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Performance condition -8 when starting the run uphill

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago

Every day I run to work downhill and the way back uphill. On the way back, within a couple of minutes I get a Performance Condition -7/-8 on the watch (as my hr goes up to zone 4 in 500-600 meters). Looks like it’s not factoring in the elevation gain to the calculation. Is there any way to adjust for it (much like how calibration for a sensor is)?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    No :( Perf.Cond. doesn't take in count changes in elevation.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Lame workaround, but if you record it as a trail run then at least it won't mess up your VO2Max etc.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to winfij

    But you don't need to do that, because calculation of Vo2Max does take into account the elevation changes. However performance condition don't. So no need to set it as trail running for that reason.

    forums.garmin.com/.../890484

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to olni65

    They refer to altitude acclimation. That's different to what OP described as an issue. Uphill effort as running activity (not trail run) will always give negative PC and consequently decreased VO2 score. If repeated multiple times it will then lead to incorrect Training status, etc. So if one wants good and reliable FB metrics, it needs data from mostly flat runs. 

    Yes, it's silly that top of the line watches with barometer and all other stuff can't take this into account... If FB can't reliably calculate PC for uphill runs then when such effort is detected from barometer watches should stop processing PC for that segment.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to gtom

    I know that the OP is talking about performance condition, but when you say that you will get decreased VO2 score because you are running uphill (as well as lower PC) it doesn't match what Herman B at Firstbeat - the company the licenses the algorithms that Garmin use to calculcate these measures - say in the linked post.

    The accounting for 'climbs and descents' that @tmk2 is referring to are the increased or decreased effort required to maintain the same pace running uphill or downhill vs that same pace over effectively level ground. That's, necessarily, been part of the VO2max analytics from the beginning.

    Obviously you would need a barometric or other way of measuring going up or down, but having that the algorithms should - according to Firstbeat - take that into account when calculating VO2max. But you say differently. Do you have something that back that up?