Tracking athletic performance: which metrics to review and how often

By JuanPa, creator of TrainingForever · Updated 28/10/2026

Short answer: the monitoring of sports performance consists of always recording the same indicators of each athlete (external load, internal load, plan compliance, well-being and periodic tests), reviewing them with a fixed frequency (on a daily basis the urgent, every week the trend, at the end of each block the tests) and using them to decide what you change in the plan. What matters is the trend of several indicators at once, not a loose data.

Many coaches have more data than ever before and still find out late that an athlete was exhausted or that the plan was not working. The problem is rarely the lack of data: it is not having a system to look at them always the same and with the right frequency.

This guide goes from continuous follow-up, week, block and season. If what you're looking for is how to read a specific session, you have it in post-training analysis.

What is Sport Performance Tracking?

It is the process of systematically collecting training and status data from each athlete, comparing them to their own baseline and using them to adjust the plan. It has three pieces:

• A baseline: from where the athlete starts (history, injuries, availability and initial tests). You can start with the athlete's initial form template.
• Fixed indicators: always the same, measured in the same way, so that the changes mean something.
• A routine review: When you look at everything and what decision can come out of it.

The international consensus on load monitoring insists that there is no single indicator to explain everything and recommends combining several (Bourdon et al., 2017). Understanding fatigue requires both looking at the burden and response of the athlete (Halson, 2014).

What indicators to measure in sports performance monitoring?

External and internal load: the two sides of the same session

The external burden is what the athlete does; the internal burden, the response of his organism to that work. Two people can make the same series and live them in a very different way, so it is appropriate to measure the two (Impellizzeri et al., 2019).

The easiest way to measure the internal load, valid for race, bike or force, is the session RPE (Foster et al., 2001):

Added for weeks, this data lets you see if the load goes up progressively or jumps. If you work with accumulated load models (form and fatigue), you have the explanation in the CTL, ATL and TSB training load guide.

Compliance: what is planned versus what is done

A plan that the athlete can't fulfill doesn't work, no matter how good it is on paper. Reviewing each week what sessions were made, which ones were not and which ones were changed tells you if the plan fits your life. We developed it in proposed versus implemented.

Well-being and feedback from the athlete

A systematic review found that the subjective measures reported by the athlete himself (feeling of fatigue, sleep, muscle pain, mood) respond to load changes better than many objective measures of usual use (Saw et al., 2016). In addition, they are cheap: a short questionnaire is enough, always with the same questions and at the same time.

The free comment after the session also counts: "I notice the loaded twin" is a fact that the clock does not give you.

Heart rate and CVV at rest

At-rest heart rate variability (CFV or HRV) can help track how the athlete responds to training, provided it is measured in similar conditions and interpreted as a trend (e.g. weekly averages) rather than as an isolated daily value (Plews et al., 2013; Buchheit, 2014). You have more detail in the heart rate variability guide and, if your athletes use Garmin, what each state of HRV in Garmin means.

Reference tests

Without regular tests, you don't know if the athlete gets better or just gets tired. Choose few, linked to your target, and always repeat them with the same protocol:

• Endurance: VAM test or lactate test, and up-to-date areas with heart rate zone calculator.
• Strength: Estimated jumps, isometry or repetitions; ideas in the strength test for runners.

Note that every test has a margin of error: a small change can be simple measurement noise. This is why you should know the reliability of the test you use before drawing conclusions (Hopkins, 2000).

How often do you review each indicator?

The season review deserves its own process: we explained it in the seasonal analysis.

How to detect alarm signals on time?

Alarms are hardly ever an isolated data, but several indicators moving in the same direction. Pay attention when they match:

• Low performance in sessions that previously resolved well.
• The RPE goes up for the same type of session, week after week.
• Well-being worsens several days in a row: sleep worse, more fatigue, worse mood.
• Undone sessions appear or changes he hasn't explained to you.
• There's trouble. which are repeated in the same area.

The joint consensus of the European College of Sport Science and the American College of Sports Medicine on overtraining recalls that there is no single marker to diagnose it and that other causes, such as illness or eating problems, must be ruled out (Meeusen et al., 2013). If you suspect something is wrong, the first tool is to talk to the athlete. More guidelines on how to avoid overtraining.

How to mount step-by-step tracking?

To mount a sports performance tracking system that lasts more than two weeks, follow these six steps:

1. Define the baseline. Initial form and a first reference test before you start planning.
2. Choose few indicators. Session RPE, compliance, a short wellness questionnaire and one or two tests are enough to start.
3. See how each one is measured. Same RPE scale, same questions, same time of day and same protocol in the tests.
4. It reduces the athlete's work. Let the clock data go in alone and it takes seconds to record the RPE; if it is heavy, it will stop doing so.
5. Put the review on your schedule. A time a day for the urgent and a fixed block a week for trends.
6. Turns each review into a decision. Keep, adjust, or talk to the athlete, and point it out later to see if you were right.

How do I follow up with TrainingForever?

TrainingForever is a training platform for coaches and clubs of endurance and strength that brings together tab, planning, loading, feedback, messages and payments in one place.

