The problem: stacking
A single hard session doesn't injure you. It's the accumulation of hard sessions without enough recovery between them that wears down tissue. Every effort leaves residual fatigue; if the next one arrives before you've recovered, the fatigue stacks up — day after day, until the breaking point. The tendon gives no warning: it snaps.
What Baseload watches
Rather than a single indicator, the coach cross-references several signals that, taken together, sketch a trend:
| Signal | What it reveals |
|---|---|
| ACWR | A load rising too fast relative to your fitness. |
| Monotony | Too many identical sessions, with no easy day or variation — a well-known overtraining setup. |
| Muscle fatigue | A muscle group taxed day after day without recovering. |
| HRV, resting HR, sleep | Signs that your nervous system is handling the current load poorly. |
None of these signals is a verdict on its own. It's their convergence that raises the coach's vigilance level — and triggers a concrete recommendation: ease off, switch the type of session, or rest.
Baseload will never push you to "keep a streak going". When the data says rest, the coach says rest — even if you feel like doing more. Making progress also means knowing when to stop in time. No guilt, no shame notifications, no comparison to others.
Before, not after
All the value is in the timing. A review that tells you "you were overloaded" once the tendinitis has set in is useless. Baseload aims for the opposite: spotting the trend while a simple adjustment is still enough — an easy session instead of the intervals, a rest day brought forward, volume trimmed by 15%.
No model can predict an individual injury. An injury depends on a thousand factors the app can't see (technique, shoes, actual sleep, stress, terrain, history). Baseload reduces a known risk — load runaway — it doesn't eliminate it. If pain persists, see a healthcare professional. See Our model and its limits.