I've been using the 230 coupled with a MIO Link for a week now and mostly liking what I see. This is the first Garmin I've had that uses a "Recovery Advisor". I'm not sure I understand it's use. To day after a run, it gave me a 43 hour recovery time. Am I seriously expected to wait this amount of time before I run again? How does it figure the length of time.
It wouldn't really make sense to take any previous ‘balance’ of recovery time into account, if all that the watch/algorithm needs is your HR response to your most recent workout to assess your physical condition.
I had a situation similar to that of a previous poster where after a demanding run I was recommended 72h of rest. When I made an easy workout in the elliptical next day, my recovery time became 20h or so. I don´t think an easy workout will shorten your recovery time from a demanding workout by 24h. Then, the algorithm is not very useful to keep track of the cumulative effect of your workouts. It tells me I only need 20h of recovery, forgetting that I still needed 48h of recovery from the hard workout I made before the easy one, so the latest recovery time is actually misleading.
@Jorge___: Regardless of whether I think it makes sense or not, Garmin states that: After each workout, your device reveals the number of hours before you will be back near 100% and capable of performing a hard workout or running a race. Provided by Firstbeat, the calculation is produced and personalized using a unique digital model of your physiology. It utilizes a combination of the session’s training effect score, performance and fitness level assessments performed during the session and the number of hours of recovery time remaining on your clock at the start of your workout.
I can confirm with my FR 235 that the recovery advisor only remembers the recommendation for your last workout, and resets every time you have a new workout, it would be interesting if it could truly keep track of your recovery across several sessions.
Don't confuse that Garmin's statement above as meaning a history (or journal) of previous recommendations are kept for review by – and/or entertainment value to – the user, or that there is metaphorically some sort of ledger. It's only an estimate anyway, and if the most recent observation is that your body appeared to be in better physiological condition than the Recovery Advisor predicted, then of course a new estimate should not give much weight to the previous estimate. Analogously, my doctor may have told me on a visit a week ago that I would need a fortnight's rest to fully recover from a particular bout of illness or injury, but upon inspecting me again today decide that I've nearly fully recovered ahead of her previous prediction. It just so happens that, for the purposes of estimating Recovery Time, the Recovery Advisor feature on your Garmin wearable device has to observe the user in action, instead of using 24×7 activity tracking data as the means for monitoring the user's physiological condition and recovery.
Oh, and if Training Status and Training Load are the sort of things you're really after, there are more recent high-end device models that support those features.
Although a fairly old post it is good to add to what recovery should be about.
If you did an intense interval (for example 10 x (400@3:10/km p200m jog) having a recovery time of 36 hours it would advise you not to train. However you may perform a jog of lets say 30 minutes with 5-10 strides/sprints of 60-80 meter with in between a full recovery walk) or a long slow run @ easy (under 135 bpm). The variation in intensity normally refers to the energy systems used, not exactly how fast you run.
During the intense interval you will use mostly glycogen resources for aerobic and anaerobic utilization. During the jog you will use fatty acids oxidation and to some extend some glycogen aerobic consumption, be it at much lower level, the strides will be using ATP, and ATP-creatine phosphate . The same for the long slow run, only fat and aerobic glycogen consumption.
I prefer to have a long or intensive training alternating with short jog with strides or core/plyo/strength exercises. In this way your training is varied and will not cause strain on your muscles, ligaments and energy systems. Saturday I will typically do intervals of some sort, and sunday a long extensive run with maybe some zone 2or even zone 3 hill workfor shourt bouts. Since in the weekend the time and pace for recovery is much greater you can get away with that as a trained person. This allow in the week for 2 times zone 1/2 longer runs, 2 times some kind of interval training and 2 times the essential core strength plyo and strides training. The 7th day you can eventually use as well or just hike or recover passively.
I wish the exact meaning of the recovery time could be made more clear. But the interpretation that Garmin-Joey states makes the most sense. That is, the recovery time is the time needed before you should perform an activity at the intensity of your last activity.
So you could perform a intense activity and the recovery time displayed is 72 hours. That means you should wait 72 hours before performing a similarly intense activity. However, if you perform a relatively easy activity 17 hours later and the recovery time displayed is all of a sudden 24 hours, that means you should wait 24 hrs before performing another easy activity. The recovery time before performing another intense activity similar to the first activity is still at least 72 - 17 = 55 hours.
