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Always unproductive

ToniSilva
over 6 years ago
I have my watch since 15 july.
In first a found it amazing. And it really is!

But two months later, it's hard for me to get it motivating me.
I'm 42 years old, father of two childs, and married.
Between home, work, kids, wife and many other things I struggle to find an hour to run.
Even so I've done it, in average, twice a week.
Spent 3 weeks in vacations in witch i swam some little distances (with HR measure), every day in first week, 2 times per week in the other two. Running: distance between 5k and 8k and pace arround 5:30. Average HR is high, arround 165, but i feel fine wile running and after finish.

I tried to run with my preferred pace (below 5:30), with a slower one (near 6 - i hate it), but the training status is always: unproductive.

And I think that's probably correct, but also not reflecting my evolution. I'm pretty much better now than I was two months ago.

I'll just conclued by saying that maybe it should be a user profile. Maybe 935 is made for pros, but should also fit for "lousy" amateur like me. For a begginer, i feel that my fitness has improved since i have the watch, but every thing else, in the garmin watch and connect shows me the opposite.

My last 4 runs:
6-Sept, 5k, 5:55: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2991179525
3-Sep, 7.5k, 5:30: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2985927904
29-Aug, 8.26k, 5:42: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2971820909
26-Aug, 5.05k, 5:26: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2965149840

Perhaps i should have bought the vivoactive...
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    I find my motivation by systematically comparing my heart rate to my pace or power.

    For example, last week I repeated a 5 km run I had done 3 months earlier, making sure to keep the same average pace for each 1 km split as I did in the first run. When I came home, I compared my heart rates for the two runs and could see that I had done the new run at an average of 14 BPM less than the old run.

    To me, that is motivation. If I can run at the same pace for the same time and keep a lower HR, I have improved. I don't care that the watch tells me that I haven't improved. (Well, I do care, but at least the heart rate comparison gives me a proper foundation for my disagreement with the watch.)
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    Hi Antonio,
    I think your runs are "unproductive" because you always run in the same steady pace. You have to go add some intervals, fartleks, repetitions etc. to your trainings.
    Find any training plan for 10km for e.g. 55 minutes and there should be described various types of trainings.
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    @AllanOlesen67
    That's a fine way to do, comparing HR in similar or equal routes.
    But... that should be Garmin's job!
    The devices are expensive enough, and so, not appropriated for "unsatisfied" costumers.
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    Well, I take the Churchill approach to this: I only believe the statistics that I have personally faked.

    So I take these fancy metrics with a grain of salt and prefer doing my own metrics anyway.

    In my specific case, the watch was apparently fooled by a change in the way I trained. I went from quite intensive training at a low volume to less intensive training at a high volume. I saw huge improvement in any metric that I could come up with myself, but the VO2Max calculation in my watch told me that my VO2Max was decreasing.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    your heart rate seems quite high for a slow pace I think that is one of the issues with unproductive status it thinks your load is increasing and your fitness is decreasing.. a heart rate of 173 for a pace of 6:40min/km seems indeed you are struggling not recovering enough so your heart rate is higher.
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    My training status has shown Unproductive most of the past month or so. During that time my max VO2 has increased to 57 (likely due the hill sprints & internals I've been doing), my cycling VO2 has increased to 61, my average SWOLF's dropped from 43 to 42 and I've set some new swimming PBs. To me, my training appears to have been productive.

    I'm not sure how the training status being calculated for me to have been unproductive during that time, but I'm ignoring it for a while. If the past few months have been anything to go by, it's just another bug that'll be ironed out soon.
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    most likely you are not recovering well enough between sessions and although you are getting fitter, you could be getting fitter quicker by resting appropriately.How many hard sessions are you doing a week?
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    Two or three runs a week, couple of swims and a bike / turbo session.

    Of those runs, 1 or 2 are hard(-ish), usually lunchtimes and the following evening I have an easy swim by which point my recovery advisor is showing 0.

    The 1 fast swim comes the day after a longer slower run, again recovery advisor either showing zero or very close to it.

    I'm not training for anything at the moment, just keeping myself ticking over. Before getting my 935 four months ago, my Max VO2 on my 920XT was 58 - I don't think I'm overtraining or not recovering enough at the moment, just getting my stats back to where they were.

  • 0 over 6 years ago
    your heart rate seems quite high for a slow pace I think that is one of the issues with unproductive status it thinks your load is increasing and your fitness is decreasing.. a heart rate of 173 for a pace of 6:40min/km seems indeed you are struggling not recovering enough so your heart rate is higher.


    That was for a few seconds on a climb. But yes, since the beginning that i think this is a reason.
    Even so, i feel much better than two months ago.
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    Hi Antonio,
    I think your runs are "unproductive" because you always run in the same steady pace. You have to go add some intervals, fartleks, repetitions etc. to your trainings.
    Find any training plan for 10km for e.g. 55 minutes and there should be described various types of trainings.


    I guess i'll add some diversity to my trainings. TrainingPeaks is useful for this? Anyone tried it?