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Garmin, Please Add Bag Weight & Elevation for Golf Training Load!

Hilikus
2 months ago
After a 4.5-hour golf round walking 12 km on a hilly course while carrying a 20 kg bag, my Garmin reports a low training load (~20 points) and suggests minimal recovery needs, yet I feel significantly fatigued. The heart rate-based metric seems to underrepresent the effort of carrying weight and navigating elevation changes, as discussed in similar threads about low-intensity activities. I propose Garmin add options to input bag weight, like in rucking, and factor in elevation changes for golf, to better reflect the physical demands and improve training load accuracy for courses with significant terrain challenges.

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  • 0 2 months ago

    Training load is primarily based on the heart rate. So if it does not go high enough during the activity, the fact whether you carry additional weight or not, won't matter. Either the additional weight pushes you to higher effort (and hence higher HR), and then it impacts the Training Load automatically, or you adjust your pace & effort to the added weight, with the HR staying about the same as without the weight, and then the Training Load remains as low as without the added weight.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to trux

    Yes I understand the logic behind, my argument is that there is something that doesn't comput. My heart rate was in zone 1 and 40% in zone 2, this during 5 hours walking. How can it be a load of 20 and therefore a recommendation that I don't need recovery and  that my training readiness is excelnte while feeling fatigue? That's what I'm suggesting for there is something that needs review in the algorithm. 

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to Hilikus
    Hilikus said:
    How can it be a load of 20 and therefore a recommendation that I don't need recovery and  that my training readiness is excelnte while feeling fatigue?

    This is the answer:

    Hilikus said:
    My heart rate was in zone 1 and 40% in zone 2

    Effort in Z1-Z2 won't cause much EPOC. Yes, Training Load is the equivalent of EPOC (from What Is the Training Load Feature on My Garmin® Device? | Garmin Customer Support: "Training load is the sum of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC measurements for the last 7 days."). Fatigue is not necessarily always correlating to EPOC.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to trux

    I'm curious to understand how this works, because I read the article and something doesn't add up. For reference, I played a round of golf for almost 5 hours, spend 28% of the time in zone1, 54% in zone 2 and 12% in zone 3 and got 20 a load of 20. With no significant recovery effect. Then went for a 31-minute run spent almost entirely in zone 2 and got a load of 64 points and recovery advice. And I can tell you that I felt significantly more fatigue with the 5 hours spend playing golf that the run. I really appreciate your advice and for jumping in this conversation, thank you!

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to Hilikus
    Hilikus said:
    And I can tell you that I felt significantly more fatigue with the 5 hours spend playing golf that the run.

    The watch does not measure (resp. cannot measure) your fatigue. That's pretty individual, depending on many factors, and not something that can be directly measured by the sensors of the watch. Training Load is the equivalent of EPOC - the estimation of increased oxygen consumption (higher metabolic rate) after the end of the activity. Although it is one of the factors causing the fatigue, it is not the only one.

    Hilikus said:
    I'm curious to understand how this works

    It is well explained in the above mentioned article, or also in the following video that is included in the article: