Why isn't Exercise Load populated for individual activities?

I note that the website Garmin Connect has a chart section above the 7 day average exercise load where it is supposed to display the individual daily exercise load, and furthermore, there's a way to look at your activities list and it has a column for exercise load and "primary benefit" but mine shows zero for all loads and "unknown" for primary benefit.  Is that a feature only available on certain watches?  I'm using a 5x plus for the record, and, the thing calculates my 7 day average, but, for weeks, I've been manually trying to back into what each activity's value is by looking at my watch immediately before and then after I do an activity.  Obviously, this is annoying and it looks like the feature is available for some users.

Does anyone know if this is only a Fenix 6 feature for example?  Or, is this just typical Garmin being lazy and adding a chart but not populating the data?

  • I have the same problem with my FR245M with v4.00 installed on it.

  • I'm not sure if I'm looking at the right chart (Reports -> Training status), but do have history going further back in time, although at the top right I have to choose a device to see data from it. I am temporarily using a Fenix 5 Plus and by default the historical data from my FR935 is not displayed. Maybe you switched devices? Or, if I am looking at the wrong chart, let us know.

    Alternatively I can really recommend Runalyze for reviewing training load (https://runalyze.com). My training status in Connect got messed up because my watch rebooted a couple of times at the end of interval sessions, so only the cooldown jogs were taken into account for Training Effect. Runalyze's TRIMP (https://fellrnr.com/wiki/TRIMP) is calculated afterwards based on the whole activity. It is a great tool. Or if you're more focused on cycling, GoldenCheetah (https://www.goldencheetah.org/) is very good.

  • Let's see if this is what you mean:

    Screenshot from Training Status under Reports:

    If I then click on any of the bars in the Exercise Load:

    If I then click on Activity List (highlighted in blue bottom left)

    I have separate accounts for an F5+ and an F6 Sapphire. The above is from the F6 account. The screenshot below is from the F5+ account:

  • Thanks for that  info. I see that in my case every activity from the Fenix 5 Plus has an Exercise Load of  0 and Primary Benefit "Unknown", even those that have a high Training Effect and long duration. (For the FR935 and other devices Load is not displayed). The watch does display a Training Load number on the Training Status widget, but none of the individual activities in Connect show anything about Training Load. I'd guess, from the manual, it's an automatically generated number; you don't have to install a datafield for it I suppose? 

    It's just that I can't stand that it doesn't work, that I'm interested, after all Runalyze has similar statistics, but I'm still curious how it should work.

  • Somebody has commented about this in another thread. it appears this aspect of Garmin Connect is not applicable for the 5 plus series.

  • But the last screenshot above you posted was from your f5+ account, right? The activities listed in that do have a Load figure. Can't be TrueUp - your F6 is on another account. On my account that Load number is always 0. 

  • Just checked the Training Status page in my Garmin Connect account:

    VO2max data are there from my Fenix 3 but not before 2018
    Status and 7 day training load is filled with data since I have an F5+
    Training load is empty, Heat acclimation is not present - obviously not functions of my OLD Fenix 5 plus!

  • But some aren't so not sure what's going on ???