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What is my watch telling me?

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago

After what, I would consider an easy run, my new watch told me I needed to rest for the next 40 hours. At the same time, my watch told me I'm "detraining" because I'm not doing enough. So what are these two things telling me and which one should I follow? I've been relatively sedentary for half a year but have been back at running for a little bit now. I recently got this watch to help with my fitness. I've noticed my HR is high during even moderate runs so I'm trying to build my fitness to improve on this. My ultimate goal is to run longer distances/times, at a descent pace, and not killing myself. After a week of training in zone 2, I got the mixed/confusing input mentioned above. Can someone help me interpret the information?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    If those are both to be believed, you've been doing too little for the past week compared to what you'd been doing in prior weeks, but you just put in a pretty big training stimulus that requires some recovery before another similar effort. Recovery does not necessarily mean rest, so if you're feeling up to it, an easy run would be a good idea. You can find more information on those topics on the Garmin Running Science page.

    Hard efforts contribute more to training load than do easy ones, so if you were going too hard in prior weeks, the watch is picking up on this drop, though "detraining" implies that your fitness (based on the watch's estimate of your VO2max) has also decreased. That could be because you're not as efficient at slower paces, or because temperatures are climbing and the watch thinks you're working harder for the pace. A shortcoming of the 645 is that it doesn't take heat into account, unlike the newer 245 or 945.

    Since the easy run gave you a high recovery time, and your HR is high on moderate runs, I would make sure that your watch fit is snug during your activities. If the watch is too loose, the optical HRM can latch on to your cadence or otherwise fail. Also make sure that your maximum HR is a good estimate, because that factors into a lot of the FirstBeat metrics, including training load and status. The age formula is off by about 15 bpm for me.

    But honestly, the watch can only do so much. You're probably better off just listening to your body. Do most of your running at an easy, conversational pace, or one that you can maintain while breathing through your nose. Use the watch to collect data that you review afterward.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Roedema

    Thank you for that information! I'm new to running with a watch so while the information I was receiving was interesting to me, it was also confusing and thus overwhelming.

    What is the most precise way to measure you Max HR?

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member
    What is the most precise way to measure you Max HR?

    Run like hell!

    No kidding,  It took a couple of weeks before I reached my max heartrate. Not every run is the same, so you need to try a few times. When the watch measures a new max heartrate in a run, it will be noticed and registred. If you want a quick set, run an interval training and push every spint a bit further. You might need three or four intervals to reach the max. The last one you really have to push hard. But be carefull. For safety reasons I had my son cycling with me when I pushed, because I was going to the limit.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    The most precise way is a lab test. The other poster describes the field test you can do. Polar has a detailed article:

    https://www.polar.com/blog/calculate-maximum-heart-rate-running/

    I'm not sure how safe it is to try to bring your HR to its max. I suppose it depends on your conditioning. I felt I came close to my max while doing progressive hill repeats, but it's tough to say for sure. Another option is to forget your max for the time being and try to determine your lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR). The 645 has a test for it, which is one of the handful of things that sets it apart from the 245. In the Running app, before you start a run, long press UP to get to the menu, and you'll find it under Training. It will put you through a series of 3-4 minute intervals in which you'll reach increasingly higher HRs. If you have trouble completing the test, your max HR may be set too high, whereas if your resulting LTHR is close to your max, it may be too low. Regardless, with LTHR in hand, you can go into the watch (or Garmin Connect) settings and base your zones off % LTHR instead of % max.