• State Suggested Answer
  • Replies 17 replies
  • Answers 1 answer
  • Subscribers 3 subscribers
  • Views 5576 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

Intensity minutes not adding up from activities ?

Former Member
Former Member over 4 years ago

I'm doing quite daily a mountain bike routine covering all heart rate zone, in particular in zone 3 and 4. I record it as an activity. Heart rate zone are a % of my max heart rate.

Since last week the intensity minutes do no longer add up, or only sometimes, in the connect app or web app after synchronizing my watch. But time in zones seems correctly appearing per activity when displayed... why not added ...

Is there any recent change in software that carries a bug ?

Also, connect app on web says "Heart Rate Zones: You can have greater control over how intensity minutes are calculated by adjusting which heart rate zones (1-5) are considered moderate or vigorous intensity." but there seems to be absolutely no menu point on Instinct which would allow this. What is vigorous remains undescribed (I guess zone 4 and 5 ?).

Does anybody know how to influence / correct ?

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to trux

    Thanks again, trux. I checked out the available memory space, plenty free, so no worries there.

    In the meantime, the problem has partly vanished as IM are restarting to appear for my daily bike activity of approx 60 min.  I confirm - as you say - that other factors than %of Max Heart Rate are taken into account by the algorithm : based on the time spent in zones there is no possible addition that explains my current sum of minutes.

    Personal conclusion: while the HR precision seems OK for me except when riding rough downhill, I find this algorithm of Intensity Minutes overdesigned if it cannot be sensibly used without constant wearing of the watch. INSTINCT documentation could be less misleading as well.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member
    I find this algorithm of Intensity Minutes overdesigned if it cannot be sensibly used without constant wearing of the watch. INSTINCT documentation could be less misleading as well

    How is the documentation misleading?  It's clearly written in the owner's manual.  Here's a PDF download link from Garmin if you don't have it. Page 5 under 'earning intensity minutes'. 

    www.google.com/url

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to tess
    tess said:

    How is the documentation misleading?  It's clearly written in the owner's manual.  Here's a PDF download link from Garmin if you don't have it. Page 5 under 'earning intensity minutes'. 

    www.google.com/url

    Absolutely right!

    I was confused by Intensity Minutes when I first started paying attention to them (years ago).  Here's the part of what is in the manual that I did not fully appreciate:

    • Exercise for at least 10 consecutive minutes at a moderate or vigorous intensity level.

    I would exercise for a much longer total time than 10 minutes, but found myself unable to accumulate the amount of Intensity Minutes I thought I should have earned.

    In my case, I eventually determined that if there is ANY lack of continuity in the Heart Rate data, the "counter" goes back to zero minutes and the required 10 minute "clock" starts all over again.  The specific root cause of my problem was sporadic dropouts in HR data when using the HRM3-SS chest monitor - replaced the battery and washed the strap and, as they say, voila!  No more dropouts and all the IM that I thought I earned were indeed recorded.

    If Former Member is relying on the built-in wrist HRM, I can easily imagine a scenario - especially in a bike activity where the wrist is bent and/or flexing - where there are sporadic HR data dropouts which result in "lost" Intensity Minutes.

    HTH

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to gaijin

    When Intensity Minutes were first introduced on Garmin's watches I had a similar issue.  I do a lot of HIIT circuit drills where my HR was easily in zone 4 or 5.  I wasn't getting any IM's either because my sets didn't exceed 10 minutes before I'd rest and continue to the next set.  These workouts usually lasted 30 mins. I looked at the manual again and said, "ah, consecutive minutes".  So, the information is there and easily miss if not paying attention, but that's on me and not because the information was misleading.  

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to tess
    tess said:
    How is the documentation misleading?

    I call documentation the whole info available, that is the owner's manual and explanations/help functions in the connect apps on phone and web, quite contradicting in combination (I guess to cover a lots of product lines). As a newbee you easily understand that is a lot about vigourous and moderate training intensity and directly linked to the time spent in these states; terms which come back only and always in connection with heart rate zones; again which definition is possible to obtain by %of max HR rate only. The exact link between both remains unexplained in what I could find.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to gaijin
    gaijin said:
    I can easily imagine a scenario - especially in a bike activity where the wrist is bent and/or flexing - where there are sporadic HR data dropouts which result in "lost" Intensity Minutes

    That sounds very plausible to me - need to test with a chest monitor but that's the hassle I wanted to avoid in the first place :-)


  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member
    overdesigned if it cannot be sensibly used without constant wearing of the watch.

    The remedy seems to be

     I've noticed that the Average Resting HR parameter of the watch (via Settings > User Profile > Heart Rate >Resting HR) was not set at all, there is a choice between average measured (which I now have selected) and freely set value (which would be the option of choice if you prefer wearing the watch only for activities?). If it makes any difference I will keep you posted.