Fenix 6 pro Trailrun Activity with 14.72 Beta

Deepflash said:

If people want V02max for TrailRun then they can use normal running activity.

Which is what I've always done as I believe all activity affects VO2max. However, some people have chosen to use Trail Run activity in a belief that a VO2max not estimated will not affect their overall VO2max.

Deepflash said:

Running in mud or other bad terrain or running uphill/Downhill will always result in higher effort which has a negative impact on vo2max.

Not necessarily as effort can be adjusted too remain the same while the pace will vary. I know when running down technical descents that my heart rate usually endsup lower as I might have to slow down to avoid falling over. Conversely, when going up hill I try to maintain the same level of RPE as I would on the flat even though my muscles might be screaming because of the incline.

Deepflash said:

it should be in the changelog,

Can't argue with that but Garmin, like most other companies, do not always include all changes in a change log.

It is pretty simple: garmin doesnt know the state of the track - if it is dry or muddy or stony - therefor vo2max calculation will not be correct

Deepflash said:

therefor vo2max calculation will not be correct

Garmin do not need to know the condition of the trail anymore than they need to know the road conditions as estimating VO2max from an algorithm will be indirectly affected by the conditions of the trail or road; heart rate and pace will change according to the conditions. It's hard to say whether it's correct or not as the conditions are so variable, which is why Garmin likely chose not to include the measure for trail running initially. However, in response to some who wanted it, they have included it probably adding some degree of weighting to allow for the nature of trail running.

It's entirely up to you whether or not you use the trail run activity to get a separate VO2max. Bear in mind though that the calculation for VO2max for a trail run might well be different to that for a road run. 

Arguably, Garmin have developed the VO2max estimations so that you get a more complete measure using the two separate activities as opposed to just using the Run activity.

As usual when Garmin add a feature some are happy others are not.

philipshambrook said:

Garmin do not need to know the condition of the trail anymore than they need to know the road conditions as estimating VO2max from an algorithm will be indirectly affected by the conditions of the trail or road; heart rate and pace will change according to the conditions.

Vo2max estimation for road running works on the assumption that you run on a hard flat surface. If the road is slippery, sticky, or otherwise makes running harder, then all this falls apart, and the vo2max calculation will be wrong.

philipshambrook said:

heart rate and pace will change according to the conditions.

Yes they will. But the watch has no way of knowing why you run slower with a higher heart rate. Is it because the surface makes it harder? Or is it because your fitness decreased? Thus, any vo2max calculation on uneven surface will be skewed, and suppressing it for trail running makes sense.

There it is !!! Thanks for pointing this out. I didn't even think of checking in the activity settings.
I guess Garmin simply wants to let it up to the user if VO2max should be registered or not...

Well done Garmin. Best way of making everyone happy I guess !
Strange they didn't mention it as it is clearly a new feature.

Not even listed in the beta release notes.

Good find WALLKOM!! 

The truth is that one of my biggest complaints with garmin is that in trail running, it did not give the VO2max or update the training status, now, it is a good step.

Yes, it is curious, it is an important change, that I did not even mention it, but it may not work as they want, and they will remove it again, as they did with the sleep widget on the forerunne 745.

WALLKOM said:

but it may not work as they want, and they will remove it again

For that beta fws are released. If they see, that it didnt work as expected, they remove it in the final fw.