trace - what used to take several apps and a coach, in one place

[lukasfromtrace]

Hi everyone,

I'm Lukas, an ambitious cyclist, and I've spent the last half year building trace, the final months of it in beta. It went live on the App Store earlier this month, so I'd like to introduce it here.

Deep analysis of your training and health data, a plan that adapts to your everyday life, and an AI coach you can ask anything. What you used to need several apps and a coach for now sits in one app: trace



What it computes:

• Readiness - from HRV, resting HR, sleep and training load, every factor shown against your own baseline
• Training load - CTL, ATL and TSB, plus monotony and ramp warnings
• Endurance - durability, aerobic efficiency, VO2max and fitness age
• Heat acclimatization - estimated from your normal sessions
• Cycling - Critical Power and W' estimated from your everyday rides, power curve, W'bal, rider profile
• Climbs - detection, VAM, pacing, all your ascents compared
• Running - critical pace, HR recovery, training effect
  

Beyond the numbers, for cycling and running:

• Training plans with structured workouts that react to how you actually train, pushed straight to Wahoo, Suunto, Hammerhead or the Apple Watch
• Workout report after each session: plan vs. execution
• Race preparation - course simulation, race prediction and pacing for your goal event
• Fuelling - carb and fluid targets in grams and millilitres, for training and race day
• AI coach that knows your full history and answers questions about it
  

One thing that matters to me: every metric above is computed deterministically, there is no language model anywhere in that path. The AI sits on top: it explains your values, answers questions, writes the post-session report, and drafts the training and meal plans. Even there it works inside computed limits: the engine sets periodisation, weekly TSS and fuelling targets, and every generated week is checked against them.

Getting your data in: Apple Health, Wahoo, Polar, Suunto and Hammerhead connect directly, and you can import FIT, TCX and GPX files. Strava and Garmin come in through intervals.icu, which trace reads in full: activities, streams and wellness. The only thing it writes back there is planned workouts into your calendar.

Your data: hosted in the EU, full export any time, account deletion right in the app.

Platforms: the recent months went into the iOS app, which is where trace feels most at home. On the desktop, the web version at usetrace.de gives you the full feature set on a big screen, and polishing its presentation is what comes next. A native Android app is in the works.

Pricing: there's a permanent free tier. The full analysis is €6.99/month; plans, race preparation and the full coach are €12.99/month. Both 20% less on yearly billing, both with a 14-day free trial.

Give it a try.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6770614306
Web: https://usetrace.de

I'll be in the comments, happy to go into detail on how any of the metrics are computed. One thing I'm curious about: what does your current setup not tell you that you wish it did?

[Flowrider]

Hi @lukasfromtrace. Looks like an exceptional, in-depth app! Great effort.

I ride mountain biking 90% of the time and lose reception with most apps (including Strava) in the areas I ride. Apps that run off GPS give me the best consistency.

Does yours work off GPS or a local telecommunication network?

[meamoantonio]

Impressive stuff @lukasfromtrace how is heat acclimation computed here? What’s the data input?

[lukasfromtrace]

(08-25-2026, 07:00 PM)Flowrider Wrote:  Hi @lukasfromtrace. Looks like an exceptional, in-depth app! Great effort.

I ride mountain biking 90% of the time and lose reception with most apps (including Strava) in the areas I ride. Apps that run off GPS give me the best consistency.

Does yours work off GPS or a local telecommunication network?

Hi @Flowrider . Thanks, that means a lot to hear.

Unfortunately the app itself cannot be used to record activities yet. I will definitely take your point on board though and think about adding that feature in the near future.

If you have a fitness watch or a bike computer, you can import your activities into trace directly.

Cheers,
Lukas

[lukasfromtrace]

(08-25-2026, 08:57 PM)meamoantonio Wrote:  Impressive stuff @lukasfromtrace how is heat acclimation computed here? What’s the data input?

Thanks a lot @meamoantonio . Good question, happy to go into it.

Every outdoor ride or run feeds into it. For each session trace takes the GPS start point and the time of day and pulls the actual weather from Open-Meteo, temperature and humidity, averaged over the duration. The device temperature is only a fallback, since a head unit sensor sits in the sun, picks up your own body heat and carries no humidity at all.

