?
What is the single most important cycling metric?
How often should I check my CTL and TSB?
What's the difference between average power and Normalised Power?
Is it bad to ignore metrics entirely and just train by feel?
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