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Wifes 530 shows VO2Max values that are way off

My wifes 530 has been giving VO2Max readings that are nowhere near acurate. The devices calculates values between 80 and 66, while her VO2Max (reported by a test in a lab) is 35. Anyone have any clue what part of the VO2Max calculating components is making the value be so far off?

Her HRM values seem normal (HRM-DUAL) and the powermeter (StagesPower GRX RX810 - 170mm) shows values we would expect when cycling. The annoying thing is that these values throw off a lot of other metrics making it more difficult to train and also it makes the 530 show a message that she is training poorly and has a poor condition every time she uses the device, talk about getting demotivated quickly.

We just got a new powermeter (4iii) in so we'll be putting that on her bike soon, the Stages powermeter drains a battery in about 2 days.

0 Kyle J over 1 year ago

Hi, I think the short answer is that the VO2max algorithms (FirstBeat / Garmin) are only rough approximations at best, and seem to rely quite a bit on empirical data from a population of people. In theory it improves from your data the more you use it (the online manual mentions this). The key thing is it needs to see enough high-aerobic data to build a trend, and continue to see it regularly enough to continue updating it. Some more info here:

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/edge530/EN-US/GUID-69FFE8B8-E6A6-4D94-868C-04F0DEC59107.html

Hope that helps!

0 ElPaco over 1 year ago in reply to Kyle J

Yeah the problem is it never seems to update (or rarely) as it doesn't see the efforts my wife does as high aerobic because it estimates her VO2Max so high. At the rate the value is dropping now it will take another 3 years to get anywhere near a proper value.

0 Kyle J over 1 year ago in reply to ElPaco

Whups meant to reply earlier... You can change/remove the VO2max value in Garmin Connect (app and web). So maybe removing it, or setting it to a low value, will let the device detect a more reasonable value sooner.

0 Kyle J over 1 year ago in reply to Kyle J

...came back to post a correction... While reading up some other topics I stumbled across this info on Garmin's site:

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=lWqSVlq3w76z5WoihLy5f8

The section about manually inputting VO2max values indicates that it will not sync with the device, and will not be updated by the device. So it looks like my suggestion to manually set a low value to "force" an update wouldn't actually work.