From temperature and humidity it builds a heat index, and everything above 22 °C counts. That excess, times the duration, times the intensity of the session including heart rate drift within it, gives a heat dose. Those doses run through an asymmetric build and decay model: a solid hot session moves the number noticeably, two days without heat are free, after that it fades by about 3 percent a day. The 0 to 100 scale is a guideline, not a measurement. The model follows Périard, Racinais and Sawka (2015).

If you train with a CORE sensor, that replaces the weather proxy. trace reads core temperature straight out of the .fit file and measures the area above 38.5 °C, damped by skin temperature so that simply being warm in a stuffy room does not register as a heat stimulus. In that mode indoor sessions count too.

For completeness: the heat index is shade based, so solar radiation is not in there, and without a sensor the outside temperature stays a proxy for what your body actually did. That is exactly why the CORE path exists.

[SPINMAN]

(08-25-2026, 06:04 AM)lukasfromtrace Wrote:  Hi everyone,

I'm Lukas, an ambitious cyclist, and I've spent the last half year building trace, the final months of it in beta. It went live on the App Store earlier this month, so I'd like to introduce it here.

Deep analysis of your training and health data, a plan that adapts to your everyday life, and an AI coach you can ask anything. What you used to need several apps and a coach for now sits in one app: trace



What it computes:

• Readiness - from HRV, resting HR, sleep and training load, every factor shown against your own baseline
• Training load - CTL, ATL and TSB, plus monotony and ramp warnings
• Endurance - durability, aerobic efficiency, VO2max and fitness age
• Heat acclimatization - estimated from your normal sessions
• Cycling - Critical Power and W' estimated from your everyday rides, power curve, W'bal, rider profile
• Climbs - detection, VAM, pacing, all your ascents compared
• Running - critical pace, HR recovery, training effect
  

Beyond the numbers, for cycling and running:

• Training plans with structured workouts that react to how you actually train, pushed straight to Wahoo, Suunto, Hammerhead or the Apple Watch
• Workout report after each session: plan vs. execution
• Race preparation - course simulation, race prediction and pacing for your goal event
• Fuelling - carb and fluid targets in grams and millilitres, for training and race day
• AI coach that knows your full history and answers questions about it
  

One thing that matters to me: every metric above is computed deterministically, there is no language model anywhere in that path. The AI sits on top: it explains your values, answers questions, writes the post-session report, and drafts the training and meal plans. Even there it works inside computed limits: the engine sets periodisation, weekly TSS and fuelling targets, and every generated week is checked against them.

Getting your data in: Apple Health, Wahoo, Polar, Suunto and Hammerhead connect directly, and you can import FIT, TCX and GPX files. Strava and Garmin come in through intervals.icu, which trace reads in full: activities, streams and wellness. The only thing it writes back there is planned workouts into your calendar.

Your data: hosted in the EU, full export any time, account deletion right in the app.

Platforms: the recent months went into the iOS app, which is where trace feels most at home. On the desktop, the web version at usetrace.de gives you the full feature set on a big screen, and polishing its presentation is what comes next. A native Android app is in the works.

Pricing: there's a permanent free tier. The full analysis is €6.99/month; plans, race preparation and the full coach are €12.99/month. Both 20% less on yearly billing, both with a 14-day free trial.

Give it a try.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6770614306
Web: https://usetrace.de

I'll be in the comments, happy to go into detail on how any of the metrics are computed. One thing I'm curious about: what does your current setup not tell you that you wish it did?

Definitely south a look. Thanks

---

I don't mind my Garmin watch metrics and Bryton on board computer uploading to Strava and Relive, but this is worth a look. Thanks

[lukasfromtrace]

Definitely south a look. Thanks

---

I don't mind my Garmin watch metrics and Bryton on board computer uploading to Strava and Relive, but this is worth a look. Thanks
[/quote]

Thanks @SPINMAN , glad you want to give it a try! If anything comes up along the way, just ask here or drop me a PM.

