Heat Acclimation and Long Activities (Run/Walk/Hike)

I've noticed that about heat acclimation as well, it seems to be based on the temperature at the start of the activity, which is usually fine for short runs and such, but becomes problematic during longer activities. Garmin should probably revise their algorithm so that it pulls the latest temp data maybe every hour or something. Of course, that would only work if your phone has internet connectivity though.

Shaner41 said:

Also, I really wish long walks and hikes would help improve VO2Max and other performance stats. The long hike I did was fast - 4 miles per hour, give or take - with lots of hills - but it said it didn't really help my performance; it was "base." lol. 

And I wish watching TV would improve my vo2 max low heartrate activities don't do anything to improve your vo2 max, which is why your vo2 max stat on Garmin doesn't go up after doing low-HR activities.

Yes, good point about revising the algorithm.  When the Fenix does sync with a phone, the weather for the next 6 or 8 hours is available, so perhaps they should use that (though yes, weather changes).

Also, about low heart rate activities - my hike/walk was quite vigorous. My heart rate often got up to 140-150 when I climbed the hills with some speed. For example, nearly 3 hours of the hike was in Zone 3 or Zone 4 of my heart rate zones.  That for sure should help my VO2Max!  

While some activities do not change the estimated VO2max on the watch, EVERY activity has some effect on your body’s ability to consume oxygen during exercise and therefore positively affects your real VO2max. 

I’m not sure if VO2Max is calculated with hike or walk activities?  I know you can now enable it in Trail Run as the algorithm has been upgraded to account somewhat for trail conditions but it is still based measured on a fairly flat steady road run. Back in the early Fenix days it was, by lots of requests, removed from being calculated with anything but the Run Activity (things like snowshoe running, technical trails with bad footing etc would drop the value, sometimes by a large amount - winters would see my numbers drop by 10 or more as the algorithm could not account for how slower I ran on snowshoes despite a high effort. 

razmichael said:

I’m not sure if VO2Max is calculated with hike or walk activities?

My point is that irrespective of whether or not Garmin (or any other manufacturer) estimates a VO2max on the device, the body's ability to process oxygen is positively affected by activity.

Whether the effect is big or small depends largely on the fitness status of the individual. A person who has been active for many years will see slight fluctuations whereas less fit people are likely to see greater fluctuations in REAL VO2max. The watch is not measuring VO2max it is providing an estimate from an algorithm derived from research.

I wasn’t countering your points- I agree with them completely. The OP was wishing he saw more impact in his VO2Max from his hike as shown by Garmin and I was pointing out that I don’t think that activity type will impact VO2Max within Garmin - not whether it will or will not actually impact it. 

If you improve your body's vo2 max by doing activities such as hiking or walking, it will be reflected on the watch the next time you record an activity that does calculate vo2 max.

Shaner41 said:

All that to say: I believe the heat acclimation only gathers weather data from the beginning of the activity, not throughout the whole thing. Comments?

Record you long hikes as a multi-sport activity - each time the temperature on the Weather widget changes significantly, press the GPS button, select Change Sport and select the same activity again (regardless whether Walk, Hike, or Run). In this way, the activity will still be recorded in a single file, but each sub-part separately, and with its own starting temperature.

That's cool. I'll pay attention to that after my next run. Thanks!

That's a helpful tip. Thanks for that! The bad thing is I often go for longer activities without my phone so I can't really update it via the Garmin Connect app.  Oh well, not a major issue. Maybe they'll fix this in a future update.