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HR Zones used in New Training Plans

I've had a 610 for a month or so, been looking at the new heart rate based training plans available on Garmin Connect.

I'm assuming if you've set up custom HR zones, the target HR zone specified in the workout may not provide the desired effect.

In the connect profile, the zones are based on %HRR, and when reset to the default values, are shown as 50/60/70/80/90/100 %HRR.

However if you look in the 610 User Manual, the training zone table is shown as 50/60/70/80/90/100, but %MHR.

I'm fine working in terms of %HRR (especially since there is no option to create workouts based on %MHR within connect) - but want to make sure I've got my zones set up correctly to follow the Garmin training plans.

For example, using my current stats (185 MHR and 67 RHR) Zone 1 (50-60%) based on %HRR would be 126-138 BPM. Zone 1 (50-60%) based on %MHR would be 111 to 130.

So the real question is whether the plans on connect assume that the HR zones are based on the default settings of 50/60/70/80/90/100 %HRR?

Thanks,

-- Tom

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

Who to believe (or follow)

I've had a 610 for a month or so, been looking at the new heart rate based training plans available on Garmin Connect.

I'm assuming if you've set up custom HR zones, the target HR zone specified in the workout may not provide the desired effect.

In the connect profile, the zones are based on %HRR, and when reset to the default values, are shown as 50/60/70/80/90/100 %HRR.

However if you look in the 610 User Manual, the training zone table is shown as 50/60/70/80/90/100, but %MHR.

I'm fine working in terms of %HRR (especially since there is no option to create workouts based on %MHR within connect) - but want to make sure I've got my zones set up correctly to follow the Garmin training plans.

For example, using my current stats (185 MHR and 67 RHR) Zone 1 (50-60%) based on %HRR would be 126-138 BPM. Zone 1 (50-60%) based on %MHR would be 111 to 130.

So the real question is whether the plans on connect assume that the HR zones are based on the default settings of 50/60/70/80/90/100 %HRR?

Thanks,

-- Tom

Hey Tom,

I'm puzzled too about those difference. Do you have any answers yet?.

0 TomS_Nbpt over 12 years ago

No definitive answers. I did find a Garmin "Winter Training" web page with a variety of workouts - but it only added to the confusion as the notes which describe each style of run all reference %MHR.

For example, in the winter training description - a threshold run is described as being at 80-85% MHR.

If I look for a similar threshold run in the new training plans on connect, they are Zone 4 - which would be in the 80-90% range. So if you used the default zones in Connect / TC it would be 80-90% RHR, and if you set up your zones based on the Forerunner manual it would be 80-90% MHR?

-- Tom

0 TomS_Nbpt over 12 years ago

For what its worth, I've believe that these HR zones are just general guidelines and need to be tweaked to suit each person. The main reason I was having trouble was that no two sources seemed to agree on exactly how to define these zones. As a reference see this website which will provide HR zone guidelines using 7 different methods (a great resource, btw):

http://www.digifit.com/heartratezones/training-zones.asp?MaxHR=205&Age=43&RHR=64

Once I realized that there is no single answer, and actually did an informal mock Max-HR test on the treadmill (I happened to be about 15-20 bpm above the age-based formulas) - I came to the conclusion that I can't make this an exact science, without having all the lab-testing to go along with it, and to just pick a system and tweak along the way.

-- Tom

0 Dugiflopper over 12 years ago

Once I realized that there is no single answer, and actually did an informal mock Max-HR test on the treadmill (I happened to be about 15-20 bpm above the age-based formulas) - I came to the conclusion that I can't make this an exact science, without having all the lab-testing to go along with it, and to just pick a system and tweak along the way.

-- Tom

Good summation..... Also I think too many bean counters and OCD's obsess on the data. Don't get stuck training to the numbers. Push through and then refer back to the numbers to see what you did and get a perception of why.