[SPINMAN]

(08-27-2026, 01:29 PM)lukasfromtrace Wrote:  Definitely south a look. Thanks

---

I don't mind my Garmin watch metrics and Bryton on board computer uploading to Strava and Relive, but this is worth a look. Thanks

Thanks @SPINMAN , glad you want to give it a try! If anything comes up along the way, just ask here or drop me a PM.
[/quote]

👌👍

[GirishH]

@lukasfromtrace , I too was wondering about heat acclimation and your app.

For example, I’m currently in Leh, Ladakh, India, where I’m unusually thirsty and dehydrated regardless of whether I drink 2 liters or 8 liters of water. So, before I embark on my bikepacking trip, I’m trying to acclimatize to the heat by training around noon or in the middle of the afternoon, say 2–3 p.m.

Basically, I’m trying to “heat acclimatize” before venturing deeper into this high-altitude desert in the Himalayas.

So I was curious about your app’s heat-acclimation feature.

I use a Garmin watch and Strava. I’m curious whether either of them records heat-related data that your app can pull in. Or would I need to have your app running while I’m cycling or running?

(08-26-2026, 07:56 AM)lukasfromtrace Wrote:  

(08-25-2026, 08:57 PM)meamoantonio Wrote:  Impressive stuff @lukasfromtrace how is heat acclimation computed here? What’s the data input?

Thanks a lot @meamoantonio . Good question, happy to go into it.

Every outdoor ride or run feeds into it. For each session trace takes the GPS start point and the time of day and pulls the actual weather from Open-Meteo, temperature and humidity, averaged over the duration. The device temperature is only a fallback, since a head unit sensor sits in the sun, picks up your own body heat and carries no humidity at all.

From temperature and humidity it builds a heat index, and everything above 22 °C counts. That excess, times the duration, times the intensity of the session including heart rate drift within it, gives a heat dose. Those doses run through an asymmetric build and decay model: a solid hot session moves the number noticeably, two days without heat are free, after that it fades by about 3 percent a day. The 0 to 100 scale is a guideline, not a measurement. The model follows Périard, Racinais and Sawka (2015).

If you train with a CORE sensor, that replaces the weather proxy. trace reads core temperature straight out of the .fit file and measures the area above 38.5 °C, damped by skin temperature so that simply being warm in a stuffy room does not register as a heat stimulus. In that mode indoor sessions count too.

For completeness: the heat index is shade based, so solar radiation is not in there, and without a sensor the outside temperature stays a proxy for what your body actually did. That is exactly why the CORE path exists.

[lukasfromtrace]

(08-30-2026, 10:30 AM)GirishH Wrote:  @lukasfromtrace , I too was wondering about heat acclimation and your app.

For example, I’m currently in Leh, Ladakh, India, where I’m unusually thirsty and dehydrated regardless of whether I drink 2 liters or 8 liters of water. So, before I embark on my bikepacking trip, I’m trying to acclimatize to the heat by training around noon or in the middle of the afternoon, say 2–3 p.m.

Basically, I’m trying to “heat acclimatize” before venturing deeper into this high-altitude desert in the Himalayas.

So I was curious about your app’s heat-acclimation feature.

I use a Garmin watch and Strava. I’m curious whether either of them records heat-related data that your app can pull in. Or would I need to have your app running while I’m cycling or running?

(08-26-2026, 07:56 AM)lukasfromtrace Wrote:  

(08-25-2026, 08:57 PM)meamoantonio Wrote:  Impressive stuff @lukasfromtrace how is heat acclimation computed here? What’s the data input?

Thanks a lot @meamoantonio . Good question, happy to go into it.

Every outdoor ride or run feeds into it. For each session trace takes the GPS start point and the time of day and pulls the actual weather from Open-Meteo, temperature and humidity, averaged over the duration. The device temperature is only a fallback, since a head unit sensor sits in the sun, picks up your own body heat and carries no humidity at all.

