I have my device set to automatically detect performance measurements and am using the wrist HRM, not a separate HRM. On a "normal" run (5-9 miles, 9:30-10:00 min/mile), the majority of my time is in Zone 3 with a some in Zone 4. Every once in awhile, this seems to be way off with the majority of my time split between Zone 4 and Zone 5, often the majority in Zone 5. Any ideas of why this would occur? Would anyone suggest setting the zones manually versus automatically detecting? Thanks in advance.
1. Quite a few people have reported crazy HR zones being imported from Garmin Connect with the last couple of updates. Resetting your zones in GC can help here. 2. You are getting "cadence lock" where the watch bounces on your wrist, allowing light to enter the sensor in a rhythmic way, fooling the sensor. A cadence of around 165-180 is quite common, which is feasible as a heart rate, but would put most people in Z4/Z5. The easiest solution to this is to tighten the band slightly, and to position it higher on the fleshy part of the wrist away from the wrist bone (where it can get a better "seal" against external light). I find I regularly get cadence lock when I run with band as I normally wear it for 24/7 monitoring, but the running heart rate is reliable if I tighten it just one notch.
If you are seeing normal HR readings on the watch during your run, and only finding strange "time in zone" numbers in your post-run analysis, I'd suspect the former. If you are seeing high HR readings during your run, I'd suspect the latter.
1. Quite a few people have reported crazy HR zones being imported from Garmin Connect with the last couple of updates. Resetting your zones in GC can help here. 2. You are getting "cadence lock" where the watch bounces on your wrist, allowing light to enter the sensor in a rhythmic way, fooling the sensor. A cadence of around 165-180 is quite common, which is feasible as a heart rate, but would put most people in Z4/Z5. The easiest solution to this is to tighten the band slightly, and to position it higher on the fleshy part of the wrist away from the wrist bone (where it can get a better "seal" against external light). I find I regularly get cadence lock when I run with band as I normally wear it for 24/7 monitoring, but the running heart rate is reliable if I tighten it just one notch.
If you are seeing normal HR readings on the watch during your run, and only finding strange "time in zone" numbers in your post-run analysis, I'd suspect the former. If you are seeing high HR readings during your run, I'd suspect the latter.
I'm having the same issue. For point #1, I checked and its the normal HR but I'll give it a shot for point #2, I'll wear it tighter and see if there is any change.
Thanks for the feedback mcalista After reading a few more threads I figured it might be "cadence lock" since it's so sporadic. Not to mention, those may have been the times where I wore it one "notch" looser.
I have my device set to automatically detect performance measurements and am using the wrist HRM, not a separate HRM. On a "normal" run (5-9 miles, 9:30-10:00 min/mile), the majority of my time is in Zone 3 with a some in Zone 4. Every once in awhile, this seems to be way off with the majority of my time split between Zone 4 and Zone 5, often the majority in Zone 5. Any ideas of why this would occur? Would anyone suggest setting the zones manually versus automatically detecting? Thanks in advance.
You can set them manually to be higher and it will show that your workout was in a lower zone. I've had the same problem, it would say I was in zone 5 for pretty much an entire run and then vo2 max would drop, and training status will say unproductive. The F5 is just a terrible running watch honestly, the HR is always off, and I've been using it since April.
