Garmin HR zones are off, intervals.icu HR zones seem to be correct

iJustRide
3 days ago

52 yrs old, max HR is 175. Lactate Threshold is 161.  I use the %LTHR method for HR zones.  I let Garmin auto detect max HR and Lactate Threshold.

I did a "zone 2" ride based on my zone 2 power. My FTP is auto detected by Garmin also.  The power zones seem to be correct.  The ride felt super easy with sweating, but I could hold conversations, sing, dance, etc while on the trainer.  Garmin shows my time in zones as mostly zone 3 HR. I believe the zones are incorrect.  Is there a way to switch to 7 HR zones using only the 1040? I have reset the HR zones multiple times but the numbers don't match what I am feeling when I go for rides.

Garmin time in zones (the ride was not intense):

Intervals.icu time in zones (this 'feels' correct):

Thanks,

  • 0 2 days ago

    A little more info to add to this mystery.  I set the zones to match the intervals.icu zones as best I could match 5 zones to 7 zones.  Average power for the ride was 161W and average HR for the ride was 123bpm.  Max HR for the ride is 139bpm.

    Zone Edge Setting
    1 <81%
    2 81% - 89%
    3 90%-93% (I think this is a very small range, but let's use it for now)
    4 94% - 105%
    5 >105%

    So I do another quick Z2 ride with 5 minutes for warmup and cooldown while 1hr and 10 minutes are in Z2 power.  The Edge 1040 used HR zones 0.1 - 0.9 for most of the ride up to 128bpm.  HR Zone 1 had only 1 bpm assigned, 129bpm. The 130bpm - 144bpm for HR zone 2 was acceptable although I need to adjust it to make 131bpm the low number for HR zone 2.  When I view the ride in GC Web, it looks as if my heart worked for only about 26 minutes. 27% of the ride was in HR zone 2 and 5% of the ride was in HR zone 1.  What happened to the other 68% of my heart's work?  Is there any way to fix the HR zones?  Why does <81% turn into only 1 bpm for HR zone 1 (129bpm) and anything under 129bpm assigned 0.1-0.9 for HR zone? 

    Oh, and after the ride, the HR zones on the Edge went back to the wacky values from the original post.  What happened???

    Thanks,

  • 0 2 days ago in reply to iJustRide

    I recall from long ago that the HR zones should be set using GC web or the GC mobile app as they will override what has been set on the device when syncing, so try using one of those methods to set your HR zone values.

  • 0 2 days ago in reply to PeterK_55

    Thanks for that reply.  I set the zones via the app and they reverted back again after a ride.  Here's my next try.  Set the zones via the app using BPM (not % LTHR, %HRR, or MaxHR).  I am also disabling the automatic MaxHR detection and the max LTHR detection.  Unfortunately, the web does nor allow changes to the 1040 HR zones.  The web only worked for me when I had the Fenix 6.  Just having the 1040 does not present HR nor Power Zones on the GC Web.

    User Settings only shows height, weight, etc and hydration.

    It seems I lost a lot of stuff on the GC Web after selling my Fenix 6.

    I'll report the findings shortly after my next quick ride....

    Thanks again.

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to iJustRide

    I have more Garmin devices in use, but set my Edge 1050 as primary training device. I set my zones on that device (Edge 1050) and after sync with GC all other devices get the new values.

    PS: I would not trust in Garmin‘s autodetect HRmax, FTP and so on…
    I would do an FTP test to find out this values.

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to mcinner1

    You won't get HRmax from an ftp test

  • 0 1 day ago

    You can change intervals.icu to use five zones like Garmin does, for consistency

    If you want to set your zones in Garmin Connect App, you should make sure that you set the zones for "cycling" and not just the basic profile or any other sports specific heart rate settings.

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to Cristox
    Cristox said:
    You won't get HRmax from an ftp test

    True…but try to exert yourself while pedaling and find out.

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to mcinner1

    Please don't water down this thread with off-topic training advices 

  • 0 1 day ago

    Thanks for the replies. I did another z2 ride with auto detect for HRMax and Lactate Threshold turned off (intervals.icu tries detecting these also so I can manually change Garmin for now). I finished the ride and the HR numbers I set manually using BPM stuck.  

    I wish I could use GC Web for some of this but everything on GC Web goes away if you do not have the watch.  The only garmin device I own now is the Edge 1040. I sold the Fenix 6 and all of the HRMs I had died.  None of the Edge settings can be modified by GC Web.

    I am going to roll with these manual settings for a while.  I also changed intervals.icu to use a 5 zone system (thanks for reminding me that you could do that!!) so I will see if the next ride matches with Garmin better.

    Thanks for all of your ideas and help!!