Anaerobic workouts recorded as Threshold

Hi, I have an Epix Gen 2 that I use for cycling and it seems to be a bit variable on how it records and shows workout type in Garmin Connect. Most recently I did a workout with Anaerobic Power intervals where it is showing 29% Anaerobic and it labels it Tempo and it is showing in Exercise Load as High Aerobic. It looks as if this throws out the Load Focus. Any idea why it would do this? Everything is calibrated.

Top Replies

trux 12 days ago in reply to seanquigly +1

If you post a link to the activity, perhaps we can see better why it was labeled high aerobic. Probably because the high-aerobie prevailed over the anaeroby.

All Replies

0 trux 13 days ago

seanquigly said:
Any idea why it would do this?

Possibly the workouts are not as anaerobic as you hoped. Only very short bursts of high effort will generate significant anaerobic training effect. Any intervals longer than 30-90s will rather increase the high aeroby. I recommend reading the following article: What Is the Training Effect Feature on My Garmin Device? | Garmin Customer Support

0 seanquigly 12 days ago in reply to trux

Well the intervals were 50s and Garmin Connect labelled them as Anaerobic and showed that the workout had 29% in that zone so seems odd that it should then decide it was High Aerobic.

0 trux 12 days ago in reply to seanquigly

If you post a link to the activity, perhaps we can see better why it was labeled high aerobic. Probably because the high-aerobie prevailed over the anaeroby.

0 seanquigly 12 days ago in reply to trux

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/18703078595

You will see that 29% is Anaerobic Zone 6 with a bit of VO2 Zone 5 as running in ERG mode. This is I would have thought classic intervals, short duration Zone 6 with Zone 1 rests between and a warm up and cool down.

0 trux 12 days ago in reply to seanquigly

You got some anaerobic effect (scored 2.1 Maintaining), but the majority of the activity was in high aeroby / threshold, hence the overall focus is "Threshold". There is nothing wrong in it.

Have a look at the document I linked previously. It is well explained there, including some examples. For getting more anaerobic effect, you have to do short bursts of high-intensity effort. It means you should reach well above your VO₂max / LTHR level, reaching into HR Zone 5.

In the activity you posted, you've spent the majority of the time (87%) in zones 0 - 3, only 13% in Z4, and did not reach the Z5 at all. If you cannot reach Z5 at intensive interval training, then either your Max HR and the HR Zones are incorrectly set up, or your effort was not strong enough.