Fenix5, Not productive even though PR and good Race

Training status is basically only going to look at 2 factors; Load and Vo2Max. If the watch thinks your Vo2Max is dropping, then generally you are going to be unproductive.

Potentially it overstated your Vo2Max value to start and is correcting. Give it time. Clearly you are in better shape as your race results show. Once it stabilizes it suspect it will be more useful. My running vo2max has been dropping a bit lately. Then again it is summer and heat plays a role here. The watch doesn't seem to cut me any slack for that.

I have used the watch together with powerneter since April, and think about 60hours of training. It should have been dialed in by now.
I get the point that a form-level come and goes, but the thing I don't like is that the watch automatically gives me a bad measure if the training isn't all-in.

For example, when running, no matter if you go hard or easy, it calculates with your HR at given tempo and get that, "Oh, you just took a nice spin in the sunset, but still in good shape".

With MTB and powermeter, I must start att 100% and keep it there because the reading comes after approx 10min, when the warmup should have been.

I have used my M.RHR to see how well I recover. But I think that'sa little of to.

Training status is basically only going to look at 2 factors; Load and Vo2Max. If the watch thinks your Vo2Max is dropping, then generally you are going to be unproductive.

Potentially it overstated your Vo2Max value to start and is correcting. Give it time. Clearly you are in better shape as your race results show. Once it stabilizes it suspect it will be more useful. My running vo2max has been dropping a bit lately. Then again it is summer and heat plays a role here. The watch doesn't seem to cut me any slack for that.

Same here. I think it's definitely not taking into account the weather here in the UK being unseasonably nice!

Training Status compares changes in VO2Max with changes in Training Load, and makes an educated guess as to what is going on. I agree with nmyeti that if your VO2Max is dropping, the training status will generally report Unproductive.

VO2Max itself compares heart rate to power output. As such, factors that increase heart rate (illness, fatigue, high temperatures) will lead to a lower reported VO2Max regardless of fitness. Given the time of year (northern summer), and that it doesn't show up in resting heart rate, my prime suspect would be temperatures. Perhaps riding in the cool of the morning could remove this factor?

The first place to look in terms of analyzing VO2Max is the Performance Condition chart in GC or GCM. This chart should generally show a few minutes of zero while it gathers enough data, then a positive figure that will slowly decline as fatigue accumulates over the ride. If you record 2 or 3 entirely positive charts in a row (or a single very large positive) you can expect to see an increase in VO2Max, and a drop in VO2Max if you consistently show negative PC numbers.

The fatigue means that you may well record negative numbers during long rides, even if they end up improving your fitness long term.

I think it really helps to think about your training program as a whole. A well designed training program might consist of a block of 3 weeks of progressively increasing training load, followed by a week of recovery, before starting on the next 3+1 block of training. You could well expect to see "Maintaining" in the first week as load increases, possibly even switching to "Unproductive" in week 3 as fatigue accumulates from heavy training load and measured performance decreases. As you de-load during the recovery week,you might see "Recovering", then "Peaking" as the body gets the opportunity to adapt to the earlier high training load. And only until load increases again during week 1 of the next block will you see a "Productive" Training Status. So despite rarely seeing a "Productive" status over the 4 weeks, the overall effect has been strongly positive in terms of fitness.

Regarding your comments about warm-up, your heart rate intensity matters here. I can do a 1 hour recovery ride entirely in HR zone 1 and not generate a PC number, but 2 minutes of HR zone 2 after an identical zone 1 warm up will generate a PC number.