Training Status Unproductive - decreasing fitness, increasing load

Hi:

I'd love to get some insights from people who are more expert on the analysis that Garmin has done around training. I'm training for an Ironman and I'm mixing cardio training with HIIT, endurance work, and strength training.

On Saturday, I did a 70 mile ride and then a six mile run. After that, my watch said my training is unproductive. I don't have a power meter on my bike, so I'm wondering if the watch is only really looking at my heart rate and GPS on the running. Naturally, after a 70 mile ride, the kind of run I'm going to do is going to be of a lower performance than what I'd do if I was fresh.

Should I ignore this or am I doing something fundamentally wrong in my training (keeping in mind I'm a newbie to Ironmans - have done one half only before).

Two related issues:

1. I also observed that my VO2 max declined from 54 on Fenix 3HR to 49 on the 5X.
2. To what extent do the Garmin algorithms care about strength training, where you're not doing cardio.

Thanks all for your insights.

Top Replies

Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member +2

I agree. I went from Productive to unproductive after a hard ride. Ended up taking the following four days off and still unproductive. Rode two easy days- unproductive. Took another two days off and rode…

All Replies

0 dkoukou over 8 years ago

It usually fluctuates between different levels every 3 days but when my endurance took a beating it successfully reported "decreasing fitness" in just 48 hours (and that was the reason i was doubtful at first). Sometimes it may stay "productive" for a whole week.
Keep in mind that the watch sits on my wrist 24/7.
Trust the algorithm my friend- if it says "productive" your fitness level is definitely not getting worse. :)

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Interesting experience last night

After a couple rest days, I went out to do hill repeats last night, but had a mechanical issue early on in the workout. I limped home after achieving a training effect of 0.6/2.0; training status changed from productive to maintaining. So I went out and ran until I got a training effect of 3.0/3.0, which changed my training status back to productive.

It's as if the run didn't sync, though. On the watch my status is productive and my training load is high, in Connect my status is maintaining and my load is medium. The run is on the server, but it looks like the training status report on Connect didn't update. That might be my fault though.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Hi, i know this is an old thread but hoping for some help. My fenix 5 has said my training load is unproductive for about 4 - 5 days now yet i haven't cycled "properly" (commuting only) since Tuesday (its now Sunday). My training load is in the green at 283. How can i be not recovering when i haven't done anything except 11km commutes for 5 days?

Also i only cycle (no running) is there any way to change the race predictor to something a bit more useful to me?

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

I agree. I went from Productive to unproductive after a hard ride. Ended up taking the following four days off and still unproductive. Rode two easy days- unproductive. Took another two days off and rode a moderate 15 miles status changed to maintaining. Did an easy ride the following day and guess what: unproductiveI've only ridden 6 days in two weeks with ony 2-3 of them being moderate of moderately hard, and have been unproductive. I would just like to understand the logic/algorithm that determines my status.

0 marcossaad_ over 5 years ago

Hi Guys,

Now that I'm training indoor 5 days a week using a smart trainer (power) I'm having trouble in understanding Garmin´s recommendation.

Yesterday after a climb training Garmin's asked me : 44 hours with an Easy Effort workout. That would be than on Thursday, right?

Today, Wednesday I did a 45 min recovery ride and Garmin asked me : 17 hours and a Normal Training. That would be also on Thursday but not an easy one, a normal one...

Was Garmin wrong in the first recommendation?

Was the recovery ride so efficient that changed so radically?

I don't get it.

Appreciate your comments.

Regards,