From temperature and humidity it builds a heat index, and everything above 22 °C counts. That excess, times the duration, times the intensity of the session including heart rate drift within it, gives a heat dose. Those doses run through an asymmetric build and decay model: a solid hot session moves the number noticeably, two days without heat are free, after that it fades by about 3 percent a day. The 0 to 100 scale is a guideline, not a measurement. The model follows Périard, Racinais and Sawka (2015).

If you train with a CORE sensor, that replaces the weather proxy. trace reads core temperature straight out of the .fit file and measures the area above 38.5 °C, damped by skin temperature so that simply being warm in a stuffy room does not register as a heat stimulus. In that mode indoor sessions count too.

For completeness: the heat index is shade based, so solar radiation is not in there, and without a sensor the outside temperature stays a proxy for what your body actually did. That is exactly why the CORE path exists.

Hi @GirishH , good question.

You do not need anything running while you ride. trace reads the finished activity afterwards: the GPS start point plus start time gives the real temperature and humidity for that spot, averaged over the session, and everything above 22 °C heat index counts as exposure, weighted by how hard you went. Out of that comes a 0 to 100 acclimatization score that builds fast and fades about 3 % a day once the heat stops, so you can see how much adaptation you have built up, and how much of it you would still have on the day you roll out on the bikepacking trip.

For your setup the path is Garmin to intervals.icu (free, syncs by itself), then trace connects to intervals. No Strava needed. And since the score is computed from weather data, it backfills your whole history the moment you connect. That is the nice part for you: the Ladakh block you have already put in shows up straight away as a curve instead of a fresh start from zero. Any runs you throw in count towards the same curve too.

One thing worth knowing for Leh: the heat index is a shade value, so in that high-altitude sun and dry air the score reads on the conservative side. The real stimulus is probably a bit higher than what the number shows. It tracks the heat adaptation, and altitude is a separate one you are building alongside it.

Happy to compare notes once you are set up, that is a rare data set.

[Flowrider]

I've probably used 9 or 10, maybe more, apps and have settled on the Ride with GPS app. For purely tracking purposes how does your app compare?

[Jesper]

Question: why waste your money?

Cycling does not require applications or coaches. What it does take to cycle is revealed below so save your money. Generations of cyclists have done it without any need for electronics of any nature, nor special foods.

No offense, but rely on your intelligence. Ignore marketing (they just want your money). Marketing and gimmicks do not make you a better cyclist; but riding more miles under increasingly difficult conditions does.

Shut if off, leave it at home, ride with freedom and complete abandonment; or be a slave to marketing.

Answer: What you do need: a functioning cycle, air, water, real food (nothing processed), and sleep. That is it. Save your money.

---

Name one professional racer that uses your product and has had podium success? I assume you tested your fluff with someone of import that proves to others that your product is worth a darn.

Racer name please:________________Podium finishes___
Race names____________________________________________
You do realize that today's cyclists think they need pro products whether it helps them or not; but it helps to name drop.

[Flowrider]

Interesting. I ride in a couple of riding groups and asked for some feedback on what you wrote.

The general consensus was that we're all different, and the majority said that having app information and feedback after their rides lets them know where they are health-wise, and that after reading their ride information, it gave them a sense of accomplishment.

Also said the free version of most apps gave them adequate information

[meamoantonio]

(08-26-2026, 07:56 AM)lukasfromtrace Wrote:  

(08-25-2026, 08:57 PM)meamoantonio Wrote:  Impressive stuff @lukasfromtrace how is heat acclimation computed here? What’s the data input?

Thanks a lot @meamoantonio . Good question, happy to go into it.

Every outdoor ride or run feeds into it. For each session trace takes the GPS start point and the time of day and pulls the actual weather from Open-Meteo, temperature and humidity, averaged over the duration. The device temperature is only a fallback, since a head unit sensor sits in the sun, picks up your own body heat and carries no humidity at all.

From temperature and humidity it builds a heat index, and everything above 22 °C counts. That excess, times the duration, times the intensity of the session including heart rate drift within it, gives a heat dose. Those doses run through an asymmetric build and decay model: a solid hot session moves the number noticeably, two days without heat are free, after that it fades by about 3 percent a day. The 0 to 100 scale is a guideline, not a measurement. The model follows Périard, Racinais and Sawka (2015).

