need help from hr experts: 7 hr zones -》5

You can't. The top end zones are ones that you can only spend a short time in anyway and usually not long enough for your change in heart rate to show up. Heart rate lags change in effort. At the top end of exercise intensity, discrete heart rate zones are more for analysis afterwards than tracking intensity of effort during activity.

I'm definitely no HR expert, so please take my suggestions with a large grain of salt

I'm definitely no HR expert, so please take the following with a large grain of salt.

(The following terms are a translation from my language...I do not know the official zone names)

I don't think there is a single ‘standard’ for the labelling – or in fact meaning – of the heart rate zones that is agreed and/or adopted by every athlete, coach, trainer, physiologist, and device manufacturer in their approaches and calculation methods, even though most adopt a five-zone approach.

Max zone 175-186bpm
Anaerobic speed zone 2 169-174bpm
Anaerobic speed zone 1 159-168bpm
Aerobic endurance zone 150-158bpm
Aerobic conditioning zone 140-149 bpm
Warm-up zone 110-139bpm
Easy zone 90-110

That looks a bit like ">Joe Friel's approach">Joe Friel's approach to setting up zones for heart rate training (you can ‘Look inside’ his book on Amazon.com and read pages 30 and 31), with:
• Zone 5c ⬅︎ Anaerobic speed zone 2 + Max zone
• Zones 5a+5b ⬅︎ Anaerobic speed zone 1
• Zone 4 ⬅︎ Aerobic endurance zone
• Zone 3 ⬅︎ Aerobic conditioning zone
• Top 18% of Zone 1 + Zone 2 ⬅︎ Warm-up zone
• 66th–81st percentile of Zone 1 ⬅︎ Easy zone

In view of the HR Zone labels used by Garmin, I'd suggest this mapping as a starting point:
• Maximum (Z5) ⬅︎ Max zone
• Threshold (Z4) ⬅︎ Anaerobic speed zones (1 and 2) (meaning you have exceeded your LTHR)
• Aerobic (Z3) ⬅︎ Aerobic (conditioning and endurance) zones
• Easy (Z2) ⬅︎ Upper part of Warm-up zone
• Warm Up (Z1) ⬅︎ Bottom part of Warm-up zone
given how wide Warm-up zone in your lab's advice appears to be.

Joe Friel, on page 46 of his book, wrote, “Training in Zone 2 is the best way to improve your aerobic function without a huge requirement for recover afterward.” I'm therefore inclined to map all of Zone 2 – approximately 134–142 bpm in your case – to Easy (Z2) on the watch, and so Aerobic (Z3) is needs adjusting to 142–158 bpm (slightly narrower than the combination of the aerobic conditioning and aerobic endurance zones advised by your lab), and Warm up (Z1) becomes 110–134 bpm (slightly narrower than the warm up zone advised by your lab).

Any activity in or below Warm up (Z1) would therefore be considered ‘active recovery’ grade easy exercise. Keep in mind that your ‘Time in Zones’ for an activity in Garmin Connect may not always add up to 100%, if it includes some time spent in the easy zone advised by your lab (i.e. below Warm up (Z1)).


Note: I haven't really digested Firstbeat Technology's Training Effect (TE) determination method and other stuff, and don't really know how best to set the HR zones if you want the TE reported by the FR235 to be meaningful.

Thank you Asmugdill... I will try your values and see what gives.

As I have now, the recovery time is rubbish. Getting a 23 reco time after a semi-eazy avg hr 138bpm gym training....