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VDOT, Recovery Time and Race Predictor - are they working for you?

I love the features that the 230.235 brings over my old 220 - I like seeing my VDOT score, and recovery advisor after a run but I am wondering how accurate they are.

The recovery advisor always says between 48 and 72 hours for example. Nothing more, nothing less, but if I am training according to the plan on the watch provided by Garmin themselves, how can I follow that if I have to take 3 days off between runs?!

The race predictor too is way off. It says my half marathon best should be a full 10 minutes faster than my current PB, the marathon one is about 45 minutes faster, the 10k about 10 minutes faster and the 5k about 2 minutes faster. I haven't really got faster since training with this watch, and those predicted times haven't moved since the very first time I went out with the 235 on at Christmas.

Do you use any of these features? Do they work for you? Are they reasonably accurate compared to your current PBs?

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Race predictors of any kind notoriously underestimate times over longer distances especially if based on shorter distances like 5k etc. The watch is pretty much correct for my 5k and 10K times. It's one minute faster for my half marathon and 23 minutes faster than my marathon. This matches pretty well with sites such as McMillan. I guess I'll have to train harder to reach my potential. I've seen my recovery advisor range from 20 hours to 56 hours depending on how hard a workout I've done and how accurate the HR has been.

0 R_Tellis over 9 years ago

The recovery time isn't supposed to be how long until your next run, but rather until your next 'hard' run. If you're never getting less than 48 hours you probably don't have a good MaxHR number set on the watch, or you're running all of your runs too fast.

For me the VO2Max doesn't really work right as it has me at 52-53 which is most likely 10 points too high which means the race predictor has ridiculously fast times as a result.

0 timgrose over 9 years ago

I always ask what your max HR is set to when these sort of questions come up? This needs to be something realistic for you and so not necessarily the 220-Age formula that is used as standard.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

The recovery time isn't supposed to be how long until your next run, but rather until your next 'hard' run. If you're never getting less than 48 hours you probably don't have a good MaxHR number set on the watch, or you're running all of your runs too fast.

For me the VO2Max doesn't really work right as it has me at 52-53 which is most likely 10 points too high which means the race predictor has ridiculously fast times as a result.

Does the watch use HR MAX that you input or that it measures? It has my VO2 max a bit high I think, but it has my 5k and 10K time bang on. If I stick this 5k time into McMillan I get a ridiculous marathon time as well. My race predictors times have changed as I do more workouts and are at the current level after running a 6k race. It's a bit of a gimmicky feature and while being quite interesting I can't see it as being any more useful than any of the race predictors already available online. I don't care what any predictor says, I'll never run a marathon based off my 5k time.

0 R_Tellis over 9 years ago

Does the watch use HR MAX that you input or that it measures? It has my VO2 max a bit high I think, but it has my 5k and 10K time bang on. If I stick this 5k time into McMillan I get a ridiculous marathon time as well. My race predictors times have changed as I do more workouts and are at the current level after running a 6k race. It's a bit of a gimmicky feature and while being quite interesting I can't see it as being any more useful than any of the race predictors already available online. I don't care what any predictor says, I'll never run a marathon based off my 5k time.

I think uses a comparison of the MaxHR you give it and what HR it sees on your runs to come up with the VO2Max and recovery times and then bases the race predictions on the VO2Max.

I need to change my MaxHR setting since I intentionally set it ~5bpm lower than I've seen in all out 400m & 1 mile races in the last year. I want to see if raising that setting will give me more reasonable VO2Max numbers than what I'm seeing now.

0 kingdave82 over 9 years ago

Is there an easy enough way to work out your max heart rate? I've got mine set as the default (which I assume is 220-Age) but I've never set it up or really tested it out properly.

On a run last night my HR peaked at 191bpm over a roughly 250 metre sprint (we were racing some Strava segments!), and on other runs varies from a min of 168 to usually around the 180 mark.

