The demand side
Your power meter, heart-rate zones and ride time tell you how much you asked of the body yesterday. That's load. It looks backward at what you spent.
Recovery tracking for cyclists
Recovery tracking for cyclists, on the watch you already ride with.
Recovery tracking for cyclists is the practice of pairing your training load with a morning readiness score so you time your hard rides instead of guessing. cowe reads the HRV, resting heart rate and sleep your Apple Watch already records overnight into one calm morning number — computed entirely on your device. No chest strap, no separate band, no account, no subscription. You ride hard on the right days and spin easy on the rest.
Lock the $15 founding price.
Recovery you own, on the Apple Watch you already have — pay once, no subscription. Join free now and lock $15 before it rises to $24.99 at launch.
One calm morning recovery score — computed on your own device from the signals your Apple Watch already records.
Why does training load only make sense next to recovery?
Because the same hard ride means two different things depending on how recovered you were when you started. Cyclists already measure the demand side obsessively — watts, TSS, kilojoules, hours in zone. What most setups miss is the supply side: whether the body is actually ready to absorb that load today. A 90-minute threshold session on top of a strong morning is productive training. The identical session on top of a depleted morning is how you stack fatigue, blunt your top end and ride yourself into a hole the power file won't show until it's too late.
The supply side
Your overnight HRV, resting heart rate and sleep hint at how much you've put back. That's recovery. cowe reads it each morning against your own baseline.
The decision
Holding both together is the whole game. Strong readiness plus a planned hard day means commit. Low readiness after a big block means hold the watts and let it settle.
How does cowe fit into a cyclist's training week?
You wake, you glance, you decide — before the kit's on. cowe gives you one morning readiness score read from last night's signals, so you can match the day's ride to how recovered you actually are rather than to how motivated you feel. It works alongside whatever you already use to plan load; it just fills in the half of the equation a power file can't.
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Interval days, timed with intentWhen the plan calls for a hard block and your morning score is strong and trending with your baseline, that's the green light to actually send the efforts — not just survive them.
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Recovery rides that actually recoverA low morning after a stage-race weekend or a big base block is the cue to keep it genuinely endurance-paced — coffee-shop spin, not a sneaky group-ride sprint.
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Build blocks read as a trendA single morning is noise; a week of softening readiness across a build is signal. cowe shows the direction so you can tell productive overload from the start of a dig.
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Honest about its own confidenceTravel, a missing night of sleep or a one-off bad reading throws any single signal. cowe tells you when it isn't confident yet instead of pretending the number is gospel.
New to the load-versus-recovery framing? See how an Apple Watch strain score pairs with recovery — a plain-English explainer, no signup.
What does cowe read, and why against your own baseline?
cowe reads no new sensor. It uses what your Apple Watch already captures each night and judges it against your normal — the only baseline that matters for a cyclist. A resting heart rate that's fine for one rider is elevated for another; an HRV number is meaningless without knowing what your own settled range looks like. So cowe never compares you to a stranger's average.
Heart-rate variability
A directional read on how taxed your system was after yesterday's ride. Noisy night to night, so cowe weighs the trend against your baseline — never a single morning's number.
Resting heart rate
Steadier than HRV and familiar to most riders. A creeping resting heart rate across a block is a classic fatigue tell; cowe reads it as part of the same readiness picture.
Sleep
Duration and consistency are where adaptation actually happens between rides. cowe treats the trend as directional — and says so plainly when it isn't sure yet.
Why use the Apple Watch you already wear instead of another band?
Because as a cyclist you're already carrying enough subscriptions and hardware. The watch on your wrist is recording overnight HRV, resting heart rate and sleep whether or not you do anything with it. cowe simply turns that data into a decision, with nothing extra to charge, strap on or pay monthly.
- Pay once — $24.99. A one-time purchase, not a recurring membership. Waitlist members lock the $15 founding price before launch.
- No separate band. It runs on the Apple Watch and iPhone you already own and ride with — no ring, strap or proprietary device to buy or remember.
- 100% on-device. Every score is computed on your iPhone and Apple Watch. Your training and recovery data never leaves them — no cloud, no account, no analytics.
- Reads against your own baseline. Your readiness is judged against your settled normal, with the app telling you when a reading isn't trustworthy yet.
Cowe is built for every athlete who lives by the data: see the full Apple Watch recovery app, or how it works for recovery tracking for runners and recovery tracking for lifters.
Cyclist questions
Do I need a power meter or chest strap for this?
No. Those measure effort during the ride. Recovery is read from overnight HRV, resting heart rate and sleep — which the Apple Watch already captures while you sleep, with nothing extra to wear.
Can the morning score tell me when to do intervals?
It points, it doesn't dictate. A strong score on a planned hard day is a green light to commit; a low score after a big block is a nudge to keep it easy. It reads the trend against your own baseline.
Does it replace my training plan?
No. cowe fills the recovery half of the equation. You keep planning load however you like; cowe tells you, each morning, whether your body is ready to absorb the load you had in mind.
Is it a subscription?
No. A one-time $24.99 — no monthly fee, no band. Waitlist members lock the $15 founding price. Everything is computed on your own devices, with no account and no cloud.
Is cowe a medical device?
No. cowe is a wellness and fitness tool — a readiness signal against your own baseline. It does not diagnose, treat or prevent any condition.
Time your hard rides — pay once, on the watch you already wear.
One calm morning readiness score, read from your own signals and computed on-device. Pair it with your training load, ride hard on the right days, and recover on the rest. Join the waitlist and lock the founding price.
- Pre-launch · watchOS + iOS
- No account, no cloud
- Pay once