This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Used a chest strap for first time, the watch changed my heart rate zones?

I did a 25 minute run at 170bmp and the watch said new LTH detected 172 and asked me if I wanted to use this as my zones I agreed. Now my zones changed before it was warmup, recovery, easy, threshold and maximum and now it's warmup, low aeorbic, high aerobic and an orange/red zone I didn't hit today. The grey zone which was recovery is now low aerobic and is higher. Is it another gimmick and if not does the 935 do it?

  • You can set your HR zones however you would like in the Device Settings / User Settings.  Can set back maximum, LT, or HR reserve.

    I guess I didn't realize it would change the labels of them. 

    However... its just a matter of semantics really.  Setting zones off of LT is good but maximum HR is more common... %'s and what they 'mean' is largely up for debate and not really set by some magic 10% windows of HR range!  I don't have a 'Recovery' (Warmup, Easy, Aerobic, Threshold, Maximum)

    The detection of Lactate Threshold HR and LT Pace can be a very helpful training metric and is definitely not a gimmick.   Use of some new zone labels... really the ones you listed are more applicable.  Being that Easy... and Aerobic are really the same labels for many folks.  But Aerobic is a huge range... so calling out a low aerobic/easy... and high aerobic / marathon effort.  Probably a better option for labels.  

    But again, you can revert them back to your prefrence of zone labels and % ranges in the Device/User settings

  • Oh I didn't mean LT is a gimmick but Garmins LT test/zones compared to a lab say. Thanks I thought these new labels/zones should be an improvement since it uses the chest strap which is better than the optical. OH I have warmup, recovery, easy, threshold and maximum but the strap removes recovery and the low aerobic zone goes into the old easy zone whilst the easy zone is much higher it used to end at 155 now it was in 160s and still green. That would of been threshold zone before. Is that not too fast/hard doing 160+ heart rate for an easy run?

  • Generally, the lab results should be more accurate. But remember they are a shapshot of a particular time, and most people don't get them done that often. LTHR in particular can vary slightly depending on how much threshold-specific training you have been doing recently.

    So you may want to "adjust" the lab results based on more recent LTHR results.

  • I suppose 'Easy' is a pretty wide category (depending on length of run also!) - for me a Marathon pace which is ~7:00/mi can be in that range for a good chunk of it (154-164bpm for most of the miles) that is definitely not a Threshold type workout... heck I can hold it for 3 hours.  However depends a lot on your Max HR (mine 195), with threshold HR seems to flatten out around 171-174ish maybe for me, takes a couple miles... don't feel happy if HR climbs much above it.  Often if not in hard training sequence of Workout/Recovery/Workout... a solid aerobic run of Marathon pace can be added in (not quite a workout... but solid), HR still stays in the mid aerobic range and lactate levels should be pretty steady... bit slower than what would benefit your Threshold / Lactate system (getting closer to around your Hour Race pace).   Oh also see even my 50km this fall almost every mile was a HR in the 153-162 (154avg) range, and a 5.5-6hr race is definitely pretty far from a Threshold effort.

    However, and Easy run is not necessarily a Active Recovery Run that you might do after HARD workout/race or in place of a full rest day... just depends on the training plan or fatigue levels.

  • Easy pace should be the same regardless of run length (I was told this by an Olympian). My max is also 195 and yeah I could hold 164 for 3 hours but not 172. That becomes very hard after 20 minutes and racing after 30 minutes. For me though going at 164 for an easy day it feels too much it feels like that too fast to recover and too slow to improve dead zone. I once did a 160 mile week just as a challenge and I didn't have a heart rate monitor back then but I remember it felt above 160 for sure but under 165, it was just max easy pace and I dropped all workouts that week. I don't think I could do it with workouts. That's cool heart rate for a 50K mine was 150-155 I remember my heart felt so battered after 45km. Yeah makes sense though.

    I guess I will try and keep easy under 150 still and only go up if I want to for fun or if I'm feeling good and no workouts coming up.

  • Yeah I guess for 'Easy' pace that is quite a range... also gives a pretty large range of HR.  So for a midweek hour run that would be more than a minute difference in pace.  On the fast end of Easy... that might be a bit much for a 20miler (at least for my normal).  On the slow end of Easy for just 4 miles is a Recovery Run.  I don't do a lot of goal pace miles in Marathon training... but lots of folks are out there doing 10+ miles of MP in a 20miler (likely much of it at 160-167bpm (or equiv for them))

    But a big thing on the HR is that there is a huge delay so if you are hitting 164 and holding from mile 2... that's quite a bit different then it drifting up very slowly to it over the course of 7 miles.  However I suppose the more fit you get... it plateaus pretty much... so that does get to be a bit into the 'tempo' range of things really (lighter effort than say an 'Hour Race Pace' Tempo (LT) run)

    Haha, yeah keeping HR up during a Ultra sure gets tough especially (last half) when the downhills start getting too steep/rugged to push on tired legs! Often the trail stuff ends up being a bit like intervals, push where/when you can... hike/crawl/cliffs-with-ropes when the terrain doesn't let you Run. My first 50k I made the mistake of power hiking some steeper stuff or limiting HR early in general... but then I realized on 2nd time there are so many periods of difficult route that give some recovery.