If you train with a CORE sensor, that replaces the weather proxy. trace reads core temperature straight out of the .fit file and measures the area above 38.5 °C, damped by skin temperature so that simply being warm in a stuffy room does not register as a heat stimulus. In that mode indoor sessions count too.

For completeness: the heat index is shade based, so solar radiation is not in there, and without a sensor the outside temperature stays a proxy for what your body actually did. That is exactly why the CORE path exists.

this is brilliant thanks for going deep with me on this! if you put this much effort into heat acclimation I bet all your other data points would be pretty solid stuff too, excited for this and I think im going to consider on boarding with your product, thanks for sharing this!

[Jesper]

Funny, ol' Lukas replied to others' queries, but not to mine, which of course were simple and easy to answer.

Folks, I do not know about you, but I do not need an application to tell me how I am healthwise after a ride, run, climb/hike/walk. I know if I am: hot, cold, thirsty, exhausted, energetic; and I can determine my recovery time (pulmonary, cardio: you only need to look at clock and measure your pulse and respiratory rates for 15 secs and check accordingly as deemed necessary) without using electronics, sensors, batteries, etc. (my watch is self-winding, my alarm clock also manual wind-up).

Also, the application does not take into consideration cold conditions. Apparently Lukas is not concerned with the stresses on the body resulting from cold conditions which also affect performance. Why Lukas? I ride from minimums ranging from 20°F - 30°F and maximums ranging from 95°F to 105°F (in heat indices from 105°- 115°). That means riding continuously in those conditions for many hours at a time, and even days of exposure; not a 30 minute ride to the coffee shop. Believe me the cold will affect your performance; even more so when you are experiencing temperature shifts of 40° or more on a daily basis. I guess a new application is in order since Lukas' program is lacking. Of course, you do not need an application to inform you to what your
body already knows if you have ever cycled in those conditions.

Also, the application does not take into consideration altitude and air density. Someone like @GirishH certainly knows how that can affect performance. I know I do. It does not take much elevation gain to lose 5% of oxygen density, but not a concern for ol' Lukas when considered as a performance factor. For all you Floridians (mean elevation <100ft, but majority of population lives at <50ft) just do a 1000 to 2000 elevation gain climb (single climb, not cumulative over many small climbs) and note the difference in respiration and pulse while riding at the same pace you normally would.

I am not a Luddite, but sometimes tech goes too far and even then it still lacks common sense (as do many people also).

Use your Natural Intelligence vs Artificial Ignorance; no batteries required! The best application is already hardwired in your brain. Use it, otherwise be a slave to a battery, charger, a charging source, etc.; and of course spend more unnecessary money.

How many on this platform presently compete at a Cat5 or higher level? I know I no longer do, but when competing I needed none of this fluff.

Excuse me while I go snort some peptides.

[lukasfromtrace]

(09-18-2026, 11:37 AM)Jesper Wrote:  Funny, ol' Lukas replied to others' queries, but not to mine, which of course were simple and easy to answer.

Folks, I do not know about you, but I do not need an application to tell me how I am healthwise after a ride, run, climb/hike/walk. I know if I am: hot, cold, thirsty, exhausted, energetic; and I can determine my recovery time (pulmonary, cardio: you only need to look at clock and measure your pulse and respiratory rates for 15 secs and check accordingly as deemed necessary) without using electronics, sensors, batteries, etc. (my watch is self-winding, my alarm clock also manual wind-up).

Also, the application does not take into consideration cold conditions. Apparently Lukas is not concerned with the stresses on the body resulting from cold conditions which also affect performance. Why Lukas? I ride from minimums ranging from 20°F - 30°F and maximums ranging from 95°F to 105°F (in heat indices from 105°- 115°). That means riding continuously in those conditions for many hours at a time, and even days of exposure; not a 30 minute ride to the coffee shop. Believe me the cold will affect your performance; even more so when you are experiencing temperature shifts of 40° or more on a daily basis. I guess a new application is in order since Lukas' program is lacking. Of course, you do not need an application to inform you to what your
body already knows if you have ever cycled in those conditions.

