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Garmin · Training Readiness
Training Readiness is, arguably, the single most useful daily number Garmin produces. It blends every other recovery signal (sleep, HRV, Body Battery inputs, training load) into one score that answers the actual question athletes ask: 'is today a good day for the hard session?'
It updates first thing in the morning and is the best single check before deciding to push a quality session or move it. But it's a composite — so understanding which input dragged the score down on any given day tells you what to fix.
| 85–100 (Prime) | All inputs aligned. Run your hardest planned session. If you've been peaking towards a race, this is when to do the final hard rehearsal. |
|---|---|
| 70–84 (High) | Most days for trained athletes. Quality work is appropriate. Threshold, intervals, race-pace tempos all fine. The default 'green light' band. |
| 50–69 (Moderate) | Normal aerobic running is fine. Lower the planned intensity by one tier if you had VO2max work scheduled. Marathon-pace and threshold are still OK; max-aerobic intervals may not produce best response. |
| 25–49 (Low) | Recovery or easy aerobic only. The body isn't well-positioned to adapt to hard load. Pushing through often produces a session that feels worse than the score predicts. |
| Below 25 (Poor) | Active recovery, walk, or rest. Repeated days here mean your training is overshooting your recovery capacity. Look at sleep, fueling, and consider a deload week. |
Sleep score (last night): the heaviest input by far. A bad night drops Training Readiness more than any other single factor. Garmin scores sleep on duration AND architecture (deep, REM, light, awake).
HRV Status: 7-night rolling HRV baseline. If your overnight HRV is below your personal baseline, Training Readiness gets a major hit. This is the longer-trailing signal.
Recovery Time: hours remaining from your last hard session. A high Recovery Time (40+ hours) keeps Training Readiness suppressed regardless of how good sleep was.
Acute Load: how aggressive your last 7 days have been. High Acute Load reduces Training Readiness even with good sleep — Garmin is saying 'you've worked, take it easy.'
Stress level: derived from HRV during waking hours. Persistent high stress (driving, meetings, screens) lowers Training Readiness even on rest days.
Sleep history: not just last night. A 3-night rolling sleep deficit shows up here even if you slept well last night.
Morning check, before you decide your session: open the watch glance. If the score is 70+, your planned session is appropriate. If it's 50–69, consider swapping intensity for volume (turn 6×800m into a 40-min easy continuous run). If it's below 50, today is recovery.
Pre-race week: Training Readiness should climb from T-7 onward as load drops. If it's stuck below 70 in race week, examine what's keeping it down (often sleep or stress, not training).
Long-term pattern: if your morning Training Readiness is trending down over 7–14 days, you're not recovering. Add a deload week BEFORE the score collapses, not after.
Don't chase 100. Some athletes obsess over reaching 'Prime' (85+). That requires unusually low load + great sleep + good HRV all aligned. It's not the goal — sustained 70–80 is.
Travel and time-zone changes: HRV gets disrupted for 2–3 days, sleep architecture is poor, Training Readiness drops to 30–50. You may feel fine and able to train normally — trust your subjective feel + heart-rate response in the warm-up.
Caffeine very close to bedtime: HRV-based sleep architecture degrades, Training Readiness underestimates recovery.
Alcohol: even one drink suppresses HRV-based recovery scoring substantially. Training Readiness may be 20–30 points below your true state.
Menstrual cycle phase: many female athletes see Training Readiness ~10–15 points lower in luteal phase regardless of training. Adjust expectations during this phase rather than treating it as 'always recovering badly.'
Body Battery is a continuously-updating energy reserve estimate (0–100) that moves throughout the day. Training Readiness is a daily score (0–100) computed each morning, focused specifically on capacity for today's hard training. They share inputs but answer different questions.
Yes — that's exactly what it's optimised for. If you have flexibility in your schedule, line up quality sessions with high-Readiness days. The adaptation response is meaningfully better.
Most often: you woke up well-rested and the algorithm is correct, but psychological fatigue or non-training stress is suppressing your subjective feel. Sometimes: dehydration or under-fueling that hasn't shown up in HRV yet. The score is usually right about physiology — your subjective feel may catch up after a warm-up.
Yes: prioritise sleep duration AND quality (cool, dark, consistent bedtime), avoid alcohol within 48 hours of important sessions, manage non-training stress, time hard sessions to leave 36–48 hours of clear recovery before the next.
Forerunner 255/265/955/965, Fenix 7/8, Epix Gen 2 and newer. Older Garmin watches show Body Battery but not the daily Training Readiness score.
CoachUpFit reads Training Readiness each morning — quality sessions auto-shift to high-readiness days. Free for 7 days, then $20/month.