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7 Day Training Load Optimal Range Unrealistic

6498038
over 5 years ago

Does anyone else have trouble meeting the minimum optimal 7 day training load.

My minimum 7 day load is 722. I like to have one day a week completely free of training. This means I need a load of 120 on all the other days. I mainly run and do crossfit with a bit of hiking or mountain biking on easy days.

I am a 45 year old male and guess I would rate myself as an intermediate runner. My current 10k time is around 43 minutes (although garmin predicts it at 45 minutes) and my best just over 40 minutes. I have starting training again and am wanting to break 40 minutes. Garmins guess at my VO2 max is 50. I mainly run and do crossfit with a bit of hiking or mountain biking on easy days.

This loading is no problem on intense running days however I would normally only do 2 intense (tempo or interval) runs and one long run 8-12 miles a week. My last 8 mile run only yielded a load of 104. I am finding on my recovery days I am having to do a really intense HIIT to hit my load targets. For those that are crossfitters think Murph! for those that are not that is 1 mile run, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, followed by another 1 mile run, all while wearing a weight vest.

long story short, I am finding that on any day that I am NOT doing a really intense run and doing an easy run or X-training I am having to do 2 reasonably intense workouts or one super intense HIIT a day to meet the optimal 7 day load range. I like to think I push myself pretty hard but this feels like it has overtraining written all over it.

I will say I have only been using Garmin for 3 weeks so perhaps it has not had enough time to compile an accurate assessment of my fitness and recovery requirements but I seriously doubt it is that smart.

Is anyone else having a similar experience.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Yes, auto goals work like that. So, if you want to always complete steps and intensity goals - just set them manually to some reasonable values: Device Settings -> User Settings.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to BunBun!

    Thanks for the reply.

    Don’t think training load works that way. No way to change it in settings like steps and intensity minutes. I think I read somewhere that Garmin calculates optimal training load based on the previous 30 days training. My very first run with my Garmin device was a really intense 8 mile tempo run. Perhaps it based my optimal training load based on that first run. Will see if the optimal 7 day load is more meaningful when I have 30 days of data for it to use.

    just did a pretty hard 45 minute interval session but am still well short of the optimal load for the day. Looks like I am off to the gym this arvo to bump up my load?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I now have more than 30 days of data and garmin is calculating much more reasonable optimum 7 day loading.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 6498038

    I have the opposite problem, my 7d load is really low (180-390), which I completed with 2 runs and everything over that is displayed as over training :)

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Training load makes no sense when it tracks downwards after a hard 90km road bike ride, but upwards after only a 5km Zwift ride!  

    I am frustrated by the training load function because it doesn’t accurately reflect training load at all, but rather some strange algorithm that assumes an ever increasing training load is possible, but then penalises that extra effort for no apparent reason!  

    …might be time to ditch the Garmin and actually ride based on how I feel, rather than how a computer tells me to feel!

    …does anyone at Garmin actually read these comments? 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 4017833

    Are you talking about the 7 day training load? It is just a sum of your training load for the past 7 days. 

    Is the training load for the individual activities incorrect?

    Using Zwift makes you leave the Garmin eco system which might give incorrect training load. It will probably work a lot better if you only use Garmin devices all the way.

    I'm not sure how it works when you are using 3rd party services like Zwift. Is the training load calculated by Zwift or do you sync the activity to a Garmin device to calculate the load and the sync it back to Connect like you do with VO2 max?

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to e7andy

    Hi Andy, thanks for reply.  …yes the perpetual 7 day training load. Yes Zwift ride data syncs to Garmin, then Garmin interprets it. …regardless of Zwift, when the 7 day load goes down significantly after my biggest ride of the week (90km) but up after a short ride, it makes no sense. 

    not sure what you mean by “Is the training load for the individual activities incorrect?”  If so not sure how to correct it?

    jon

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 4017833
    4017833 said:
    not sure what you mean by “Is the training load for the individual activities incorrect?”  If so not sure how to correct it?

    I wonder if you have checked if they are correct. You can't correct them, but you feel that something is worong then you need to find the source of the error and report it or fix the error if possible. Otherwise nothing will change.

    The 7 day load is just a sum then the load for the individual activities must be incorrect in some way since you say the load goes in the wrong direction. Another cause could be that something with high load in the beginning of the 7 day period has been pushed out which makes the training load go down.

    It could also be that Zwift sends data that makes the calculation incorrect. Zwift is virtual and you will sometimes get odd values from it depending on your setup.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to e7andy

    How do you check if training load is correct?

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to e7andy

    Thinking I might try setting Activity Class to zero…as per this thread. forums.garmin.com/.../what-is-activity-class-and-how-do-i-use-it