Activities with weights and electric bike

Last week I Have been :

- running 10 km with 6 kg weights in my backpack. My 5x said my vo2 was down from 55 to 53.

- biked 40 km on my electric bike. Activity was set to Cycling.

How accurat is the measurement of efforts, calories etc? If the algorithm mainly use a mix of time and pulse it can be ok. If the algorithm take weight or speed into account I suppose it is wrong.

On my Garmin 235 there was an activity called Other that I used for this kind of strange activity, but I can’t find that on my 5x.

I have tried to find answers but failed.

Anyone one with any thoughts?

0 dpegeorge over 7 years ago

If you mean that there is no 'Other' listed under activities on your Garmin Connect you are correct.

There is an 'Other' as an activity app on your watch, which I use when I'm Gardening, or working on the house.
It has a purple icon with 3 dots within it.

I normally use steps and change it to 'other' later.
It would be useful to have 'other' listed on Garmin Connect.

0 mcalista over 7 years ago

Calorie calculation and intensity uses primarily HR data, and cycling power data if available.

However, HR data is calibrated using VO2Max figures as a measure of your fitness, and a weighted backpack will lead to inaccurate measurement of VO2Max, and distort future calorie calculation. Logging such runs as a "Trail Run" will keep your VO2Max unaffected and avoid such distortions.

Cycling uses HR and cycling power data if available. It doesn't use speed (too many variables like wind, road surface, bike aerodynamics, etc - and in your case, e-bikes).