Hmm, my Strava fitness chart looks the same as CTL in TrainingPeaks and WKO.
This support page:
states it uses power when available, and heart rate if not, and since I have both, I didn’t read what it does w/o power&HR.
Are you thinking of something else? Because Strava fitness mirrors TP/WKO, unlike TrainerRoad which doesn’t use the same algorithm for 6 week load.
I have my gear all accurate, and my average power for rides without the PM recording is laughably low. In the range of 1/2-2/3 of actual average.
Obviously that’s just one point, but it’s just another reason I don’t really see much value in Strava except for the segments and following people.
Totally agree with your summary there on Strava.
That’s how I shall view it from now on!
Just performed a good outdoor session on Tuesday and an easy 10km run on Monday and the fitness level on Strava went up only 1 and then as luck would have it I caught a bug on Wednesday and am Laying low until it passes!
The problem is that Strava, I don’t pay for premium with TP does at least include many different forms of exercise and not just cycling as with TR. I believe TR are working on this but ultimately whatever happens it is clear if I really want to focus on reliable numbers I need power pedals/ crank.
Thanks for drilling down and feeding back on the Freshness and Fatigue in the Strava platform, online only, but I think it is clear it is not reliable.
Yes, power data is better than HR only. However there is nothing wrong with Strava “fitness” once you understand it represents a) training load, and b) combines both time and intensity. Just like hours/week and CTL it is a big picture metric. I can show you data that no matter how much intensity TR gave me on 5-6 hours/week, my fitness dropped versus those times when I average 7.5-8.5 hours/week. A big enough fitness drop that it shows in my results and power curve. Foundational truths about endurance performance start with consistency and increasing volume - and metrics like hours per week and CTL show major trends over time.
You are fitter in the latter case.
Strava is just giving you a +1 when you do a ride and a -1 when you don’t (I don’t know the exact criteria but if you ride slow and/or short enough, it counts as a -1).
But any plan that has you sacrifice days on the bike so you can recover from you really hard rides will leave you in a negative fitness trend even though your abilities are getting better. Do 3 super hard rides/week and take 4 days off and you will lose Strava fitness while getting faster and fitter.
You could go do an hour in z2 on 2 of your days off and end up with +3/week but it’s a useless metric and not worth giving up your recovery in order to pad it.
The main problem is that while 30 min in z1 definitely counts as a minus, all the plus days are counted the same. 60 min at low z2? +1. 3 hours at high tempo? +1. 1 hour of threshold? +1.
not if you are riding with power.
Are you sure?
I do ride with power and my Strava Fitness has been falling precipitously since doing a 3 day/week plan despite my FTP increasing.
When I was just riding “kinda hard” 5-6 days per week, my Strava Fitness continually climbed.
See my comment above:
I missed your earlier reply. Hmmn, okay I’m going to have to review my data again and hope to not spread more misinfo.
Check with your friendly local bike shop. There’s more than one way to get power, and power at the crank or hub (or a single-sided power meter) may be cheaper and will be more than good enough. They may also be able to find you someone with older pedals who wants to upgrade and you can get used gear for much less than new.
Other than that, and considering everything that’s already been said… enjoy the ride, work hard, don’t worry about the Strava graph. 
Really appreciate the heads up Agingcanon, and judging by your user name I suspect these are wise words based on experience 
…
Chris
Yup. Over the last few decades, I’ve been way too much money on new, or better, or upgraded things that I later realized were totally unnecessary, or added no real value, or would have given me the same result if I’d bought used. A recovering upgrader, if you will.
Thanks again Agingcannon, much appreciate the sound advice!
I will check out the cheaper options as one thing that keeps me on the turbo trainer rather than getting out there is the ability to know what power I am putting out.
Chris
Thank you for this and yes I really think this is great advice, received from many quarters now! I wish I had more time for fun rides outside or being able to do TR sessions outside, but the matter would require power pedals to do well and therefore I will keep saving… even then I am not sure if want to part with the cash 
I can highly recommend the Favero UNO pedals! Long time user of two sets now with no issues and one of the cheapest options. I was almost gone for the Garmin Rally for the multi use for a second bike but let’s be honest, how is taking these pedals apart…sounds good but in reality…don’t know.
Great steer thank you I was not aware of these pedals and I checked them out online and they sound very good indeed.
Could be the answer and no saving required 
This was a great suggestion thank you! I am now the proud owner of this (Uni) power pedal and it really satisfies my thirst for numbers! Thanks again! Chris