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Load Focus // Training Load Balance Video

HermanB
over 4 years ago

Hi everybody, 

Thought I'd share this short video we put up today about the Load Focus data screen on the F6 and FR945 and MARQ collection watches. 

Happy to hear any feedback from your end or answer any questions. https://youtu.be/He462cAn0Uo



P.S. That's my voice on the recording, so be kind. ;-)

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I do not believe these metrics at all.
    Good example is my last marathon, I just did my PB 2:49 and right after the marathon the watch predicts to me 2:59.
    Thanks! 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Leivo

    Race Predictor doesn't use historical race times. It only uses your fitness metrics. It would be pretty useless if all it did was tell you what your last marathon time was. It merely estimates what your body should be able to do, which is far more useful for most people, considering it may have been quite some time since someone's last marathon, if they've ever even run a marathon before.

    The fact that its estimate for your marathon time was only off by 10 minutes (6%) is actually pretty astounding, considering it disregards your actual race time and was only using your fitness metrics to create the estimate. In all likelihood, the Race Predictor was actually dead-on accurate, but you beat the time by 10 minutes because you pushed yourself harder than you did during prior training, as evidenced by your setting a new personal record.

    Nice marathon time by the way

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Hello Herman and thanks for sharing !

    I really like these new metrics and at the same time I fine them a bit annoying when an easy, smooth run gets registered as "tempo" benefit or a hard 10x200m intervals run also is registered as tempo, and just because I have gone a bit over my zone 1 on some of the recovery reps... I find it quite hard to stay in the exact relevant HR zone (and I've been playing with HR zones setup) and most of the time only mid-intensity runs are identified correctly... Confused

  • 0 over 4 years ago
    HermanB said:
    Happy to hear any feedback from your end or answer any questions.

    questions I have :

    1) What zone should we try to stay in when trying to work "tempo" sessions ? zone 2 or zone 3 ? Firstbeat tutorial page mentions marathon pace (which is zone 3 if I'm correct)

    2) Most of my zone 2 workouts are labelled as tempo while I do my best to keep it as base training (I have a rather high HR when running, confirmed in VO2max lab test). Could it be because my zone 2 is set too high compared to my maximum HR ?

    3) In the opposite, sometimes I do intervals (10 x 200m) which are recorded as tempo, I assume if recovery HR does not go down enough. Can you give some advice on getting a correct reading ? Is it better to wait for the HR to drop down to Z1 ?

    Thanks ! Slight smile

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to drkglb

    Apologies for posting and ghosting, folks. I put this up just as I was heading out to CES and a short post-CES vacation road trip across the desert up to the Pacific NW. 

    To your point, I've had some of the same issues, myself, with interval type activities getting picked up and labeled as Tempo workouts. That said, in my experience, those workouts do get added in a sensible way to the Training Load Balance / Load Focus data - so that seems to be working as expected.

    It can be rather difficult over the course of a longer, say, 40+ minute run to stay precisely where you want to be on the intensity of effort - and as a result it's pretty easy to slip between triggering Tempo and Threshold labels. As time passes, it's very normal to speed up a bit, course can play a role in disguising your level of effort... and obviously cardio drift comes into play at some point... which is why folks with a very solid sense of steady pace can struggle to be as sensitive to creeping up in intensity also. 

    Personally, I chalk it up to something to improve on, but it's also not something that I overly stress about. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to HermanB

    Hello Herman,

    thanks for the update :) 
    you are correct that Intervals - even when detected as tempo - seem to increment into the anaerobic training, at least for the part spent in Zone 5 (anaerobic, above lactic threshold).

    I may be wrong but it looks like the algorithm for "main training benefits" relies on the %of max HR value, more than on the customized zones setup. Also, when doing interval training, it considers warm up and recovery (at the end) as part of the workout so benefit seems more accurate if you "split" workouts in 3 activities : warm up, exercise, recovery. it would be great if the algorith could just "skip" the first and last 15 minutes or so...

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to drkglb

    Often the HRM (either chest or optical) is wildly inaccurate for the first 5-10 minutes, so I think it is always a good idea to at least consider discarding the warmup.  For example, if I wear a silk shirt and chest band, I it will show 2X heart rate until I sweat enough to moisten the shirt regardless of if I wet the HRM before wearing.  It is pretty annoying to see -7 on the performance indicator when I haven't even started running yet.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Great feature but seems primarily geared for runners