Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone has encountered the following issue and, if yes, what the thoughts of the community are.
I recently finished a 5K Garmin Coach programme with coach Amy. I followed it religiously and enjoyed it thoroughly. I also felt that I genuinely improved my running and was happy to see my VO2 max being upped quite a bit too.
Moving into the natural next step - the 10K Garmin Choach programme with the same coach - I observed something strange and quite disappointing too.
Already after my first run (not the benchmark run - the next one), my VO2 max started declining quite sharply, even though my laps remained pretty much the same or, at times, were even better. My VO2 max wasn't particularly great to start with, but I'm now down three levels (degrees?) since I started the new programme four weeks ago, with the remaining performance assessment being consistently at the "unproductive" level, notifying me that my training level is find but my performance is decreasing.
As this makes no sense, I am wondering if I should really take these performance assessments seriously - including my VO2 max levels. I know that Garmin warns users that the watch's (Fenix 5 in my case) assessment isn't as accurate as when you measure your VO2 max at a centre for ergometric control. This is fine, but what I'm reporting above is a matter of internal reliability that seriously affects whether this measurement tells you anything at all.
Again, its OK if the VO2 max measurement of the watch has poor external reliability (i.e. when compared to that of a professional machine at a physiotherapist). After all, one can only ask so much of a watch. But being so radically divergent and inconsisent in its measurement from one running programme to the other based on observations for the *same* individual means its internal reliability is extremely poor too, and thus the measure cannot be taken seriously -- unless of course this is bug. I mean, I'm now wondering: was I every as "good" as my performance metrics indicated when I trained for the 5K run, or was I always as bad as the metrics for the 10K run indicate now?!?
Any thoughts? Might it just be my watch?
Thanks and happy Xmas!