[Closed] Does anyone pay attention to Garmin's Training Status?

I have pretty good results with it. If I see stuff like that, I am over training. Too much high intensity stuff and not enough recovery.

However, make sure all your stats like weight and heart rate max/min are set correctly otherwise that can skew results.

I also like it but not sure about TSS as it averages the week rather than totalling the week and I find this really misleading

the Strava one is just as useful.

Despite me riding on days it shows my fitness is falling day after day... whether i go long, hard, slow, fast, short, it can still drop.... I don't get it.

I find mine helpful. It's changed my training/riding over the last couple of years. Less going flat out on every ride or workout, lots more balance of steady/activities and maybe only one or two intense activities a week. My fitness/performance hasn't deteriorated as judged by performance against segments I use frequently.

If you're doing threshold/vo2max activities everytime then it will go unproductive. Mine still does it if I have a few back to back days of hard riding.

Where is that chart? Is it in the Connect mobile app or in another part of the desktop app or something?

I think it can be unproductive if you are doing too much? I don't know. Mine is always productive if I ride lots 🙂

I do rather like the training load feature, that does encourage me to keep going to keep the numbers up.

It's annoying in that if you cycle as your main sport, it wants you to use a power meter rather than the HRM it allows if you're a runner.

So no, don't really use it that much

I've stopped looking at it as my riding is more sporadic now so it tends to suggest I do far too much high intensity stuff and no recovery stuff and the figures are all plummeting. Not feeling quite wasted as the numbers suggest but likewise, there isn't anything in the tank if I need to put any effort in, so I don't think it is completely wrong, just not as accurate as it could be.

I've pretty much given up with that bit of it - I just chortle softly at it occasionally. But it's hardly a serious training tool for me; more another set of inducements to keep on running/riding...

I don't really look at it. I've just checked the last six months. My exercise levels have dropped recently since getting a dog. I've gone from mostly unproductive to mostly maintaining

I seem to be doing something drastically wrong…

Honestly, I think the thing your doing wrong, is trying to "please" your Garmin. If you're doing exercise to make the thing on your wrist "The right colour" You might want to give that some thought.

That image looks like an assessment of my work.

Not realy as because I use a Peloton day to day and then go riding hard, on a whole, and Garmin cant see my Peloton rides it mainly says I should think about some shorter nicer rides sometimes 🙂

No, I'm thinking the Garmin has a fair point - I should be doing more recovery stuff and I'm not as I'm not riding as often as I was - I'm time-crunched so no longer have the luxury of several hours where I can go for a ride and do some harder efforts and some more relaxed efforts - the riding spots I have handy all require real effort from me just now (so clearly I'm not as fit as I was)...so I reckon it is a reasonably accurate suggestion. As I can't change it just now but still enjoying getting out and riding then I'm happy to ignore it for now, but I will need to start doing something to improve fitness and endurance.

Honestly, I think the thing your doing wrong, is trying to “please” your Garmin.

I think the thing you're doing wrong is assuming we all think the same, or that people looking at stats are somehow locked in a spiral of damaging obsession.... 🙂

I think it's pretty useful - certainly DOES reflect 'productive' and 'peaking' when my training on Zwift is going some...
Don't forget, it kinda needs a trend, so if you haven't trained for some time, a one off ride may not change it.

I'm currently 'detraining'.
Yay...

DrP

I dont find it overly useful partly because riding/running is only part of what I do so it misses half the effort and also because it completely fails for anything like lets run somewhere a lot hillier or lets go out in crap weather.

yes, you're probably right Molly. I stopped a while back with things like Strava as I could sense in myself that I was riding to the stats rather than riding for fun.  I still record rides and the Garmin helps with that, but I'm very conscious now of making sure that any stats are incidental to the enjoyment of the cycling.

I'm getting better at it.

No I dont pay any attention to it or Strava

Strava tells me the exercise I have just done was easier than the last, yet I am blowing out of my arse.

There's definitely probs with their algorithms for some people.

Went from "maintaining with anaerobic shortage" to "unproductive" today, after doing a session of hill sprints this morning as part of their training plan, and at the same time being bang in the middle of "optimal" exercise load.

