VO2max updates for no apparent reason

The last couple of weeks my VO2max value has updated three times, without having done any activities that should trigger such update. On one of the dates I didn´t even record any activities at all. I don´t know if the updates are coming from the watch itself, or if it´s coming from Connect somehow and has been synced back to the watch with Physio TrueUp.
BTW; Training Status is still «No Status» due to no recent Fitness updates (VO2max...)

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

0 Notne over 6 years ago

Hi SAHO - Just to give you a data point and maybe a helpful bump, no that has never happened to me. All my new VO2 max values occurred after activity.

I have had some updates associated with activities that were not "max" activities, but I suspect it was extrapolating, based on a (possibly incorrect?) recollection of a First Beat white paper I read once.

0 SAHO over 6 years ago

Thanks for the reply.

I was in contact with Garmin support, and they suspect it might be a bug on the server side causing the values to come from another device that was paired to my account previously.
I've only had one Garmin watch before which I sold and removed from my account 6 months ago, so it's strange that it hasn't been an issue until now if that actually is the case.

Garmin adviced me to remove my current watch from my Connect account, do a factory reset, then pair it again. I didn't really see the logic in that, but they claimed that having no watches paired to the account should also remove any "false links" or remainings of other devices.
I hate doing a full reset since I lose all my settings, but the VO2max updates keeps coming, so today I did the full reset, and hopefully the issue will disappear.

BTW: VO2max estimates from non-max activities is basically the whole point behind the FirstBeat method. When I was saying "without having done any activities that should trigger such update" I was talking about activity type, not intensity.

0 SAHO over 6 years ago

In case anyone is interested;

After I did the full reset, I still got an update to the VO2max yesterday.
This morning I had a new chat with Garmin support, and in contrary to what I was told last time, today I was told that it's impossible to get data from a previously owned device as long as it is removed from my account. Good news of course, but so much for doing the full reset then... Sigh.

Anyways, the person I spoke with today claimed that the Fenix 5+ is capable of estimating VO2max also outside of activities, i.e. from my daily walking routines even without starting a timed activity.
I find it strange that this suddenly starts occuring six months after buying the device, but I guess it might be triggered by the fact that I haven't done any outdoor GPS runs since mid December and therefore it has now started to take other sources into account.

If this is correct however, the Fenix 5+ is ignoring tons of treadmill running w/chest strap and a calibrated Stryd, but it's updating my VO2max based on MoveIQ events from non-exercise dog walks with walking speed from accelerometer and HR from wrist sensor. Brilliant.