Know whether to push or hold back, before you lace up

Most readiness scores hand you a number out of 100 and no way to check its work. This one gives you a word and then shows you every measurement it used, next to your own thirty-day range, so you can disagree with it.

The four states

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• Optimal — fully recovered and ready. A prime day for a key session: intervals, tempo, or a race-pace simulation.
• Recovered — train as planned. Your body is prepared for a standard session; stick to your plan.
• Compromised — partially recovered. Keep the intensity low and hold today to an easy Zone 2 run.
• Fatigued — under-recovered. Prioritise rest or active recovery: a very light jog, or gentle movement.

The state is free. The sentence spelling out what to do with it — Today’s Guidance — is the Pro half.

The numbers behind it

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Every metric is shown against your 30-day baseline, with a trend you can tap into:

• Heart Rate Variability — beat-to-beat variation in your heart rate. Higher usually means better recovered.
• Sleeping Heart Rate — your heart rate while asleep. Lower usually means better recovered.
• Sleep Duration — total time asleep.
• Restorative Sleep — deep plus REM, the stages that do the most repair.

Also tracked, with their own trends: Respiratory Rate, Resting HR, and Blood Oxygen.

When it has nothing to go on

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Recovery needs an Apple Watch worn during sleep. If you left it on the nightstand, you’ll get told so — “No sleep data last night” — rather than handed a verdict built on a stray reading.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. A night with no sleep data is not a night of no sleep, and scoring it as one would have greeted you with Fatigued on a morning you actually slept nine hours. Recovery waits for tonight instead.

How to actually use it

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• Read it before you decide, not after you’ve decided. The value is in changing today’s session, and that decision has usually hardened by the time you’re warmed up.
• Don’t chase Optimal. Training makes you tired; a block of hard weeks should show Compromised mornings. Two or three Fatigued days in a row is the signal worth acting on, not a single one.
• Treat it as one input. If it says Compromised and you feel excellent, you’re allowed to run. It’s showing you what last night looked like, not issuing instructions.