Training Readiness too Sensitive lately?/

Very interested in this as well. I'm not as active as you - but I feel like my recovery needs are overstated as well. VO2Max 54, run twice a week. 

You are overtraining, as the Recovery indicates. If you are sleeping well, that could account for why your RHR is still low. Take couple of days off and it will climb back to Good or better. The Green shaded area is just responding to the amount of training you're doing, so the fact you are at the lower end of it is probably not relevant.

As you probably know, the recovery time is based on the Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. EPOC results from exercise and diminishes as you rest.

EPOC is estimated during the workout (although it is a phenomenom that happens in fact after the exercise), based on the relationship between the physiological cost of the exercise (determine by HR and HRV as a respiration proxy) and the work produced (pace or power).

It is possible that EPOC is not estimated right if you don't have a correct resting HR, VO2 Max estimate, and/or HR Max number on the watch.

If these estimates are solid, an anaerobic effort should feel like you cannot sustain it for more than 30-45s, a VO2 Max for more than 3-4mn, and a threshold effort for more than  30-45mn.

In this case, you should trust the recovery estimate and not let it become red.

Keep in mind that your watch can be vastly underestimating the EPOC stemming from strength training (which is anaerobic in nature, but won't be picked up by the aerobic measurements). So if you do serious strength training, your recovery time is probably even higher than the watch says. 

Thanks.  I'll dial it back for a couple of days.

Let us know how quickly it rebounds. The following determine training readiness, so something may stick out.

"Your training readiness is a score and a short message that helps you determine how ready you are for training each day. The score is continuously calculated and updated throughout the day using these factors:

• Sleep score (last night)

• Recovery time

• HRV status

• Acute load

• Sleep history (last 3 nights)

• Stress history (last 3 days)"

  www8.garmin.com/.../GUID-C21BE0C8-A08E-4DA1-B6C6-2E0E2DDDB372.html

The training readiness widget offers more insight into the factors making up your readiness score. Although in this case, I would think that the recovery time estimate of 57 hours is a major contributor.

Yup, a massive amount of Recovery Time will put you into POOR. OP can count himself lucky that it's so close to LOW.

Another thing: Training Readiness =/= Performance Readiness. 

Training readiness versus performance readiness

It is worth wondering. Are training readiness and performance readiness the same thing? Does your training readiness score the morning of a big race predict (or worse, determine) how well you will do? Does a less than prime readiness score mean it is time to scuttle your pacing strategy and lower your expectations?

There will be times when you may notice a link between training readiness and performance, but strictly speaking the training readiness analysis is not designed to predict performance. Many athletes report sleeping poorly the night before a big event and go on to achieve impressive results and set personal bests. Stress levels can also increase due to the anticipation and excitement of your big day.

Training readiness focuses on relationships between elements of strain, stress, recovery, good sleep hygiene and your ability to maintain homeostatic balance. Guidance is geared towards laying the groundwork for success, getting the most out of your workouts and improving performance abilities over time.

Race-day performance is about executing and putting those abilities to work.

Source: Training Readiness Support Article 

All good.  It's climbing...slowly this morning I'm at a training readiness of 49.  What was funny for me was my morning report. My daily suggestion told me that I should do an anaerobic workout  (54 mins consisting of 15 warm up, and 8 x 1m @4.25/km...I don't think I could sprint that fast... with a 7 min recovery.)   It seems like the suggestion side is a little out of touch to what the training readiness is telling me, but I will still follow the watches rest recommendations not the suggested daily workout.  Thx.

jmio316 said:

8 x 1m @4.25/km...I don't think I could sprint that fast

That tells me that your VO2 Max model is off. For some reason, the watch is calculating that the maximum speed you can maintain for 1mn is 4.25mn/km. It does this by extrapolating the recorded data, assuming a known linear (for aerobic) and non-linear (for anaerobic) relationship between ventilation/VO2 and pace. Of course the watch doesn't measure gas exchange, so it estimates VO2 using the HR and HRV data from the sensor.

You could have some wrong data form the past. The most common is wrong HR information because the wrist HR was used and seriously off, or even with a chest strap, the strap was dry and didn't record HR properly. This will go away with time as correct data replaces older data.

You could have the wrong HR Max. People who leave the HR Max auto-detection on are exposing themselves to the risk of spurrious data from the sensor setting the wrong HR Max. You are better off setting auto-detection to off, use a chest strap and do an HR Max field test, with the blessing of your doctor.

Once the HR Max is setting up correctly, make sure you keep a balanced workout load. This will feed the right VO2/pace data to the watch and make the VO2 Max estimation more accurate. A couple of weeks should do.

With regards to the daily suggestions, Garmin has not published exactly how they are computed. My experience is these suggestions are trying to optimize the acute load with the optimal range, and balance the load focus primarily. It is possible that recovery time is a factor, but I am not sure (acute load could be enough). I am pretty sure the training readiness score is not a factor per se. It will be up to you to dismiss suggestions that don't fit your calculated or perceived readiness.

My guess is that, since you are recovering, your acute load is dropping creating an opportunity to load on anaerobic (although from your pictures above, it doesn't look like there is an urgent need there).