Also, the application does not take into consideration altitude and air density. Someone like @GirishH certainly knows how that can affect performance. I know I do. It does not take much elevation gain to lose 5% of oxygen density, but not a concern for ol' Lukas when considered as a performance factor. For all you Floridians (mean elevation <100ft, but majority of population lives at <50ft) just do a 1000 to 2000 elevation gain climb (single climb, not cumulative over many small climbs) and note the difference in respiration and pulse while riding at the same pace you normally would.

I am not a Luddite, but sometimes tech goes too far and even then it still lacks common sense (as do many people also).

Use your Natural Intelligence vs Artificial Ignorance; no batteries required! The best application is already hardwired in your brain. Use it, otherwise be a slave to a battery, charger, a charging source, etc.; and of course spend more unnecessary money.

How many on this platform presently compete at a Cat5 or higher level? I know I no longer do, but when competing I needed none of this fluff.

Excuse me while I go snort some peptides.

Hi Jesper,

As you may have noticed, I did not answer FlowRider's last message either. Nothing personal, I simply had a lot on my plate.

I think you are opening a fundamental debate here. Believe it or not, I am on the old school side of it more often than you would think. Nobody needs three gels for an hour after work or for a 10 km jog. I also understand it when someone does not want to record their rides, let alone analyze them afterwards. I respect that. I would only ask that you respect the other side too, because a lot of people enjoy exactly that.

The same goes for the question of what we really need these days. Look at the road cycling community and the answer comes quickly. The average rider does not need most of the equipment they own. The gear is still fun to use, and what someone spends their money on is up to them.

People want the numbers for different reasons. FlowRider named one of them. They give orientation and feedback, above all to riders who have not built that body awareness yet. And if you have it, the numbers confirm what you already feel.

On heat, that side was built first because that is where the demand was. It reads temperature and humidity together and gives the session a dose. It tracks how far you are adapted, and it corrects the VO2max estimate so a hot ride does not read as lost fitness. For cold there is a note when a ride averages freezing or below, and nothing behind it. You are right about that. Heat adaptation is something the body trains, cold mostly costs you on the day, and that is why it went in that order.

On altitude it is in there, but only for the VO2max estimate, which gets corrected above 1500 m mean elevation, roughly 4900 ft. Below that nothing happens, so your 1000 to 2000 ft climb gets no correction, and the training load ignores altitude completely. Past that you reach the limit of what a training app can sensibly do, and I do not think that is a bad thing.

You did not need any of this when you raced, and I believe you. Some of my users hold a racing license and use it anyway. Neither of those says much about the other.

Lukas

---

(09-04-2026, 01:27 AM)Flowrider Wrote:  I've probably used 9 or 10, maybe more, apps and have settled on the Ride with GPS app. For purely tracking purposes how does your app compare?

Hi Flowrider,

as already mentioned in my last reply, trace cannot record a ride yet, so for pure tracking it does not compare to Ride with GPS at all. It starts where the recording ends. You connect your watch or your head unit once and the activities come in on their own, or you upload a FIT, TCX or GPX file by hand.

---

Hi everyone,

I would like to say thank you.

A lot of people came from this forum to try trace. Since I posted here I have had a lot of kind responses, and just as much feedback. The feedback helped me most, and a good part of it went straight into the app.

The biggest change since then is the daily session suggestion. If you are training without a plan, trace now suggests a session every day, tailored to your current training state. On trace Athlete and above you can also put one together yourself. You pick the sport, the purpose and the duration, trace builds the rest from your data, and you can export it straight to your head unit or your watch.

A few other things since then:

• The power profile has finer steps now. The chart shows all twelve durations, and every best effort tells you which level it sits on and what is missing to the next one.

• The fatigue level is no longer a single number but a curve through its six zones, from detraining to overtraining.

• You can tell trace whether you are following a plan, training freely, ill, injured or taking a break. While you are ill, injured or on a break it stops asking for training and does not read a raised resting heart rate as more than it is.

• You can adapt a planned session to how you feel that day, in duration, warm-up time and interval density. That is also where you set whether running and cycling are steered by pace, heart rate or power.

