Exercise Load Weirdness

Are you wearing a chest HRM for your runs, but relying on the built-in wrist HRM during your hikes?

Hey gaijin,

Using my HRM Pro for both the runs and the hiking.

Thanks,

arockclimber

There’s a difference between physical effects and physiological effects. Garmin only track the latter. So, although you might have felt more physically tired in your muscles etc the physiological data tells a different story. The physical effects of the hike would be reflected in the physiological data of the runs as you would be using tired muscles to do the work required. Tired muscles require more effort. 

Hey Philip,

I understand how my perceived level of effort during my workout and physical soreness/tiredness post workout aren't necessarily tied to my physiologic performance data during the effort.

I've been training all summer for a trip out West that I just came back from, but the data has been consistent for almost 6 months now.

I'm just skeptical when I go out and do all day 10-20 miles Zone 2 rucks with 6000-8000 elevation gain (with a pack on and burning 3-4K calories) which leave me a little wrecked/needing days of recovery...but get exercise loads/training loads of 20-30 and 6-8 hours of recovery from the software? 

Then (after adequate recovery) I go on a short/much easier 30-60 minute run or bike ride (burning 500 calories) that includes some Z4-5 and the exercise load is 100 plus and the software tells me I need many days to recover - when I feel like I could go out and do the same workout tomorrow?

I'm just wondering if it's a bug/flaw in the algorithm, or maybe my cardiovascular system become so adapted to the Zone 2 work (due to my training focus on it the past few years) that I'm fooling the software with my consistently low HR/RR during low intensity work?

But according to what I've read, Garmin bases EL and training load off EPOC and HR variation as well, so you'd think I couldn't "fool" the software with my focus on Z2 training?

I'm no expert in these subjects, but the data and patterns I'm seeing just don't "seem" right?

Thanks,

arockclimber

arockclimber said:

I'm just wondering if it's a bug/flaw in the algorithm, or maybe my cardiovascular system become so adapted to the Zone 2 work (due to my training focus on it the past few years) that I'm fooling the software with my consistently low HR/RR during low intensity work

I’d suggest this is indeed part of the issue along with the algorithms. It’s hard for any formulas to embrace all the different modes and combinations of activity. And as I said there’s a difference between how we feel physically and how our body reports physiologically.There’s obviously a clear difference between the physical impacts of your hiking with heavy packs and running fast with nothing. Similarly the physiological impacts will be different too. It’s complicated and one of the reasons why the metrics should be used for guidance and not for strict observance. I understand this doesn’t do much to explain the difference but as you note it’s very complicated.

What version do you have? Have you updated to beta recently? As per changelog in beta v9.28, there is this "defect" fixed:

>Fixed issue where recovery time would show "hours" instead of "days."<

forums.garmin.com/.../beta-version-9-28

Hey 8641006,

Software is up to date, but I'm not using the beta program.  

This might explain the short recovery times for my big rucks, but doesn't seem to explain the exercise/training load issue?

Maybe I'll try the beta program and see if that has any effect on the data.

Thanks,

arockclimber