It's not always right.

I find it useful too, not forgetting that it needs power data for cycling vo2 max which is what it uses for the productive etc part.

Mine is unproductive at the moment because my VO2 max dropped by one point at the end of last week, and until I do another ride with power (aka zwift) it won't change.

Use the training load, training status, VO2 max all together and they help to manage your training.

I’m very conscious now of making sure that any stats are incidental to the enjoyment of the cycling.

Sounds healthy. I use Strava for the route planning and heat map, mainly, but also to compare myself against my previous times on segments and whole routes. The Garmin thing is a handy way of logging effort and I can see if I haven't done as much as think I have. Because my ultimate aim is to be faster, because I like fast. Fast is fun.

I do sometimes pick a segment where I've got a chance of KOM and go for it, just as a game. It doesn't mean that much since the only KOMs I have got have been on segments with 40-50 riders. There's one flat road section of 90s or so that I am 9th out of many thousands, but probably only because I am taking the piss going all out for it and everyone else is just spinning home :). I think if I nab that some elite rider will get a notification and come back and kick me into the long grass!

That said, I didn't buy the kit for the purposes of obtaining the stats, but now I have it for other reasons it's quite nice.

Where is that chart? Is it in the Connect mobile app or in another part of the desktop app or something?

I can’t find it either in the Connect app. Maybe it’s because I use an instinct watch and an old edge 810?

It's on the desktop version and the app.

Only a subset of devices create the data for it so you may not see it.

Ah, ok. Thanks

My garmin 530 tells me how much I should rest before my next ride, I laugh in it's face and completely ignore it where possible!

I find it useful too, not forgetting that it needs power data for cycling vo2 max which is what it uses for the productive etc part.

Hmmm, that's interesting. My VO2 max has reduced from 62 to 52 since early March. I do a mixture of short intense turbo sessions (with smart trainer, hence power meter) and 1-3 rides on my gravel bike or mountain bike (without power meter).
Up to March, I was following a Sufferfest plan but when the weather got better, I switched to riding outside and now just use turbo occasionally (but very high intensity).

@nickc Don't worry about me! I'm not hitting the depths of despair yet. Just somewhat bemused 😉

👍

I didn't know Vo2 max go go that high 🤣

Hmmm, that’s interesting. My VO2 max has reduced from 62 to 52 since early March. I do a mixture of short intense turbo sessions (with smart trainer, hence power meter) and 1-3 rides on my gravel bike or mountain bike (without power meter).
Up to March, I was following a Sufferfest plan but when the weather got better, I switched to riding outside and now just use turbo occasionally (but very high intensity).

So basically the only time it will update your training status is after a turbo session. I found mine dropped from 56 to 55 at the end of the 12 week build me up plan on zwift.

I wouldn't worry, it's probably not got enough data with your short turbo sessions to be accurate. The only way around that would be to use a power meter on your outside rides. If you feel fitter and and stronger then that's what I'd go by.

It’s annoying in that if you cycle as your main sport, it wants you to use a power meter rather than the HRM it allows if you’re a runner.

Well, I think that's unavoidable really.

I think it needs heart rate and some kind of measure of power output to get a gauge. I suspect running speed/weight isn't a terrible proxy for power output, but cycling speed could be affected by too many other factors.

Yeah it uses GPS speed (pace) as a measure of your output for running, but cycling speed is affected by many variables, so power is needed to measure your output.

Also I think it really needs a steady effort and so the mountain bike ride type won't produce VO2 max data due to the peaky nature of the riding.

I wouldn’t worry, it’s probably not got enough data with your short turbo sessions to be accurate. The only way around that would be to use a power meter on your outside rides. If you feel fitter and and stronger then that’s what I’d go by.

I do also have road bike with power meter but I've not been out on it much this year due to piss poor weather. So, hopefully, my VO2 max will effortlessly glide upwards once I start riding that bike...

I used to find it helpful, but of late my F6 has been under-reading a lot, so the whole thing has gone croc!

Training load up to 793 again. Bring it on!