Strava Fitness and Freshness: Review and Walkthrough

Well, Strava fitness & freshness draws pretty pictures and all, but it doesn't tell me what I want to know.
That is, it doesn't tell me how to structure my activities for maximum fitness gain. This means that I am likely either putting in too much time & effort or not enough. I have had about 2 years off the bike, so starting again from scratch age 65. I have only done around 3 weeks since starting over again. If I ride every 2nd day, I make good gains in fitness, but fatigue just keeps increasing. If I rest till fatigue is nullified, it looks likely that I would loose all my gains completely.

Should I time my next activity to when the fitness & Form lines cross or the form & fatigue lines cross or the fitness & fatigue lines cross or something else?
I ask because all these options require more than one day rest between activities & my form is still in deficit.

I had these same questions back when I was riding over 150 km a week & doing the occasional 100 km out & back ride. Never could get a solid answer to these training questions. Anyway, I'm just keeping to short easy rides ATM. Don't want any any breakdowns.

Loved this. Thanks.

One HUGE benefit of Strava vs GC - GC (at least when I used it) only worked with PM data. Strava, using HR, works across activities so if you are like me and road bike, mountain bike, run, and standup paddleboard, then this seems like the best way to get total fitness/fatigue/form from all your activities.

How can you only have 12 fitness with the training you do? I been real lacy lately and mine is over 50. And easily over 100 after a week recreational trip to the Alps.... Is it because I use power meter on the bike maybe?

"Fitness" seems more like Training Load and not really "performance" I think. Training more and more and the charts go up but does it really say anything. Also the long slow runs are at low percieved effort and pace but puts a lot of stress to the body. So at which number will my performance be best....most likely not at the top of the charts since I will be almost overtraining there. These charts also doesn't account for reduced sleep, travel, increase in energy intake, stress score in other parts of life etc.

What about the fatigue score? How accurate is it?

Have you tried the Elevate chrome extension for Strava? Does the same fitness and freshness but it's completely free