I am a 59yr old male who has had a F5x since April 2017. I can run 10k in c1hr and have been running for approximately 9 years. Along with the training status dropping/decreasing for the last few weeks (despite maintaining my usual weekly routine) this week I have noticed that "Training effect" is also looking a bit skewed. On Monday I ran 7.5k with 4 Vo2 max intervals included and apparently gained 0.1 aerobic benefit, on Wednesday I ran a 10k which includes 3 bridges and gained 0 anaerobic benefit. This morning I ran a very flat 5k Parkrun in a very average time and apparently gained anaerobic benefit of 2.6??? Something isn't quite right but I don't know if its my unit/profile (all HR zones are as was) or whether its something at Garmins end.
Join the club of frustrated Garmin runners! I'm also a M59 runner who has competed for regularly for the past 9 years. I'm using the 645M. I will do training runs - intervals, tempo runs - that I know are increasing my fitness based on performance adn history, and likewise get "Maintaining" or "Unproductive" status for the workout. And in contrast, I can go for an hour run at my easy pace and get "Productive".
I'm not at all convinced that this feature is accurate. In my experience it overvalues distance or time, and undervalues speed drills. Might be OK for the marathoner, appears much less so for the 10K and under racer.
Rickj, One of the things with the recent series of firmware updates is that there is a tendency for the watch to import incorrect HR zones and/or zone calculation method from GC and GCM. This can affect how the TE algorithms interpret the raw HR data. LTHR in particular can go weird, even if you don't use this method, so it's worth double checking this.
I definitely recommend triple checking those zones on the device. They go wonky every time I update the firmware on my F5.
There are tooltips on the HR zone chart against your activity in Garmin Connect so you can easily see if they are the same as previous activities. Other than that, post a link to your parkrun as you should not get anaerobic benefit from an 'average' 5k, which I interpret to mean 'easy'.
You said that the 5k was 'average'. You say you have configured MaxHR at 167. In this run you achieved a MaxHR of 167. This is therefore a maximum effort run. Time In Zones indicate a Max effort run.
The HR for the first half of the run looks very high, but I don't know why. The course is flat and my pace was very steady as I ran with a friend who is a little slower than me. I haven't set the max HR at 167 I think that has been changed by Connect, I always use the 220 minus my age calculation which would give 161. I wonder if that has had an impact on the Anaerobic TE scores. I ran exactly the same course one week earlier in a time 14 secs quicker but only got a TE of 0.7.
I have never tried Wythenshawe, Platt Fields is my closest. Perhaps I will come down as a tourist sometime.
The HR graphs between the two activities have a different feel. I suspect that one was off Wrist HR but the other off a strap? Also, on the most recent, there are wild pace spikes, which I presume are down to Stryd disconnects/problems. If I get any device disconnect during a recorded it usually manifests some wierdness.
I recommend you complete a Max HR test. Something like; warm up 5 mins, rest 1 min, run regular pace 10min, rest 1min, run fast 3 min, rest 1 min, run very fast two minute then 1 min total max speed. You should feel gravely ill at the end. Arrange for an ambulance to be ready. The Max HR recorded during this activity should be entered as you current MaxHR in Garmin Connect.
