Heart rate zones during workout

I've just started a heart rate based training plan (Improve your fitness level 1) but have a question regarding heart rate zones shown on the watch during the actual workout.

My heart rate zones are set up as in the attachment.

The first run for this plan is " Run in Z2, easy pace, 35 minutes." so I set of on the run and the watch started reporting "In desired zone" when the gauge hit the green between 2.0 and 3.0. During the run I kept the gauge as close to central as possible and this was 2.5. Now I had thought that at this point I was in the middle of zone 2 i.e. 117-137bpm but after reviewing the activity post run 2.5 actually refers to the middle of zone 3 i.e. 137-156bpm. I would have thought if the goal was to keep you in Z2 then the gauge would be from 1.5 to 2.5 not 2.0 to 3.0

My heart rate across the activity was pretty consistent around 145bpm so is this a Z2 or Z3 workout? I am confused.

Thanks ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1263578.png

0 R_Tellis over 7 years ago

According to the zones you have set in the screenshot 145bpm would be a Z3 run, but if your watch was telling you that you were in Z2 then it sounds like the zones on your watch aren't matching what you have set in Connect.

I've had that happen before where after adding a new watch or doing a factory reset the watch sets the MaxHR and zones on the watch based on the age and gender in my Connect profile instead of using what I actually have set there.

0 AndyMillne over 7 years ago

Thank you, it looks like that is the issue. The watch was set to %LTHR which was giving different zones. This is odd as I haven't made any changes here. I changed it to %Max HR which seems to match up with the values in Connect so we'll see how it goes on the next workout tomorrow.

0 ThiagoSian over 7 years ago

Garmin Connect HR Zones is not in sync with Watch Zones for a while now. Garmin know about this issue, reported several times, but they just seems to do not care.

You need to go to your Watch Settings, and set HR Zones there, otherwise it will be buggy.

Your watch probably created a run specifit HR Zone.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Both GC and GCM should be in sync on your HR data which will bring your watch in to line. It sounds like one of the 3 (GCM, GC & F5) have not been correctly set up. Like you I also use %MaxHR and don’t see this issue. From memory this was a historical problem a couple of years ago but has been fixed for a loooooong time.

Make sure if you are using Garmin Express that you have the latest version and view your GC account to see the user settings for the F5 listed in your devices.....There you can make the inputs your want for max HR, how you want your zones calculated as a percentage of max. Then sync your device using GE. GCM if correctly paired will also get updated.

FYI if you have more than one Garmin device listed on your account then all devices will get updated with the HR Zones you just created, so be sure to sync all those devices too.

0 AndyMillne over 7 years ago

Thanks all. It was correct in GC and GCM and has been for some time. Thinking back however I remember my watch alerted me to a new lactate threshold a few weeks back and prompted to update the HR zones. I suspect I may have agreed to that but then that was not synced back to GC and GCM.

0 R_Tellis over 7 years ago

From memory this was a historical problem a couple of years ago but has been fixed for a loooooong time.

Not really. While the original poster's problem seems to have been getting a LTHR update, I recently added a Vivoactive 3 to my account and the HR zones from Connect were ignored and settings on the watch defaulted to age-220, which is about 10bpm too low for me, and set the zones accordingly. Which resulted in an easy 5 mile run being almost completely in zones 4 and 5. I also had the same thing happen recently when my FR235 factory reset itself after having a completely flat battery for a week or two while moved.

0 ThiagoSian over 7 years ago

Both GC and GCM should be in sync on your HR data which will bring your watch in to line. It sounds like one of the 3 (GCM, GC & F5) have not been correctly set up. Like you I also use %MaxHR and don’t see this issue. From memory this was a historical problem a couple of years ago but has been fixed for a loooooong time.

This issue is still there, and Garmin know about it.

Not really. While the original poster's problem seems to have been getting a LTHR update, I recently added a Vivoactive 3 to my account and the HR zones from Connect were ignored and settings on the watch defaulted to age-220, which is about 10bpm too low for me, and set the zones accordingly. Which resulted in an easy 5 mile run being almost completely in zones 4 and 5. I also had the same thing happen recently when my FR235 factory reset itself after having a completely flat battery for a week or two while moved.

Did you fixed it whit the factory reset or it was the cause ?

0 R_Tellis over 7 years ago

The reset was the cause. I had to manually change the settings in GCM for that watch despite the settings for my 735 and user profile were still right.

0 ThiagoSian over 7 years ago

The reset was the cause. I had to manually change the settings in GCM for that watch despite the settings for my 735 and user profile were still right.

I got this issue when I reverted that FW with OHR glitch. Since then no sync. Did you managed to fix it?

0 R_Tellis over 7 years ago

Yes. I just made the changes in GCM under the user setting for both the watch and my Connect user profile