To be more clear I wish that a simple chart could be displayed that would give the recovery time needed before engaging in an activity of a certain intensity level or training effect TE. It might look something like this
Recovery time on my Forerunner 935 device seems to work a little different than how others describe. For example I ran at moderate intensity on the treadmill for about 25 min and the device threw a 23 hour recovery time. After 9 hours the recovery time had decreased to 14 hours and I went on the treadmill again for a light 10 min walk. Afterward the recovery time changed to 15 hours. It seems unreasonable I should wait 15 hours for another light walk. Rather it seems the 15 hour recovery time is the time I should wait for a workout of the original intensity or that of a predetermined "hard" workout. But what does "hard" mean. A TE of 3.0? A TE of 5.0? Both seem reasonable definitions but would have quite different recovery times. The lack of transparency on what recovery time means suggests Garmin is not confident in its accuracy for it to be useful.
I wish the exact meaning of the recovery time could be made more clear. But the interpretation that Garmin-Joey states makes the most sense. That is, the recovery time is the time needed before you should perform an activity at the intensity of your last activity.
Recovery time on my Forerunner 935 device seems to work a little different than how others describe. For example I ran at moderate intensity on the treadmill for about 25 min and the device threw a 23 hour recovery time. After 9 hours the recovery time had decreased to 14 hours and I went on the treadmill again for a light 10 min walk. Afterward the recovery time changed to 15 hours. It seems unreasonable I should wait 15 hours for another light walk. Rather it seems the 15 hour recovery time is the time I should wait for a workout of the original intensity or that of a predetermined "hard" workout. But what does "hard" mean. A TE of 3.0? A TE of 5.0? Both seem reasonable definitions but would have quite different recovery times. The lack of transparency on what recovery time means suggests Garmin is not confident in its accuracy for it to be useful.
Yes, what you are saying about not waiting 15 hours for another light walk is correct. On the 935, in your example of 23 initial hours, the recommendation should read "easy effort recommended" before the full 23 hours is up. As a matter of fact, IIRC, sometimes it says that immediately after a run, so it's saying it's okay to go for a light walk/jog immediately.
Also, this is the 230 sub-forum, and you are posting about the 935 while referring to a 3-year old post that could be 230-specific. As a matter of fact, recovery time does work differently on 935 vs. previous-gen devices like 230.
On 230, if you did two workouts in the same day (for example), the previous recovery time would be completely disregarded, ignored and forgotten. In that case, the interpretation that recovery time refers to how long to wait until an activity of the "last activity's intensity" could make sense,
On 935 and other current devices, recovery time "stacks" with multiple workouts, exactly as you described. So in that case, it doesn't make sense that it refers to waiting until the next workout of "last activity's intensity", because if you stacked several workouts, they could all be different intensities, exactly as you described. The only definition that makes sense is that recovery time is amount of time to wait until you are fully recovered and ready for the next hard workout.
My two cents is the exact definition of hard workout doesn't matter. I would use common sense. A light jog or easy run in zone 2 would not be a hard workout (unless you go for hours). A 3 hour long run, regardless of intensity, would probably count as a hard workout (or at least, not easy) in this context. Track intervals would probably also count as a hard interval.
If had to guess what TE a "hard workout" corresponds to, I would say 4.0 and higher. But maybe there isn't an exact correlation and maybe it doesn't matter.
4.0-4.9: Highly improves your aerobic fitness if repeated 1–2 times per week with adequate recovery time.
I guessed 4.0 because most coaches don't recommend doing a (hard) "workout" more than once or twice a week, so the definition matches,
I guess it would be nice if Garmin told you what training effect was okay to do at each point, but do people really know what it means? On the 935 at least, the recovery advisor says stuff like "Easy effort recommended" and "Train as usual" at various points, even before the full recovery time is up. No different than what a human coach might tell you. I doubt many coaches would say something like "it's okay to train at an RPE of 5 now!"
After Body Combat today, I got this from my watch:
Recovery 58 hours
Easy Effort Recommended
Does that mean that it is recommending that I only do easy workouts for the next 58 hours?
And what does that translate to in terms of TE? 2's and low 3s?
Thanks for any response.
I don't think those two metrics relate to each other directly.
Probably the best answer you'll get.
And like the manual says:
You can use your Garmin[SUP]®[/SUP] device with wrist-based heart rate or a compatible chest heart rate monitor to display how much time remains before you are fully recovered and ready for the next hard workout.
I would classify this as a race, intervals (speed or hills), or a long run of sufficient intensity/length.
I get what you're asking for, but in reality, we aren't machines that can produce workouts of precisely targeted aerobic/anaerobic TE's on demand, so does it really matter?
