How Rurilab works: a training plan engineered from your real data
Most training apps hand you a fixed plan from a template and hope your body cooperates. Rurilab works the other way around: it reads what your body actually did, estimates where your fitness is right now, and builds a plan around that — then adapts it as reality changes. Here's the whole loop.
1. It starts with your real data
Rurilab imports your completed workouts and wellness data — distance, pace, heart rate, GPS route, elevation, cadence, power where available, plus sleep and resting heart rate. Today that data arrives through Android Health Connect, Apple Health, or direct GPX / TCX / FIT file import. Fields depend on the source app, permissions and beta build. Suunto and Polar connection flows are implemented in development; Garmin and COROS cloud connections are planned. Check compatibility before assuming automatic sync.
Nothing is invented or averaged from a survey. The plan is grounded in the sessions you genuinely ran.
2. It estimates your current fitness
From your recent quality runs, Rurilab derives a VDOT — a single number, from Jack Daniels' running formula, that captures your current aerobic fitness and maps directly to training paces (easy, marathon, threshold, interval, repetition). Because it comes from your latest performances rather than a one-time questionnaire, your paces track your form as it changes.
3. It estimates load and puts recovery in context
Every session adds training stress. Rurilab tracks it with the established load model:
- CTL — a long-term training load estimate
- ATL — a short-term training load estimate
- TSB — the model balance, not a measurement of recovery
Layered on top are HRV trends, resting heart rate and sleep quality — signals of how well you're absorbing the work. Together they answer the only question that matters on a given morning: push, go easy, or rest?
4. It builds — and continuously adapts — your plan
Rurilab generates a plan informed by running fitness estimates, intensity distribution and training-load models, paced to your VDOT and structured toward your goal race. But a plan is only useful if it survives contact with real life.
The plan can be adjusted against your completed sessions and available data rather than treating the initial schedule as fixed. This is a development feature to evaluate in the beta, not a guarantee of safe progression or recovery from illness.
5. It gives you one honest daily verdict
All of this collapses into a single, readable daily view: your form and plan status, today's session, and a clear recommendation. No dashboards to decode — just the decision.