HR% and Zones

All my Garmin software and watch has 5 zones.
So far only Garmin Training Centre allows me to create and transfer workout or activities with %HR without them converting to a BPM.

Today i got access to the NEW Garmin Connect web interface so will see what that offers. I see it DOES at last transfer my zones to the watch !.

Edit: No , new GC transfers the workouts with the HR at the time of transfer and not the Zones that you could change on the watch at the time you do the workout. I have asked Garmin Level 2 support if this is a bug/ oversight or intentional.

GC web classic never did to my FR220.

I'm confused :) as far as I can see its possible to create workouts based either on HR zones or on specific bpm - what exactly can't you do?

Its the same with Power, you cant create Custom Workout Power output Based on %FTP, you have to enter a zone or Custom Watts. In Garmin Training Centre however you can do both these things.........

As you can see. 4 zones and no option to add or remove any.

And YES. you can select custom but only choose BPM or Zone. IE. I wan't to have a thresholdworkout 88-92% of MAX. I don't want to use calculator to create workouts.

And... Q number 2 not answered either.

1. Why isn't there an option to make a step in a workout according to HR% instead of just HR. So annoying.

When creating a workout step, you have the option of setting the Target to a heart rate zone or to custom. When using custom you can specify only a heart rate value. I'm not sure why you'd want to use HR% or HR since most training that I've ever seen is based on zones (which are often originally based on HR% values, but are fine tuned over time).

2. Why isn't there an option to view your activities "analyze activities" or "splits" with HR% instead of HR?

I see Avg HR (% of Max) and Max HR (% of Max) as well as Avg HR (z) and Max HR (z) in the activity comparison screen. I believe you should be able to see that data here. When looking at an activity detail page, you have the option of viewing heart rate data as bpm, % of Max and Zones, but not in the activity list or in the splits breakdown. I'm assuming this is a design decision. Since you can export data to CSV from those screens, Garmin might have decided that exporting the heart rate zone for each split doesn't make sense (because your zones are changing over time).

3. Did they remove the option to ADD/DELETE zones? My watch has 5zones (not changeable) and GC has 4Zones. No +/- button to add or remove anything. Am I missing something?

Yes, there used to be the option to add/remove zones. If you need to change the number of zones, this page can be used to do so until Garmin adds the functionality back.

Travis

I do not understand how people like to use zones more than %.

I personally prefer to use 5 zones (Recovery, Endurance, Tempo, Threshold and Max Effort). All of my workouts are configured to use zone numbers, which allows me to tweak my heart rate zones as my fitness level changes without having to modify each of my workouts. So I just go and update my target zones and all of my workouts will adjust automatically. If I used HR% figures, I'd have to rework every one of my workouts to account for a change in my HRmax, HRrest, or Threshold values.

Travis

Everything is fine now but I have a question on the subject.

How does Zone and HR calculate. If I choose to view an activity in % of Max it shows 92% and in Zone view its 5.0... Shouldn't 90% be z5.0 (zones set: 50,60,70,80,90%)? OR does zone think that resting HR is 0 and therefore changes the scale?

The training zones page establishes a mapping between HRR% (Heart Rate Reserve Percent) and training zone. The data on the graphs is %HRmax, so you can expect to see some differences.

Travis

thx. Quite big differences sometime. :)