With each passing year, the Apple Watch has become a better choice for sports, and as an avid runner who has used the Apple Watch to prepare for marathons in the past, the standout update to watchOS 11 for me was announced at WWDC 2024 The addition of training loads

Training load tracking is a standard feature on the best running watches from brands like Garmin and Colosse to make sure you are putting in enough effort to get fit without overdoing it, which can increase the risk of injury, and over time It helps you to judge your effort as you go along

Running in particular is a high-impact sport and requires careful management of training load to avoid overtaxing the body This is especially important if you are just beginning to run or if you are increasing your running volume as part of a training plan for an event like a marathon

Apple's new training load feature is not as detailed as the analysis available from some sports watches, but it helps determine long-term effort, and its simplicity is also appealing, given that training analysis can be uncomfortably complex on sports watches

Training load is based on the cumulative load of training done using the watch [This is done automatically for many types of aerobic exercise, including running, and is evaluated based on factors such as age, height, weight, pace (via GPS), heart rate, and elevation

For workouts that do not get an automatic effort rating, such as strength training, you can enter your own so that it is properly factored into the training load

What I really like about this rating is that it can be manually adjusted to take into account factors that are not measured by the clock, such as general fatigue for the day or muscle soreness from previous workouts Being able to adjust also means that if the heart rate measured by the watch during a workout is inaccurate, it can be taken into account

In contrast, if the heart rate was incorrect during a workout, as is the case with many sports watches I have tested, all training analysis will be skewed For example, if an easy run was incorrectly recorded as a hard run because the heart rate reading was incorrectly high, the training load for the day would be considered very high

Effort rating is one of the two main factors related to training load, the other being training time The training load of a workout is expressed as effort x duration, and a graph is displayed comparing the workout of the last 7 days to a rolling baseline of the last 28 days [This "effort x duration time" approach is simpler than what many sports watches do, which considers the time spent in each heart rate zone during a workout and uses it for more advanced analysis, such as whether the workout had a greater impact on aerobic or anaerobic fitness It is

Apple's approach still works well and is easier to understand overall Training load is simply how hard you worked x how much you trained On the watch, you can see how your 7-day training load compares to your 28-day baseline, and Apple will show you whether it is more or less using 5 ratings: Apple uses 5 ratings: Well Below, Below, Steady, Above, and Well Above

There are many ways to train as a runner, but the key underlying them all is not to do too much too soon, which can lead to burnout and injury The Training Load function helps determine this by ensuring that the training load over the last 7 days is not too much higher than the baseline of the previous 28 days

Apple ratings are an easy way to do this If I am looking to improve and increase my fitness, perhaps I just started a new training block for an event and my mileage is increasing

If I want to maintain my fitness, the training load should be "steady," and if I want to reduce my training load for an event like a marathon where I am tapering to ensure fresh legs on race day, "less than" or "well below" is preferred

Adding training load is exciting and useful in its own right, and it will be interesting to see where Apple goes from here; some brands, such as Garmin, actually offer Some will advise you, and many will tell you what the training benefits of individual runs are, such as base runs to improve aerobic fitness, or interval sessions to improve speed and anaerobic fitness

For now, I'm just trying to keep my training load in the right zone And if necessary, I'll take rest days; I can even pause the rings on my Apple Watch to make sure the streak doesn't end