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Understanding Training Effect

badbri
over 4 years ago

So I had a couple of runs recently that made me question, or at least try to understand how Training Effect is calculated.

Workout #1:  Tuesday I did a run where I ran 10m+ total and on the last half I did a tempo mile as a warmup before a few long hill repeats (4min each).

Workout #2:  This morning I did an 8m+ offroad run ("Trail" on Garmin) with a fast finish where the last 3.5m were tempo-like in feel, but my HR drifted more into Z4 level.  It was significantly warmer and more unpleasant this run than it was Tuesday morning, surely contributing to the higher HR.

Total time in Z4 was more for the 8m run than the 10m run (17min vs 13min).

Peak HR was about the same in both workouts, briefly touching 175 or so.

HOWEVER:

Workout #1 got coded in Training Effect as benefiting "Vo2Max" whereas Workout #2 was coded as benefiting "Tempo."

This is actually true of the workouts since #1 was hill repeats and #2 just a fast finish run, but I am trying to understand how the device knows that given the HR actually recorded.  What else is it considering for these assessments?  Anyone know?

Here's a comparison of the 2 runs in a graph if interested.  Run #2 is the shaded HR graph:

  • +1 over 4 years ago

    I believe your question is related to the other thread.

    So do your workouts follow the explanation here? The way I see the main difference are the intervals.

    www.firstbeatanalytics.com/.../

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to DPSK

    Yeah the other thread definitely prompted the question.

    In looking at the link you provided it does appear the Firstbeat analytics are sophisticated enough to realize I was doing "intervals" with the Hill repeats (probably by the recoveries) so it's not just the amount of time spent in/above a certain zone.  

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to badbri

    Especially when looking at the High Aerobic and Anaerobic areas, one of the things the algorithm looks for is the RATE of HR increase. Your 2nd, 3rd and 4th intervals show a very sharp rate of increase in HR, and likely this is what is driving the classification.

    Workout 2 is more steady state.