Garmin connect default zones mess

I need a help from Garmin (please). Today it happened again and I don't know why. My training readiness dropped from 78 to 9 after 90min Z2+Z3/Z4 run. Where tempo part was just 4km and it felt very easy ... I never even touched upper Z4 (LT2), but Garmin marked my run as Vo2max! I still have my power zones set incorrectly .... And only power zones would cause this... But I was told this can't be the case, really? My watch is FR965. 

I don't understand Garmin default power zones... What is TP? certainly not CP (Stryd). Default zones set Z4 at 100% to 115% of TP. So I am assuming TP is LT1 point. Am I correct? Where can I read about this?

I am quite frustrated with this watch ...

Is there auto TP setting? Or is it just manual?

6532845 said:

What is TP?

Threshold Power in this context

6532845 said:

Is there auto TP setting?

Yes, it is the LTHR auto-detection (TP will be measured when you reach your LTHR). On most watches it is in Device Settings » User Profile » Heart Rate & Power » Auto Detection

6532845 said:

I don't understand Garmin default power zones...

It depends on your settings, and on your device. If you've set the base of the Power zones to TP, then the zones will be adjusted to the TP. On my watch the Power Zone 3 ends at 100% of TP.

You can find the history of your TP at https://connect.garmin.com/modern/report/-39/running/last_year (click the button Power under the chart). The power zones then adjust accordingly.

Ok, so TP is bound to LTHR, so it's not standalone metric like Stryd have it. I compared Garmin value and compared to Stryd value. So my current TP is 336W and this corresponds to 248W Stryd, where my CP (Stryd) is 276W.

So I am assuming TP = LT1 point, CP = LT2 point. Garmin default power zones when set to %TP, for Z4 are: 100% to 115% ... this only makes sense if TP= LT1 point. And it doesn't match TP = power at LTHR since my detected LTHR is LT2 point (where Z5 starts).

This is the reason why my power zones were not configured properly ... I configured my Z4 to be 90% to 100% of TP. That meant that simple threshold run was detected as Z5 run.

Yes, I see. My TP was detected at the same time as new Z4 threshold pace. And it was detected as 336W. It's just that this power doesn't corresponds to my power at LTHR. I compared Stryd and Garmin power. Garmin TP power for me is LT1 point, where LTHR is LT2 point. No big deal if you know how it is. But I miss-configured power zones because of that.

And yes, for me its more and more likely Garmin is using also power zones to calculate training readiness ...

Why I think so, please someone from Garmin confirm or deny this:

a) My HR yesterday was marked as Vo2max, but it was Z2 (12k) + Z3/Z4 (tempo)  for 4k in between
b) garmin detected effort from a) to be Z2 + tempo by heart rate and Z5 from power zones -> overall it marked it as Vo2max efforrt
c) training readiness dropped from 78 to 9, even when sleep for the past week was always: 80+, HRV always good (green), it gave me +8 from the baseline at the end of the run yesterday ... so no other metric exists that would tell their algorithm to drop training readiness so much ...

My solution for now: I've disabled Garmin power, is useless if you have Stryd. Hopefully no more mess ...

I messed up myself a bit. LT1 is not at L3 -> L4 boundary ... but rather LT2 -> LT3.

So my TP was detected at the start of my Z4 which fits 100% to 115% for Z4. But I am not sure if this is intentionally.

Today I went for a run with default power zones and it looked a bit better, but still off a bit ... I was running in Z1 ... Garmin detected Z2 with a bit of Z3. I will try to map Stryd percentages to Garmin power. Stryd nailed them out of the box, no changes were required.

The issue with Garmin is that it seems that it's power is not linear, at least when you compare to Stryd. One would expect linear offset between the two, but this is not the case. Curve trends looks otherwise correct in both cases.

Well another python tool I guess to map things up.

Every time you or Garmin's auto detect changes anything (max HR, resting HR, LTHR) you should go to the heart rate zone settings and click Reset Zones . This resets those percentages, and the next activity will use the newly calculated numbers.

I said it a few times to Garmin that this is a bug. They don't seem to give a sh.... 

thanks, good to know. Will try to monitor that ... I think Garmin doesn't care about usability ... or data correctness ... why would I need training readiness if it doesn't work or if nobody knows how it calculates that value ... they sell crap for a lot of money ... I would like them to look in the mirror and go fix such annoying things ...

In your example I would assume percentages must always stay the same if I configured them manually ... for me this was the case with the older watch...

I bought FR965 because I knew FR970 is very buggy. But I didn't expect 2 year old watch to have so many issues. 

I bought the 965 2.5 years ago. At the beginning it was pretty good, but with every quarterly firmware upgrade it gets:

- new bugs

- new bloatware (things that Garmin call new features, that nobody asked for or wants to use, the only goal of them is to be able to put it on the quarterly release list, to get the bonuses for the managers)

- less battery life between charges

- almost no real bug fixes (besides the standard "various bug fixes and improvements" that is just copy&pasted at the end of the changelog)

And now it seems to be abandoned totally. Only the new platform (fr570, 970, fenix8, venux1, etc) are developed.

Regarding the mirror: I don't know anyone there, not sure how enthusiastic or fit or how many of them like or do sport. Clearly it's a big bureaucratic nightmare. The ones that might be able to do something probably really don't care or they don't see the mirror behind the stack of $$$ that you and I paid.