Garmin

224 watchers

SPR Sep 2020 3:36pm, 10 Sep 2020 31,248 posts	SPR See my post 31138. No one seriously believes my VO2 Max has changed by almost 3 points within a week.
SPR Sep 2020 3:39pm, 10 Sep 2020 31,249 posts	SPR That's another thing Sigh. They're giving training analysis on the number which is poor.
larkim Sep 2020 3:49pm, 10 Sep 2020 11,884 posts	larkim One thing I really like about Runalyze is that I can link it to a spreadsheet so I can graph my VO2Max from file. Very rough and ready, but once you've got a public info page on RA and you've got a little bit of familiarity with the way GoogleSheets formulas work, it's not hard to do get quite useful stuff. No graphs just yet, but I'm working on it... docs.google.com
SPR Sep 2020 4:05pm, 10 Sep 2020 31,250 posts	SPR What watch have you got Larkim? I've just had a look at the VO2 Max figures from my 230 and it definitely doesn't change much. It was generally stable during a week and would change on a long run (down usually, presume performance condition would deal with this now) and progressive (up, the effort runs that CW mentioned). It looks like previously it ignored easy runs but with the addition of training status, they're analysing (almost) every run for that. That's poor training advice though and they need a different metric for every day training analysis really. On a positive note, the training load calc is very good and being able to calculate VO2 Max in intervals is very impressive.
larkim Sep 2020 4:12pm, 10 Sep 2020 11,885 posts	larkim Vivoactive, the original model. It has an odd history, in that it isn't supposed to have VO2Max on it, but when it was first launched the Garmin website displayed it. Then one day it disappeared, and they said that the watch wasn't capable of VO2Max calcs. I thiink I posted on here wondering whether the VO2Max calc was therefore a server side calc or a watch-based calc (either for my watch, or more generally), and someone pointed me towards RA as a way of displaying this "hidden data" for me - I can't see VO2Max on my watch itself, but I can, via RA, see the small day by day progress that it records. I broadly trust that calc as being a solid measure of fitness - as an absolute number it might be nonsense, but as a number to track the direction of travel it does feel like it strongly correlates with my actual fitness levels.
Badger Sep 2020 4:19pm, 10 Sep 2020 12,761 posts	Badger larkim, is that sheet updating live from runalyze, then? Very neat! Totally agree on the VO2max number's value (the highest I ever saw was when I was busy repeatedly PBing 5k & the odd half & 10k PB into the bargain).
SPR Sep 2020 4:20pm, 10 Sep 2020 31,252 posts	SPR So an older watch. Looking at your numbers, it does seem to be fairly stable with movements up or down every so often, or small incremental changes.
SPR Sep 2020 4:23pm, 10 Sep 2020 31,253 posts	SPR Larkim - What Badger said if the file is updating direct from Runalyze! How did you do that?
The_Saint Sep 2020 4:27pm, 10 Sep 2020 6,588 posts	The_Saint When I first had optical HR (a 735), I compared it with a separate watch with chest strap and the agreement was excellent. The 645 never gave suspicious readings either but the 245 does. Looking in the Garmin 245 forum I see that other people have noticed also with the latest firmware which I have.
SPR Sep 2020 4:43pm, 10 Sep 2020 31,254 posts	SPR Interesting Saint. I've had mine for about a couple of months and it's my first optical watch.