This is how each piece of tracking fits:

• Who needs attention: the "Required attention" list is ordered alone with the sessions not done, the inconveniences, the availability changed and the payments expired.
• Actual Load: chronic load, acute load and current shape with what enters the clock, planned against the realized and evolution by discipline in the tab of each athlete.
• Feedback on the tab: the RPE, the sensations and the forms (weekly well-being, sleep, stress, sensations after the session) return to the tab, not to a chat; if an answer is out of range, it warns you.
• Tests and markings: stored on the tab; the zones are calculated with the thresholds of each athlete.
• Watches: The clock data comes in alone, and you send the workouts to the athlete's watch: Garmin, Polar, Suunto, Apple Watch, Choirs... Strava is optional, not a condition to use the platform.
• Gemstones, optional extras: Advanced analysis (3.99 €/month) compares periods and athletes, follows trends of several seasons and detects anomalies; the AI Assistant (4.99 €/month) tells you which athletes need attention today and summarizes the load of the team, but proposes and you decide; Automatizations (2.99 €/month) launches notices such as «High → alert » or «Uncompleted session → reminder».
• Price: Free up to 5 active athletes, with all features and no card. From the sixth, €0.99 per active athlete per month, with a maximum of €49. The athlete never pays.
• If you come from TrainingPeaks: We help you migrate your plans and athletes. If you want to see what each goes further, read the comparative TrainingForever vs TrainingPeaks.

If you're still comparing tools, you have the guide to best software for coaches.

What a coach says: Marc Bañuls

Marc Bañuls, endurance coach. «I do not trust a loose fact, I trust the tendency. If with the same sessions the athlete makes more effort every week, something is happening and it is time to ask."
"Follow-up only works if something changes in the plan. If I look at the data and don't adjust anything, I'm collecting numbers."

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Sport Performance Tracking?

It is to always collect the same data from each athlete (load, perceived effort, plan compliance, well-being and tests), compare them with their own baseline and use them to adjust the training. It differs from the analysis of a session in which it looks at weeks, blocks and seasons.

What indicators do I need if I start from scratch?

With four you have a useful system: the RPE of each session multiplied by its duration, the weekly fulfillment of the plan, a short wellness questionnaire and one or two reference tests linked to the goal of the athlete. Add more only when these are well settled.

How often do you want to repeat the tests?

The usual is to repeat them when closing each training block or when changing the target, always with the same protocol and in similar conditions. Repeating them too often adds fatigue and hardly provides new information, because small changes can be measurement noise.

Does the HRV on the watch serve for tracking?

Yeah, like one more indicator and looking at the trend. It works best if it is always measured in the same conditions, e.g. when waking up, and interpreted with weekly averages instead of loose values. It is best to cross it with the welfare and the RPE before changing the plan.

Do I need my athletes to use Strava?

No. In TrainingForever the clock data enters alone and the workouts are sent to the athlete's watch (Garmin, Polar, Suunto, Apple Watch, Choirs...). Strava is an optional connection. The strength sessions are recorded from the athlete's app, with his RPE and his comments.

Is there free software for trackers?

Yeah. TrainingForever is free up to 5 active athletes, with all features and no card. From the sixth it costs €0.99 per active athlete per month, with a maximum of €49, and the athlete never pays. Gems are optional extras and apart.

Sources

1. Bourdon PC, Cardinale M, Murray A, et al. Monitoring athlete training loads: consensus statement. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2017;12(Suppl. 2):S2161-S2170. doi:10.1123/IJSPP.2017-0208
2. Impellizzeri FM, Marcora SM, Coutts AJ. Internal and external training load: 15 years on. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2019;14(2):270-273. doi:10.1123/ijspp.2018-0935
3. Foster C, Florhaug JA, Franklin J, et al. A new approach to monitoring exercise training. J Strength Cond Res. 2001;15(1):109-115. doi:10.1519/00124278-200102000-00019
4. Saw AE, Main LC, Gastin PB. Monitoring the athletic training response: subjective self-reported measures trump commonly used objective measures: a systematic review. Br J Sports Med. 2016;50(5):281-291. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2015-094758
5. Plews DJ, Laursen PB, Stanley J, Kilding AE, Buchheit M. Training adaptation and heart rate variability in elite duration athletes: opening the door to effective monitoring. Sports Med. 2013;43(9):773-781. doi:10.1007/s40279-013-0071-8
6. Buchheit M. Monitoring training status with HR measurements: do all roads lead to Rome? Front Physiol. 2014;5:73. doi:10.3389/fphys.2014.00073
7. Hopkins WG. Measures of reliability in sports medicine and science. Sports Med. 2000;30(1):1-15. doi:10.2165/00007256-200030010-00001
8. Meeusen R, Duclos M, Foster C, et al. Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the overtraining syndrome: joint consensus statement of the European College of Sport Science and the American College of Sports Medicine. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013;45(1):186-205. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e318279a10a
9. Halson SL. Monitoring training load to understand fatigue in athletes. Sports Med. 2014;44(Suppl. 2):S139-S147. doi:10.1007/s40279-014-0253-z

References verified in Crossref (DOI) on 28/10/2026. The examples of calculation and revision are illustrative, they do not come from any real athlete.