RunPackGuides · 6 min read
Recovery score vs readiness: what the number actually means
What a recovery or readiness score is built from, why different apps disagree, and how to use one without letting it run your training.
Most recovery and readiness scores are built from the same handful of overnight signals: heart rate variability, resting heart rate, sleep, and sometimes breathing rate or temperature. Each app weighs them differently, which is why two apps can give you different numbers on the same morning — and why neither is “the truth”.
What goes into RunPack’s score
- Heart rate variability — 30%. The strongest single recovery signal.
- Resting heart rate — 25%. Lower than your normal is better.
- Sleep duration — 20%. Extra hours count for less and less.
- Sleep timing and quality — 10% each. How close to your usual hours, and how broken up the night was.
- Breathing rate — 5%. Overnight average.
Every signal is compared with your own recent values, so 50 means your normal. If one isn’t measured, the others are re-weighted rather than guessed.
What it leaves out on purpose
Deep and REM sleep minutes aren’t scored. Wearables are only moderately good at telling sleep stages apart, and a score that moves with noisy stage estimates would look precise without being accurate.
How to use a score well
- Use it to choose the day, not the plan. A low morning can mean easy instead of hard — it doesn’t mean your training block is wrong.
- Watch the ramp. How fast your training load is rising relative to your usual matters as much as one morning’s recovery.
- Let your body vote. If you feel great and the number is low (or the reverse), weigh both.
RunPack turns the score into plain guidance — good day to push, a normal day, keep it easy, or rest — and always ends with “if you feel different from the number, trust how you feel”.
RunPack is a training tool, not a medical device.