Training built for gravity riders
Every rider knows the feeling. Descend is the first app that measures why — and tells you what to do about it.
Works with any heart rate strap. You'll need one.
Three things, and they talk to each other.
Record it. Mark your laps. See what the day actually took out of you.
Sessions built around your real heart rate, not a generic template.
Food targets that move with what you rode, not with a monthly average.
Everything else splits your ride into segments and ranks them by time. That misses how gravity riding actually works. The climb is what it costs you. The descent is what you paid for. The interesting question is what the climb did to the descent. Descend measures the whole lap.
How much slower run five is than run one
How fast your heart rate drops between laps
What getting back to the top actually took
Tap once at the top of each climb. That's the whole job.
Everyone knows they fade. Nobody's ever measured it.
Distance and section times are a small piece of the puzzle. Descend monitors your exertion on a ride and creates a replica workout specific to your output and training experience. Measure progress with your output, not just distance and time.
How much the ride took out of you
How your output changed across the day, run after run
How quickly you recovered between runs
How much came from carbs, how much from fat
Distance and elevation are still there. They're just not the point.
Effort is a training impulse score — heart rate weighted by how long you held it, so a short savage lap and a long steady one can be compared on the same scale. Fade tracks cardiac drift and lap-to-lap drop-off. Heart rate recovery is the fall in your heart rate over the first 60 seconds after an effort. Fuel type comes from a substrate model that estimates the carbohydrate and fat contribution to the work you did.
Other apps tell you what you did. This one tells you what it took and how to improve.
Complete the 30 minute Threshold test to find your actual work limits. Each person has a different work capacity — find yours by completing the Lactate Threshold test and get your training efforts tuned to your personal ability.
Not from your age
They tell you when to push and when to ease off
And watch the line move
Pick a past ride and the app rebuilds its effort as a workout you can do on a trainer
Not ready for the test? You still get zones. They're estimates from your age, and they'll do until you are.
Most apps guess your zones. This one asks you.
No more adding 5kg blindly until you break. Most apps add weight blindly — Descend watches how you train, respond and recover, and makes suggestions accordingly. Went full ham on the weekend? Monday has a reduced load to help you recover.
Decided per exercise, not per program
Tap it to see why
It offers a lighter session before you start, not after
It'll tell you it's time to go for it
And can overrule any of it
A template doesn't know you had a rough week. This does.
Most apps give you generic macros based off your weight. Descend estimates your energy output based off your training load and intensity and changes your daily food requirements to suit.
Not last month's average
Your weight trend, and how you personally burn fuel
Actual food, not just macros
Automatically
For what you're doing
Scan a barcode or a label, or let it build the whole day to your numbers. Your coach can change anything, and it lands on your phone straight away.
Other apps count what you ate. This one works out what you needed.
Free shows you today. Pro shows you the trajectory.
A heart rate strap is required on either tier. Bring your own, or grab one with Pro.
Nothing expires. Upgrade when your history is worth something to you.
Yes. Everything Descend does is built on heart rate, and a wrist sensor isn't accurate enough at the intensities you ride at. Any Bluetooth chest strap works — a basic one is fine.
No, and we'd rather you didn't. Keep them for the social side. Descend is for what your riding is doing to you. Plenty of people run both.
It scores the ride, then stops. It doesn't see the lap — how much run five dropped off against run one, how fast you come back between climbs, or what any of it means for Monday. Descend measures the lap.
That's most of the people using it. Record a few rides, mark your laps, and let it show you what your riding is already doing. You can ignore every program in the app and still get something out of it.
Doesn't matter. Nothing here ranks you against anyone. Fade, HR recovery and Effort are yours — they compare you to you.
It's built for gravity riding, and that's where it's sharpest. It works for anything with a heart rate and a hill.
It's yours. Export it whenever you want, delete it whenever you want.
Not yet. The beta is Android. Leave your details below and you'll be the first to know when the iPhone build lands.
Riding Gap Creek, Bunyaville, Nerang or Daisy Hill? Leave your details and we'll send you the app. Everywhere else, you'll be first to know when it opens up.
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