My current 5k time was set in October (not using this watch, but I have synced my PBs to it) and I was running flat out at a local parkun (wanted to vomit at the end! :D ) and if anything I have got a little slower since then but the watch definitely says I should be able to hit 2 minutes faster based on the data it has gathered so far.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Is there an easy enough way to work out your max heart rate? I've got mine set as the default (which I assume is 220-Age) but I've never set it up or really tested it out properly.

On a run last night my HR peaked at 191bpm over a roughly 250 metre sprint (we were racing some Strava segments!), and on other runs varies from a min of 168 to usually around the 180 mark.

My current 5k time was set in October (not using this watch, but I have synced my PBs to it) and I was running flat out at a local parkun (wanted to vomit at the end! :D ) and if anything I have got a little slower since then but the watch definitely says I should be able to hit 2 minutes faster based on the data it has gathered so far.

Best way to determine max HR is in a lab test. What was your HR at the end if that 5k? I'd use that as a fairly good estimation of your HR max.
I got this from another forum but haven't tried it yet:

"- 5 min progression run getting too roughly 85% effort to get to base of a hill that roughly has about 2 minutes of a hill climb on a gradual but sufficient hill. Maintain pace when you get to the hill so that effort increases to max and aim to take mental note of highest figure seen on monitor (or after when reading stats on strava/garmin etc)"

or

"- 800m run with 1st 400m at 90-95 effort and all out the second lap. take 1 minute break and another 400m at maximum effort. Find the highest value in the 2nd and 3rd 400m efforts"

0 kingdave82 over 9 years ago

Best way to determine max HR is in a lab test. What was your HR at the end if that 5k? I'd use that as a fairly good estimation of your HR max.
I got this from another forum but haven't tried it yet:

"- 5 min progression run getting too roughly 85% effort to get to base of a hill that roughly has about 2 minutes of a hill climb on a gradual but sufficient hill. Maintain pace when you get to the hill so that effort increases to max and aim to take mental note of highest figure seen on monitor (or after when reading stats on strava/garmin etc)"

or

"- 800m run with 1st 400m at 90-95 effort and all out the second lap. take 1 minute break and another 400m at maximum effort. Find the highest value in the 2nd and 3rd 400m efforts"

If the maximum heart rate yet recorded is 191bpm, should I not take that as my max? Of course, that was done over a 250m sprint rather than a sustained run over 5k+.

Is there any danger of my HR being that high? To give you an idea of what kind of health I'm in, I'm 33yrs old, weigh 80kg and 178cm tall which puts me on the verge of overweight according to BMI, but my 5k PB is 21:49 so no setting the world alight by any standards, but doing OK for where I want to be.

0 timgrose over 9 years ago

If the maximum heart rate yet recorded is 191bpm, should I not take that as my max? Of course, that was done over a 250m sprint rather than a sustained run over 5k+.

Is there any danger of my HR being that high? To give you an idea of what kind of health I'm in, I'm 33yrs old, weigh 80kg and 178cm tall which puts me on the verge of overweight according to BMI, but my 5k PB is 21:49 so no setting the world alight by any standards, but doing OK for where I want to be.

you should certainly use 191 if your current max (220-33 = 187 perhaps ?) is lower. Your true max is probably a little bit higher.

191 is not an uncommon HR value so can't see any obvious problem. My highest ever was 193 in my late 20s - over 20 years ago!

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Is there an easy enough way to work out your max heart rate? I've got mine set as the default (which I assume is 220-Age) but I've never set it up or really tested it out properly.

On a run last night my HR peaked at 191bpm over a roughly 250 metre sprint (we were racing some Strava segments!), and on other runs varies from a min of 168 to usually around the 180 mark.

My current 5k time was set in October (not using this watch, but I have synced my PBs to it) and I was running flat out at a local parkun (wanted to vomit at the end! :D ) and if anything I have got a little slower since then but the watch definitely says I should be able to hit 2 minutes faster based on the data it has gathered so far.

This link gives you several different ways to determine your max HR.
http://www.howtobefit.com/determine-maximum-heart-rate.htm