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vivoactive 3 Series Vigorous hike did not register intensity minutes, why?

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Vigorous hike did not register intensity minutes, why?

Former Member over 7 years ago

I am trying to understand why my device sometimes tracks intensity minutes, and sometimes not. I leave the HR monitor on 24/7 so I get a good resting HR around ~56bpm most days. Yesterday I took a fairly vigorous hike and racked up 0 intensity minutes. I am having a heck of a time getting to the 150 goal because of issues like this. Meanwhile, hiking my dog this morning (had to sniff everything) racked up 10 minutes, and it wasn't even close to vigorous other than mashing my way through 12" of crunchy old snow trying to get to work on time.

I manually set my peak heart rate to 166bpm, which is supposedly my peak for my age at 48yo. I can't even get close to this while playing hockey, maybe 148bpm is the highest I have seen. I am not sure if by manually setting it lower than the default of 177bpm messed up the intensity minutes calculation for hikes? It is almost impossible for me to get into the anaerobic HR range, my ticker is willing but the body is weak.

I get plenty of credit for hockey, but 2hrs of it only usually registers ~35minutes of intensity. This was before I lowered my peak heart rate though, I expect it to go up next time.

This is the hike:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2551688822?share_unique_id=8
Please take a look at the HR zones, and the HR over time and I think it has to do with the duration at any one time of peak heart rate? Climbing a hill doesn't take long enough to register? These hills may not be the largest, but when almost running up them, I hoped for a little credit!

Thanks for any insight.

-Mark

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

You have to maintain 10 consecutive minutes in your HR zones to get credit for intensity minutes. You have 1 zone (3) where you accumulated the required 10 minutes, but I suspect that is total time for that zone and not consecutive. You're not going to get credit for zones 1 & 2.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I guess I need to find somewhere with bigger hills! Can't run down the snow and ice on these hills to keep my HR up or I will kill myself. Wondering if I should play with my zones a little as I struggle, even on my hardest workouts, to get to zone 4.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Wondering if I should play with my zones a little as I struggle, even on my hardest workouts, to get to zone 4.

I would and have on my 310xt.

The maxHR calculation based on age is at best an approximation, so deriving zones from it, again are approximations.
I'm sure many moons ago, I read a description of what each zone is suppose to feel like...
something like, 3 = elevated HR, can still talk, 4 = difficult workout, out of breath 5= unsustainable, used for intervals, eg. running up a steep hill.
it then went on to say something like, most of your exercise should be in 3, pushing into 4.
sorry, these are not the descriptions... perhaps someone can knows what these are...

also i don't know how applicable these zones are to non-running activities..
(I'm assuming VA3 allows you to manually enter zone limits?!)

I'm considering a VA3 for hiking in the mountains too, so I'm very interested to hear your experiences on this, and also how well it generally works (e.g. altitude)

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I wouldn't adjust my zones just to get intensity minutes. After all it's just a number. Maybe try a weighted backpack on your next hike?

0 R_Tellis over 7 years ago

Adjusting zones just for the sake of getting intensity minutes doesn't make any sense. It's more important in the big picture to have an accurate MaxHR and base your zones off of that.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

That's the problem I guess, if figuring out what my zones should really be for me and my ticker.

My heart rate has always been low, even when I am out of shape. It probably stems from when when I used to really punish myself with running up mountains and biking a low cadence at high speed everywhere I went, and I went everywhere on a bike, foregoing cars for a long time. I don't want to push myself into a dangerous zone for me just to get points either, and don't want to lower them just to get points, but I do want to motivate myself as well. I am outclassed by friends that run marathons (not for me, I despise long distance running now), and I outclass others (cubicle engineers) so I get no direct competition other than myself for hikes and bikes. My wife is a whopping 4'6" so she can't keep up, and her heart rate is on the high side and sensitive to a workout, so she would make gobs of points doing the same things.

I will just need to learn my fitness level I guess and adjust to what makes sense after things settle out. It isn't like I am in spectacular shape or anything, but I am not dead either.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I wouldn't adjust my zones just to get intensity minutes. After all it's just a number. Maybe try a weighted backpack on your next hike?

Or just a watch and a notepad?

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I don't know what you mean. A watch and a notepad for what exactly?

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Sorry, I meant that I don't need a gadget to tell me how long I've exercised for. I look at my watch when I start, and I look again when I finish. Everything between those two points is "intensity minutes", which I write down.

I'm not sure what a clever gadget will do that is better than this, apart from relieving me of the need to check the time. In fact, my method is better, because it always works.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I absolutely agree. Garmin is using a set standard to tell people this is how many intensity minutes you've accumulated when each individual is different. Some people have problems reaching 150 mins per week. I've turned mine off because I was easily eclipsing 450 mins a week. I can tell you, I'm not nearly that in shape. My concern is people are going to use the intensity minutes to gauge their workouts and by doing so, may be quite disappointed with the results in the long run.