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

Training status

Former Member over 8 years ago

Yesterday I received an "Unproductive" status on the Training status page on my 935. Feedback to Garmin:

1) Pretty darn impressive considering I'm fighting a cold and had slept like complete crap the previous 2 nights which the Sleep screen in Connect confirmed.

2) How can my Lactate Threshold and my Aerobic training effect both been positive/improving during yesterday's activity while the overall status went into Unproductive?

3) OHR and pace and the run overall felt nothing out of the ordinary which means the data I was provided went against the old school rule of listening to your body and instead used the behind the scenes data. Again, pretty awesome, but also perplexing as one could question if you should listen to your body or listen to your Garmin.

4) I'm going to use my HRM-TRI for my next few runs to see what type of variance I get in my data, but to date I have found the OHR to behave just like my old chest strap, with the exception that it takes 5-10 seconds longer for it to come down from peak values at times, for example when transitioning from an uphill to a downhill.

I very much want to be able to utilize these tools as much as Polar users swear by the data Polar provides, however I'm somewhat confused on how to do so with unintended mixed messages being received. I gladly welcome anyone who can chime in on a more scientific level.

0 timgrose over 8 years ago

What happened to your VO2 Max. I suspect it went down?

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Tim, surprisingly NO, it remained the same! And that too was one of the things that really made me pause. Today I'm feeling somewhat better and did sleep thru the night, although it was light sleep, so we will see what that in combination with a HRM-TRI do to these metrics.

0 timgrose over 8 years ago

Actually mine is saying Unproductive right now and I did feel rather flat on a short Zwift ride yesterday. The day before it was productive but then I did a hardish 10 mile run and still recovering from that I think so I think there is quite a fine line. My VO2 Max on both cycling and running are flitting between 59 and 60 right now but on the 59 side today!

Will see how it is after training tonight which will probably be hard if I can get myself going.

Day to day changes I am not too worried about but if it remains unproductive for days on end, I may take more notice.

These days I tend to take a bit of a natural hard/easy approach and if you aren't about to do a race I do feel that sometimes "unproductive" is to be expected.

There is also the thing that VO2 Max is only reported on the watch to a whole number but is computed with decimal places so it may have gone "down" really without an actual visual change.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Tim, My VO2 (classified as EXCELLENT per connect) did go down one point after today's run which again I am being told my 7.1 mile run was unproductive, while my Training load the last 7 days of 828 is optimal, but my fitness went down and load went up. Meanwhile I was HIGHLY IMPROVING Lactate Threshold, with MINOR ANAEROBIC BENEFIT, and my TIME IN ZONE was MOSTLY ZONE 2 and 3. SO many metrics, SO much confusion on what the heck to do with it all. When in doubt, focus on what PHISH started telling all of us runners many many years ago, run run run run run run run run run.........like an antelope.

0 timgrose over 8 years ago

Well after my hilly 2 hour group ride tonight where I got dropped several times, it says I need 4 recovery days! It might have a point :)

I think when it says "HIGHLY IMPROVING" it does not mean that it is actually doing that in terms of your actual LT level on that one run but more it is sort of training that can do that.

If you look at your LT HR and pace on the watch, it should give a date when it was calculated. When was that?

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Tim, it didn't list any date, however I can say that the status' were both different after today's run than after yesterday's run. Tomorrow is a day off from running and strictly a lifting day with maybe some swimming or elliptical thrown in, but friday will be back to running so it will be interesting to see how things change. None of my comments about data are complaints, but rather are only hope that the data is actually useable for something productive. So...much...data...

0 kitenski over 8 years ago

charlie 1700

just started looking at this myself. On the GC Mobile app, tap Performance Stats then Training Status for more info.

It appears to be based on your training volume and you need to keep it in the green "optimal range". Pic below of mine, when it dropped out of the green box it went to unproductive, then detraining now back to Maintaining.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

And therein lies the strange part, I am in fact in optimal range at the same time.

0 kitenski over 8 years ago

And therein lies the strange part, I am in fact in optimal range at the same time.

Interesting, care to share the screenshot from GC Mobile? I guess we will lean more about this over time!

just checked what dcrainmaker says, which is interesting in the time needed:

One really important thing to point out is that these metrics take time to adapt to you. Realistically FirstBeat says it takes about two weeks in total to get to the point of having truly valid data. That also assumes that you’re able to get two workouts that trigger a VO2Max estimate (either running or cycling, but two of the same sport type). It’s those two key items that allow it to really hone in. It’ll reach its ‘full potential’ once it has about a month’s worth of data on you.

Also two very useful links he also posted.

https://media.dcrainmaker.com/images/2017/03/Training-Effect-Phrases.xlsx

https://media.dcrainmaker.com/images/2017/03/Training-Status_Short_description.xlsx

which says (and sounds spot on for you)

Unproductive "Your training load is at a good level, but your fitness is decreasing. Your body may be struggling to recover, so be sure to pay attention to your overall health including stress, nutrition and rest.

0 kitenski over 8 years ago

I'm also guessing that swimming doesn't count as I see no Anaerobic or Aerobic TE score for any swim activities in Garmin connect??