Fēnix 5X – 3.44 Beta Release

VO2Max drop after long run

16+ kilometer run today in a difficult terrain. The 5X did a respectable job, as far as GPS accuracy is concerned.

However, my VO2MAX reading took a surprising hit as it went down from 52 to 49 (I was running with HRM-Run and a Stryd);

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1763406159

NYanakiev7
Depends what you mean by "difficult terrain". The FirstBeat site (the company that develops the algorithms) has some white papers on how the various values are calculated and the limitations. VO2Max needs a fairly flat and regular surface with a constant pace to be determined. Trials, mud, sand, hills will all screw it up (HR shows hard work but pace is slow). With the F3, many of us that do trails, snowshoe running etc complained for a long time that this was useless. My VO2Max would drop 15 points in the winter when I switched to a lot of snowshoe running. Same issue when I switched to trails. I just accepted it as useless if I still wanted to get HR data. Eventually they changed it so that VO2Max is calculated only on apps based on the RUN app, not TRAILS or others. Easy to set up new app based on trails with everything the same as the default RUN app. Name it appropriately and use it when going on "difficult terrain" or such. That should help avoid some of the fluctuation.

Has the no timeout back light bug been fixed in this? In watch face mode on previous software the fenix 5X would still timeout after 5 seconds even when you had set the back light to not time out. The watch would only honor the no timeout setting when in activity mode or when using widgets but not when using watch faces. I find that unacceptable since the fenix 3-5 uses a opaque transflective display technology. This is superior in daylight to other display techs such as OLED and TFT LCD and other regular LCD's. The display on the fenix 3-5 have in common with printed text that it gets clearer the more light you give it. However this comes at the cost of a dimmer display in regular dim room light at night, to compensate for this one can set a permanent light with only 5-10% brightness to save battery. This way you get rid of the disadvantage of the opaque display, sure it uses more power but for those of us that want it that way it should be a possibility.

So the question then is if it is still not possible to have the light permanently on when having the watch in watch face mode?

If this is still the case then please change this to the way it should be with a permanent light toggle switch even in watch face mode!

Has the no timeout back light bug been fixed in this? In watch face mode on previous software the fenix 5X would still timeout after 5 seconds even when you had set the back light to not time out. The watch would only honor the no timeout setting when in activity mode or when using widgets but not when using watch faces. I find that unacceptable since the fenix 3-5 uses a opaque transflective display technology. This is superior in daylight to other display techs such as OLED and TFT LCD and other regular LCD's. The display on the fenix 3-5 have in common with printed text that it gets clearer the more light you give it. However this comes at the cost of a dimmer display in regular dim room light at night, to compensate for this one can set a permanent light with only 5-10% brightness to save battery. This way you get rid of the disadvantage of the opaque display, sure it uses more power but for those of us that want it that way it should be a possibility.

So the question then is if it is still not possible to have the light permanently on when having the watch in watch face mode?

If this is still the case then please change this to the way it should be with a permanent light toggle switch even in watch face mode!

As i said before: ""no timeout" in watch mode is intended, at least for Garmin, that light has to closes after 4 seconds, i don't know why... i have just reported to beta team but the told me that "no timeout" is intended to works so... Maybe if someone else report this thing, they will be encouraged to change the way it works... "

They also told me to report the idea to this form : http://www8.garmin.com/contactUs/ideas/ because for theme the "no timeout" works correctly...

NYanakiev7
Depends what you mean by "difficult terrain". The FirstBeat site (the company that develops the algorithms) has some white papers on how the various values are calculated and the limitations. VO2Max needs a fairly flat and regular surface with a constant pace to be determined. Trials, mud, sand, hills will all screw it up (HR shows hard work but pace is slow). With the F3, many of us that do trails, snowshoe running etc complained for a long time that this was useless. My VO2Max would drop 15 points in the winter when I switched to a lot of snowshoe running. Same issue when I switched to trails. I just accepted it as useless if I still wanted to get HR data. Eventually they changed it so that VO2Max is calculated only on apps based on the RUN app, not TRAILS or others. Easy to set up new app based on trails with everything the same as the default RUN app. Name it appropriately and use it when going on "difficult terrain" or such. That should help avoid some of the fluctuation.

What I meant was that those were some pretty tough conditions for a GPS watch. I did have my Stryd set up to provide speed and pace data so I wonder if that led to the sudden drop in VO2Max. I have seen others also report that VO2Max readings decrease when using Stryd.

What I meant was that those were some pretty tough conditions for a GPS watch. I did have my Stryd set up to provide speed and pace data so I wonder if that led to the sudden drop in VO2Max. I have seen others also report that VO2Max readings decrease when using Stryd.

That's actually been fixed, at least I think so, as since 3.44 both vo2max and lt calcs went back to where they where before I started using Stryd. Also my training status changed from unproductive to peaking.

That's not what my experience seems to support, unfortunately. There is no other reason for such a drop in VO2, especially given how I felt during the run.

There's actually no reason to calculate Vo2MAX when doing 16km run anyway. It's not the way Vo2MAX should be calculated and any value the Fenix shows is preposterous. The problem is that this value is being used in many different areas and Garmin should take care of this issue with their own self-made App specifically designed to input this parameter following the Cooper Test guidelines.

As of the sunrise/sunset in watch faces being reset, this only happened with digic watch. Gear Min is still ok... makes no sense, I don't understand why that happened but it did happen after 2 indoor sessions. Considering the time didn't change but the sunset/sunrise did, I suppose it went to Greenwich. :)

Here are two bugs I encountered this weekend:

- the activity summary for mountainbiking shows wrong elevation data


- some Strava Live Segments show up in a strange way on the watch


I only tested one mountainbike segment this weekend, but that one triggered and seemed to work fine.