• The calendar is a day list you scroll through, with a week grid above it. Rides show their route as a thumbnail, and completed sessions sit on the day you actually did them.

https://usetrace.de/en

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6770614306

Thank you again. If you have questions or feedback, post them here or send me an email. The address is on the website, and both reach me.

Lukas

[GirishH]

Hello @lukasfromtrace, I looked into trace, but realized it's only for iOS. Around the same time, my "new" bicycle gave out, so now I'm entirely on foot. Consequently, I never used trace.

Right now, I've got one foot in using apps and the other in going completely organic. I have spent the past couple of weeks walking with a 15+ kg backpack and working on farms at 10,000 to 11,000 feet elevation. If I tracked those activities at all, it was just to check the distance—and maybe elevation, since I'm heading toward a 17,500-foot mountain pass.

When I pushed into sprints at the above altitude, I knew I was pushing it. Not because my watch showed a heart rate near 200 bpm, but because I was wheezing and my body was screaming at me to stop. Only at the end of the day did I bother to look and see that my heart rate actually hit a high near 200.

My point is that I'm old-school; I'll always trust what my body says over an app or a computer.

Regarding my original interest in trace—heat acclimatization—it took me some time to adjust to the dry heat of Ladakh and learn to double my normal water intake. But I figured it out by spending time with locals and learning from them, not because I had an app.

Honestly, even if I had used trace's heat acclimatization feature, I doubt it would have made much difference compared to lived experience. I am very bad with technology...:-)

Wishing you the very best with trace, though.

(09-21-2026, 11:58 AM)lukasfromtrace Wrote:  

(09-18-2026, 11:37 AM)Jesper Wrote:  Funny, ol' Lukas replied to others' queries, but not to mine, which of course were simple and easy to answer.

Folks, I do not know about you, but I do not need an application to tell me how I am healthwise after a ride, run, climb/hike/walk. I know if I am: hot, cold, thirsty, exhausted, energetic; and I can determine my recovery time (pulmonary, cardio: you only need to look at clock and measure your pulse and respiratory rates for 15 secs and check accordingly as deemed necessary) without using electronics, sensors, batteries, etc. (my watch is self-winding, my alarm clock also manual wind-up).

Also, the application does not take into consideration cold conditions. Apparently Lukas is not concerned with the stresses on the body resulting from cold conditions which also affect performance. Why Lukas? I ride from minimums ranging from 20°F - 30°F and maximums ranging from 95°F to 105°F (in heat indices from 105°- 115°). That means riding continuously in those conditions for many hours at a time, and even days of exposure; not a 30 minute ride to the coffee shop. Believe me the cold will affect your performance; even more so when you are experiencing temperature shifts of 40° or more on a daily basis. I guess a new application is in order since Lukas' program is lacking. Of course, you do not need an application to inform you to what your
body already knows if you have ever cycled in those conditions.

Also, the application does not take into consideration altitude and air density. Someone like @GirishH certainly knows how that can affect performance. I know I do. It does not take much elevation gain to lose 5% of oxygen density, but not a concern for ol' Lukas when considered as a performance factor. For all you Floridians (mean elevation <100ft, but majority of population lives at <50ft) just do a 1000 to 2000 elevation gain climb (single climb, not cumulative over many small climbs) and note the difference in respiration and pulse while riding at the same pace you normally would.

I am not a Luddite, but sometimes tech goes too far and even then it still lacks common sense (as do many people also).

Use your Natural Intelligence vs Artificial Ignorance; no batteries required! The best application is already hardwired in your brain. Use it, otherwise be a slave to a battery, charger, a charging source, etc.; and of course spend more unnecessary money.

How many on this platform presently compete at a Cat5 or higher level? I know I no longer do, but when competing I needed none of this fluff.

Excuse me while I go snort some peptides.

Hi Jesper,

As you may have noticed, I did not answer FlowRider's last message either. Nothing personal, I simply had a lot on my plate.

