From my understanding in order to provide accurate VO2 measurements you need a monitor that provides heart rate variability. I have read that OHRMs such as the one provided by this watch as well as other optical based monitors like the Scoshe will not provide HRV measurements. If that is in fact correct, how accurate can the VO2 calculations be? Since the OHRM has been having issues anyhow would it be better to purchase a 230 along with a HRM-Run?
Not entirely sure how accurate HRV is on the 235. However I have the 920, 230, 235 and 630 and my VO2 Max on all of them is more or the less same - i.e. within a "point" of each other and of course I am not wearing all 4 watches on every run! So certainly, for me, with the 235 only using optical HR the VO2 Max values are consistent with other devices where am getting HR from a strap.
I suspect super accurate HRV is not crucial to VO2 Max determination. It's probably more far needed for things like performance condition on the 630 which is measured constantly in real time as you run along.
Heart Rate Variability is very dynamic and changes according to multiple situations. It can be used as indicator of recovery after a tough workout or to evaluate for overtraining.
What are all of you doing to calculate it on the Garmin Forerunner 620?
Yes VO2Max doesn't use HRV, fortunately as the optical sensor on the FR235 is not capable of capturing proper "r-r" intervals it seems, they did some detailed testing about that here http://www.gpspassion.com/fr/articles.asp?id=295
Yea, they're not getting proper r-r intervals from the optical so any HRV that would be used to calculate Vo2Max would be based on an estimate, but then again since your breath isn't being measured by the watch either then the Vo2Max is just going to be an estimate anyway.
BTW, I've also started using Elite HRV in the last week on my iPad paired with a Bluetooth chest strap and looking forward to see what kinds of trends develop over time.
Pretty good here but only if I use a recent MaxHR (say the final sprint in a 10k), not the one I reached with no training and a lot more weight ;-) I do keep my % on the absolute one though.
I'll start by saying I have no point of reference with regards to my VO2max. That is, I have no idea what it should be or how the watch reading compares with actual VO2max.
I've had the watch since Chistmas. I wasn't much of a runner before that to be honest - was only running for a month or two before that.
After the first couple of runs, VO2max was 41. I got a knee injury so slowed right down to mostly brisk walking pace for a couple weeks. It dropped to 39. When I started running again it went back up to 41.
I started on a running program which I've been doing for about 8-9 weeks. I'm now at 48. But it doesn't always go up, sometimes it goes back down a point or two in direct proportion to the type of training I am doing. When I was doing a lot more slow long aerobic training it went down, and then when doing more speed work (fast tempo's, intervals etc), it went up fast. Like a point after each fast run.
I'm still using a Max HR of 195bpm which I got to a few times when I started training. I haven't acheived this since I've gotten fitter (maybe can get to 188bpm) - Not quite sure why and if it's related to an improved cardiovascular system.
I've never raced a 5k but my fastes, almost race pace 5k run was 24mins - watch predicts 22:10. Hoping to race in a few weeks, will test myself then and compare against watch but for basic feedback on current general fitness level, it seems to provide a useful figure.
