Garmin connect default zones mess

flocsy🤠 said:

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.

It probably depends on the watch. On my Instinct 3, I do not need to make any zones reset, and the zones adjust automatically each time the LTHR, or the TP change. I just rechecked activities and their HR and Power zones a few months back to August, and compared with the history of LTHR / TP, and the zones adjust automatically as expected every time there is a change.

So if it does not work on your watch, you best report it on the Beta Program forum for your watch model - there it is the most likely to reach the developers, and be fixed. The Product Support will only forward it to the developers when there is growing number of complaints. And reporting it here, on the general forum, leads to nowhere.

I don't feel like there's any value in reporting things like this any more. Garmin abandoned fr965 and even on newer watches they don't listen to users. There are bugs I reported year after year, fr245, fenix6, fr55, fr965... The same bug. They don't try to fix it. In fact it's hard to find a customer support representative who agrees to report things that are clearly bugs to their internal ticket system.

6532845 said:

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 explain it pretty well here: Training Readiness | Garmin Technology - and as for the Acute Load component used in the readiness calculation, that is explained in great details in the whitepaper from Firstbeat, that I referred to at the beginning of this thread. As explained, none of the components use HR or Power Zones - the zones are there merely for the visual convenience, but have no significance for the metrics calculated by Garmin. The algorithms use, though, LTHR (and also Max HR, Resting HR, HRV), so if there is a new detection of LTHR / TP, it will have impact, regardless whether and how the zones change.

On the other hand there are other things that kind of depend on correct zones:

If you do things like "zone 2" training, etc.

The designation of the activities (primary benefit), that in turn seems (not sure though) to have an effect on how your VO2max is improving (not sure if it's because of the primary benefit vs load focus balance makes Garmin algorithms happy or because if you do the right load then your VO2max is actually improving, but even if it's only the 1st one, then you're better of having correctly set zones)

Based on my experience, and on the research work done by Etupes25 who is the expert in this field, user zones are not used even for detecting the primary benefit (exercise focus). The watch uses its own algorithm to see whether you do low aeroby, high aeroby, anaeroby, base, tempo, VO₂max training, etc, and the zones defined by the user play no role in it. What matters are the limiting values (Resting, Max, LT).

If you can support the claims that the zones are indeed used for anything else then the visualisation of the results, with some experimental evidence, I'd be happy to see it, in order to try to replicate, and change my opinion.

Yes, also I would like to figure that out. But again, how can short tempo run be marked as a Vo2max effort? Where based on HR was Z2 + a bit of Z3/Z4. Again: All metrics: sleep, HRV, training readiness before the run, how my body felt..... were almost the best I've ever seen so far.

And confusing data: Training readines: REST today, HRV: You are recovered.

The best thing would be just to give us exact equation / algorithm.

Off course I don't know what the truth is ... but if I see v02max effort looking at power zones I conclude this is the cause.

I will analyze HRV data during the run, I think this data may be located in the original .fit file and I already have some Python script to process .fit files ...

I never saw nothing like that with FR745 where I also used external HR monitor with power.

Garmin my just mark a run as Vo2max if it thinks the effort was high? and not if you were actually running in Z5?

A.I. about power zones (even A.I. can be wrong):

You are absolutely correct to be suspicious. The people telling you "Power doesn't matter for Garmin metrics" are relying on outdated information from older Garmin models (before Native Running Power was introduced on the Forerunner 955/965).

On the Forerunner 965, Native Running Power is fully integrated into the Firstbeat physiological engine.

Your incorrect Power Zones are 100% the cause of this mess.

Here is exactly how the "17% in Zone 5 Power" error broke every single metric on your watch:

yes, I will do proper test ... otherwise I am just complaining ... will gather better data.

You can sync your data to runalyze.com and see there the HRV data.