HOW is hill strength calculated?

I did this text the next day my Enduro 2. And it worked the way  as you surmised.

Thanks for confirming this!

using a fake weight for Stryd

Speaking of Stryd and weight, Stryd support says you should never change your weight on your Stryd (even if your weight changes irl), as Stryd internally calculates absolute power - not normalized by weight - but due to the ANT+ power specification, it's required to transmit power normalized by weight. So if you change your weight, you mess up your historical data, as the Stryd app doesn't track weight changes over time. At least that was my understanding the last time I checked, which tbf was a long time ago

Note: ...

Yeah, the forums have been messed up for over a week. Classic Garmin. If they want to discourage us from using the forums at all, mission accomplished. Even at the forums' best, they're slow, buggy, and bad on mobile. But constantly displaying errors when ppl post ( ) and ?, just to name a couple of examples? Why would anyone want to stay here?

Yep, but I did not mention so I do it now  that this fake weight was exactly 100 kg which I had been using for a long while. 

So I did not have to mess it up although the weight  in Stryd app to get the closest watts would have been 103-104 kg vs the real 77 kg logged in GC.

I just hadn't thought about the possibility of my stryd throwing this metric.

That's fair but again, the presence or absence of Stryd power in and of itself should not affect your Garmin metrics, as Garmin will ignore it no matter what. The presence or absence of Garmin built-in running power may have an effect though. And I assume that results could vary depending on whether you obtain Garmin power from the wrist or from a Garmin accessory.

I just wanted to clear up the oft-repeated misconception that Garmin will use a 3rd party accessory like Stryd for Garmin running power. Again, I'm pretty sure it can't and won't.

As a matter of fact, somebody reported a change in the latest beta software (for Fenix 7, I think) that breaks certain Connect IQ data field apps (other than Stryd Zones) which are supposed to display Stryd power in running activities.

The way these apps work is you're supposed to pair your Stryd as a (cycling) power meter, and the CIQ data field will display your Stryd power in a running activity, which isn't possible via a built-in Garmin data field. This only worked because the power value provided by the CIQ API was always cycling power, and never running power, so this was kind of a loophole to allow Stryd power to be easily displayed in a CIQ data field for a running activity.

This loophole has now been closed, since the power value in the CIQ API apparently now reflects built-in running power for running activities, which means it no longer displays "cycling power" - actually Stryd power - as intended by the app devs.

Now the only way for a CIQ app to display Stryd power is to directly connect to the Stryd sensor and read power from the sensor itself. In this case, the user does not have to pair Stryd as a power meter, but they may have to enter the ANT+ ID in the app settings. Some CIQ apps that are supposed to support Stryd can do this - obviously the Stryd Zones field does it - but some can't.

This is further proof that Garmin doesn't support 3rd-party running power. Even DCR mentioned that Garmin doesn't support 3rd-party running power, due to lack of a running power standard iirc. And again, I think this makes a lot of sense, given that various vendors use different definitions of running power and different algorithms to calculate it.

So if anything, I would test the following 3 scenarios:

- built-in running power disabled

- built-in running power enabled, wrist only

- built-in running power enabled, accessory only (with Garmin accessory, assuming you have one that supports running power)

Sure, you could test with Stryd, but I don't think it will make a difference - I think it will only muddy the waters. You could always try the test I suggested, to confirm (or disprove) what I said about Garmin not using 3rd-party power.

Also, I personally disable built-in Garmin running power because I do use Stryd, and I don't want sites such as Strava to receive activity files with both Garmin power and Stryd power, because they'll prioritize Garmin power over 3rd party power, defeating the purpose of using Stryd in the first place. The irony is I don't rly train with power - I got my Stryd for free bc I developed a CIQ app for it. I basically use it as a fancy footpod which is supposed to be pretty accurate for indoor treadmill runs. But it's kinda interesting to look at the power data every now and then.

Endurance Score | 5337
Hill Score | 78
Hill Endurance | 85
Hill Strength | 33
VO2Max | 50

Trail runner here, age 55, Fenix 7X SS. I do most of my running on the trails (rarely road), no mountains, trails with short steep climbs each climb no higher than 80m of elev gain. As part of my training for my 100K races, I include hill repeats on a 1km hill with a 120m vert and also hill sprints on a shorter hill. So these are my numbers where Garmin scores a low/moderate Hill Strength. I struggle to get these numbers up because I don't road run enough ... according to the manual, it appears scores have a road running bias vs trail running. 

From Fenix 7 manual, "Your hill score helps you understand your current capacity for uphill running based on your training history and VO2 max. estimate. Your watch detects uphill segments with 2% grade or more during an outdoor running activity. You can view your hill endurance, hill strength, and changes to your hill score over time."

I have VO2max turned off for trail running, I'm at a disadvantage when it comes to VO2max which stays. The two concrete hills I train on are recorded using the Run activity (Vo2max enabled).

Endurance Score | 5337
Hill Score | 78
Hill Endurance | 85
Hill Strength | 33
VO2Max | 50

Trail runner here, age 55, Fenix 7X SS. I do most of my running on the trails (rarely road), no mountains, trails with short steep climbs each climb no higher than 80m of elev gain. As part of my training for my 100K races, I include hill repeats on a 1km hill with a 120m vert and also hill sprints on a shorter hill. So these are my numbers where Garmin scores a low/moderate Hill Strength. I struggle to get these numbers up because I don't road run enough ... according to the manual, it appears scores have a road running bias vs trail running. 

From Fenix 7 manual, "Your hill score helps you understand your current capacity for uphill running based on your training history and VO2 max. estimate. Your watch detects uphill segments with 2% grade or more during an outdoor running activity. You can view your hill endurance, hill strength, and changes to your hill score over time."

I have VO2max turned off for trail running, I'm at a disadvantage when it comes to VO2max which stays. The two concrete hills I train on are recorded using the Run activity (Vo2max enabled).

Well I got out on Sat and ...   oh boy!

I had my stryd attached to my shoe, but I'd gone to settings and turned off that connection.

I then had the wrist power enabled.

When I ran I found power numbers appering in the stryd data field. Sure enough when back home and staring at the data I found the watch had indeed connected to the shoe even though I had explicitly told it not to connect.

Another bug!

Do you have also the Auto-Detection option disabled, in Sensors & Accessories?

Perhaps you had had a double pairing via both BT and ANT+