Unproductive Training Status - All Of The Time

Unproductive means that your VO2 max is decreasing. The VO2 max is what makes the status unproductive. If you get an increase of or stable VO2 max you will get Productive or Maintaining as status. 

Ok.  But I don’t think my VO2 Max should be decreasing.  All my other stats are good - resting heart rate, recovery time, stress, sleep and how I feel.

VO2 max is calculated on your activities and how you perform during those. Resting heart rate, recovery time, stress, sleep and how I feel don't matter for those calculations, but will of course affect your performance which in turn affects the VO2 max value.

The VO2 max calculation for running needs pace and heart rate. For biking you need power, heart rate and maybe speed.

Is it both your running and cycling VO2 max that is decreasing? Have you used a power meter before on your bike? That is a requirement for cycling VO2 max.

It’s just cycling.  I don’t have a power meter on the bike (just the smart trainer).  I’m putting slightly less time indoors than I was cycling outside (until just 3 weeks ago) but with a few shorter, threshold sessions added in - just one per week.

I would expect these to push my VO2 max up a little, as they have in the past (but outdoors).

Running and cycling VO2 max are different values. Running is displayed in green color and cycling in blue. If you haven't had a power meter before then you only had running VO2 max. Now with the trainer you also got the cycling VO2 max.

Looking at the graphs, that now makes sense.

It’s a bit harsh that it’s placed my cycling VO2 Max 10 points lower than my running VO2 Max, especially considering I’ve done very little running this year and much more on the bike.  I’ll have to teach it :)

Some users lower the max heart rate for cycling. The exact theory behind that is unknown to me since the real max heart rate is the same for all activity types.  I use the same value and get about the same VO2 max for cycling and running.

Thanks for the insight.  It’s very much appreciated.

Hi, also make sure you have your devices and apps configured correctly. When you use the trainer, which app and which device are you recording with? Make sure Physio TrueUp is enabled on all devices, and your max HR is set correctly on both devices to a good value (do a max HR test).

Running and cycling VO2max are estimated very differently. Cycling uses power, an objective measurement, whereas running attempts to estimate "running power" from several parameters (primarily pace). I believe cycling will provide a better VO2max estimate than running.

In both cases, you need to do higher intensity activities regularly enough for the algorithm to have a good trend of your HR vs power (or pace). If not the VO2max estimate won't be as consistent or realistic.