Hello all. My Fenix 5x is currently using %lt for my heart rate zones. Garmin's training plans do not seem to specify %max or %lt in their zone configuration. Does anyone know which you should be using with their plans?
I would recommend using either %LT or %HRR since both of these take your personal fitness into account, while straight %HRMax does not. LT is a personal measurement that can change with fitness (loss or gain), and HRR will also change as your resting HR changes due to fitness (loss or gain) sickness, etc.
One issue I would currently warn about is that HRR calculations changed quite a bit in the last beta update (who knows about 8.0 public) and for most people resting HR as determined by the watch seems to have increased quite a bit. Mine went from ~38-40 to near 50 after this update, which would make a pretty big impact to my training zones. So, if you choose %HRR, be sure you know what your actual resting HR is.
I'll leave it at %LT. Oddly enough the update to RHR actually helped me. I wear my watch overnight, but my resting heart rate seems to always be lower while checking email at my desk in the morning than the average of overnight. Most days it seems like the new RHR calculation has picked this up so i'm down about 10bpm from the previous calculation. It isn't always consistent. Today, for instance, i had a significant amount of time below 55 and RHR is being reported as 63, but the last few days it has been pretty decent. I've already run for today, so my RHR will not likely come back to the low 50s (wine tonight to celebrate valentine's day with my wife won't help) so i bet the 63 number stands.
Thanks again for the info. My first half will be in May (only my 2nd race, started running less than a year ago) so I want to be prepared.
