Even though I have run seven times outdoors since my last LT reading with a 5X and a HRM-Tri I am not getting lactate threshold readings anymore. Connect says that I haven't any eligible data. I haven't changed anything as far as I know but have always had LT data. Can anyone help?
The LT code allegedly *requires* chest heart-rate data; Garmin's site says it won't work off OHR. I don't know why that's the case because the "stress" computation on the Fenix 5x certainly does work off OHR (or you wouldn't get it all day, and you do) and my understanding is that this operates on HRV, which is one of the necessary inputs (along with the heart rate compared to your zones) to compute the LT. Perhaps this is an anachronism from before the OHR was improved on the more-recent watches, but Garmin hasn't updated the LT code to be able to use the OHR data yet. I don't know.
I do know that since I ditched the strap due to it malfunctioning that I haven't gotten a LT update despite meeting the criteria for one on multiple occasions, including a race last weekend and last night's workout, so the statement that Garmin makes about *needing* chest HR data to get a LT update appears correct. Further, the last LT update I *did* get was just before I ditched the strap and it claimed a ridiculously low HR for it (46!), which is blatant BeeEss.
Latest tracking data says the new HRM-RUN should be here Thursday, and I'll likely race this weekend which will definitely put me into the threshold area; the watch has already posted up a VO2Max from the OHR data since I hard reset it so the criteria should be met as soon as the new strap gets here and I get a good, hard run in.
Got the new strap, wore it around the house for a bit and went for a short run -- it is reading normally.
So it does indeed appear that the STRAP was the problem (and not the watch firmware.) I didn't go far and hard enough to get a lactate reading, but probably will this weekend as I have a race Saturday....
Prior to the double-counting problem becoming severe I also got several very wonky LT reads that were totally ridiculous, including one that claimed that my LT was at 46bpm! Everything else was fine. Then I stopped getting LT readouts entirely even though I was *definitely* meeting the requirements during a given race or activity to get an update, and a bit after that the HR data went totally whacko with the double-reading being an "all the time" sort of thing.
All this correlated with the 8.x watch firmware beta and then final, and so the most-likely cause appeared to be the firmware. Nope -- it was in fact the strap, as the new strap has visibly-correct HR data. The run I did yesterday wasn't hard and long enough to get a LT reading and I have a race this weekend, so I didn't want to do a guided test with that in a couple of days, but the race *should* be enough to give me one -- if it isn't I'm sure I'll get one next week during my training runs as my regular scheduled workouts include at least one a week that is hard and long enough to trigger the update when everything is working as it should.
Unfortunately the strap's electronic section cannot be disassembled (it appears to be ultrasonically welded together) as I'd be very interested in trying to figure out where the failure is. My suspicion is that perspiration and such is migrating inside it (the sealing is inadequate) over time and causing low-level shunts; the voltage sensing necessary for a heart rate monitor is very sensitive and small leakages would definitely screw it up.
I'll update if I get a proper LT reading from it over the next few days with the new strap; I do expect it will.
I did not get a lactate threshold this morning, and definitely ran hard and long enough to do so -- but the watch still says I have not yet put the required 7 days in (since I hard reset) to get training status. So it's entirely possible it just won't record it until sometime in the coming week (I'll have the 7 days of purgatory served on Monday.)