I think you are opening a fundamental debate here. Believe it or not, I am on the old school side of it more often than you would think. Nobody needs three gels for an hour after work or for a 10 km jog. I also understand it when someone does not want to record their rides, let alone analyze them afterwards. I respect that. I would only ask that you respect the other side too, because a lot of people enjoy exactly that.

The same goes for the question of what we really need these days. Look at the road cycling community and the answer comes quickly. The average rider does not need most of the equipment they own. The gear is still fun to use, and what someone spends their money on is up to them.

People want the numbers for different reasons. FlowRider named one of them. They give orientation and feedback, above all to riders who have not built that body awareness yet. And if you have it, the numbers confirm what you already feel.

On heat, that side was built first because that is where the demand was. It reads temperature and humidity together and gives the session a dose. It tracks how far you are adapted, and it corrects the VO2max estimate so a hot ride does not read as lost fitness. For cold there is a note when a ride averages freezing or below, and nothing behind it. You are right about that. Heat adaptation is something the body trains, cold mostly costs you on the day, and that is why it went in that order.

On altitude it is in there, but only for the VO2max estimate, which gets corrected above 1500 m mean elevation, roughly 4900 ft. Below that nothing happens, so your 1000 to 2000 ft climb gets no correction, and the training load ignores altitude completely. Past that you reach the limit of what a training app can sensibly do, and I do not think that is a bad thing.

You did not need any of this when you raced, and I believe you. Some of my users hold a racing license and use it anyway. Neither of those says much about the other.

Lukas

---

(09-04-2026, 01:27 AM)Flowrider Wrote:  I've probably used 9 or 10, maybe more, apps and have settled on the Ride with GPS app. For purely tracking purposes how does your app compare?

Hi Flowrider,

as already mentioned in my last reply, trace cannot record a ride yet, so for pure tracking it does not compare to Ride with GPS at all. It starts where the recording ends. You connect your watch or your head unit once and the activities come in on their own, or you upload a FIT, TCX or GPX file by hand.

---

Hi everyone,

I would like to say thank you.

A lot of people came from this forum to try trace. Since I posted here I have had a lot of kind responses, and just as much feedback. The feedback helped me most, and a good part of it went straight into the app.

The biggest change since then is the daily session suggestion. If you are training without a plan, trace now suggests a session every day, tailored to your current training state. On trace Athlete and above you can also put one together yourself. You pick the sport, the purpose and the duration, trace builds the rest from your data, and you can export it straight to your head unit or your watch.

A few other things since then:

• The power profile has finer steps now. The chart shows all twelve durations, and every best effort tells you which level it sits on and what is missing to the next one.

• The fatigue level is no longer a single number but a curve through its six zones, from detraining to overtraining.

• You can tell trace whether you are following a plan, training freely, ill, injured or taking a break. While you are ill, injured or on a break it stops asking for training and does not read a raised resting heart rate as more than it is.

• You can adapt a planned session to how you feel that day, in duration, warm-up time and interval density. That is also where you set whether running and cycling are steered by pace, heart rate or power.

• The calendar is a day list you scroll through, with a week grid above it. Rides show their route as a thumbnail, and completed sessions sit on the day you actually did them.

https://usetrace.de/en

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6770614306

Thank you again. If you have questions or feedback, post them here or send me an email. The address is on the website, and both reach me.

Lukas

[Flowrider]

Just a quick aside... my mate has an e-bike, and the app he uses connects to his heart rate and changes gears based on his heart rate.

[GirishH]

@Flowrider, that is truly, truly scary—at least for me. If an app or a bike starts changing my gears automatically, regardless of how much the developer promises..I'll keep a safe distance...:-)

​Frankly, it took me a long time to get used to cruise control or even trusting the "one- or two-car" distance settings in modern cars. I felt like the car I was driving was possessed.

​Now, bikes are getting possessed too!..:-)

(09-24-2026, 09:49 PM)Flowrider Wrote:  Just a quick aside... my mate has an e-bike, and the app he uses connects to his heart rate and changes gears based on his heart rate.

[Flowrider]

About a year ago, he was alone at home and had a heart attack. Fortunately, his phone was within reach, and he called the ambulance, which came and saved him.
So he is now ultra-cautious