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Training Effect

WMar
over 3 years ago

How does the Training Effect work on the Edge 530?
I recently changed my HR zone settings from HRMAX to LHTR. My HR Max is 190bpm and LHTR is 174bpm. Since then it seems to be showing me an inflated training effect and some very large rest times. Is this normal?

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    If you have done an FTP / FTHR test my understanding is that this is a better metric to base your zones on than max. What do you mean by "very large"? For me a 20 min commute might give me a few hours but an intense 1h training session might give me 24h. A 4h country ride might give me 36 if i push it. I dont think i've had over 40h.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Make sure your zones are correct.  If you use the default ones they probably are not correct.  Use the British Cycling calculator - https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership/article/20120925-Power-Calculator-0 - to get your HR zones from your LTHR.  Enter the correct numbers into your Edge.  You can enter the zones in your Edge settings Garmin Connect and sync the info with your unit if you want to.  Now such things as training effect will start to be more sensible.  It will take 4 weeks to for any incorrect zone parameters to be completely factored out.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    TE will use power rather than HR if power data is available.

    If only HR data is available, then the algorithm will use HRMax as the datapoint. How you set your zones is irrelevant to TE.

    If you think TE and recovery times are too high, it is probably because your HRMax is too low. Where did you get the 190 from?

    I can get 60-72 hour recovery times when doing 200-300 km rides, and 36-48 hours from some VO2Max sessions.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    How do your old and new zones compare? If your new zones are set at higher HR values than your old ones, then you are working harder than before, and so I think you would see higher Training Effect scores and longer recovery time advice.

    When I made that switch from using %HRmax to using %LTHR, my zone HR values went up (moreso the lower ones), and got narrower (especially the upper ones). So working in any given zone was generally at higher HR than it was with my old zones.

    I've seen the pretty large recovery time values, over 3 days (I think 4 days is the max). It depends on what I did that ride, and prior.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to mcalista

    I'd love to see an official reference source for how this really works, especially if it's only using the HRmax value and ignoring the zones, LTHR, etc.