Garmin

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Big_G Sep 2021 10:41pm, 23 Sep 2021 1,107 posts	0 Big_G I have a couple of questions relating to how the Garmins that have the below features work. Does anyone have any insight into these? - How are the times in 'Race Predictor' worked out, where the screen shows predicted times for 5K, 10K, Half and Marathon? I have recently ran decent (for me) 10K and Half times, but the the Race Predictor estimates haven't been updated for those distances. The 10K time is about 30secs too slow, and the Half time about 70secs too slow (if it matters, I ran the 10K last weekend and the Half the weekend before). Interestingly I think the 5K predicted time is about right for me, but it isn't in line with the predicted 10K and Half time, which makes me think these values aren't just updated from some kind race pace comparison algorithm. For me, something like McMillan is much more accurate overall. Does anyone else have this issue with the watch? - I seem to quite often get a discrepancy between a) the Body Battery figures (which may say I am at 100% when I wake up), b) the Recovery estimate (which after even only a 10K race says I need 48hrs to recover) and c) the function that tells me if it thinks I am under training. How can it be that the Body Battery is at 100% and I feel fine, but the device is telling me I need 48hrs to recover from a 10K (I ignore this advice as for me it doesn't seem accurate for me), whilst in the same time frame it is telling me I have taken it easy recently? I would say the Body Battery seems to be relatively accurate (i.e., if I have a poor night's sleep it does seem to reflect that in the figures), but b) and c) are often conflicting for me. Does anyone have any success with these items, or are they really just a gimmick? For what it's worth, it is a Fenix 6x Pro, I wear the watch 24/7 (except when I shower), and I wear a HR chest strap when exercising.
jelly (limegreenjelly) Sep 2021 12:48am, 24 Sep 2021 1,380 posts	0 jelly (limegreenjelly) I have a fenix, I rarely look at my body battery and I turned off the bit that says I’m under training. I run every day so I also just ignore my recovery time!
Sam Jelfs Sep 2021 6:35am, 24 Sep 2021 995 posts	0 Sam Jelfs Body battery tries to predict energy levels, based on things like HRV, amount of sleep, activities etc. Basically it tries to indicate if you are getting enough sleep / rest compared to the amount of physical / mental stresses you are putting on your body. Recovery time is different, as it says hour long your body should be allowed to recover before the next hard training session. This is based on how hard an activity was, with some correction for your normal training level. You can have recovered enough energy to have 100% body battery, doesn't mean your muscles are ready to go out and put in a hard session. For training load, i would suggest checking the descriptions on the Garmin site, they aren't as intuitive as they might at first seem... support.garmin.com
Big_G Sep 2021 8:02am, 24 Sep 2021 1,108 posts	0 Big_G Sam, thanks. I was confused about the recovery time as in the last week, one day it said I had been doing too much and needed to be careful (which I really don't think is the case), and the next day it said that my effort had too been low recently (equally not the case, but confusing to have the differing notifications so close to each other). I can't remember the exact wording of the two notifications, but it was implying something along those lines. I was wondering if it gets confused by, or doesn't properly take account of, multiple activities on the same day? For example, on race day, 1-mile warm up, strides etc, but overall low intensity, 10K hard effort, short warm down, all as separate activities. The day after that it said I had been doing too much, and then the next day too little. Or I wonder if it doesn't quite understand that I do most (a large majority) of my training to low HR, and so it doesn't factor that in properly for me? Anyway, I will have a read of that link later on. Thanks. Regarding the race predictor query, I am not sure what is going on there. In GC, I manually accepted the new records (so GC noticed that I had PBd at those distances) but those details haven't made their way into the race predictor screen or had any impact on the marathon time prediction, which is slow compared to fairly recent attempts. It is odd as I think the 5K is more or less right, even though I haven actually ran a 5K as quick as it is implying, so I don't know how it is working these things out.
Kieren Sep 2021 12:00am, 26 Sep 2021 4,230 posts	0 Kieren This is how the race predictor works firstbeatanalytics.com You need some threshold / vo2max efforts in training to help it along I think.
quimby Sep 2021 1:56pm, 26 Sep 2021 5,027 posts	0 quimby Went for a swim in my Vivoactive 4s today for the first time and it appears to be allergic to water. About 10 mins after I got home, it felt uncomfortable on my wrist. I went to loosen the strap, and it was displaying the message "Battery critically low. Powering down." So I took it off, and discovered the discomfort was probably due to how hot the thing was. I don't think it's really burnt my wrist badly, but it's a bit red. After about 15 mins, it seemed to have cooled down, so I've put it on to charge, but there's no indication yet that it is charging. I've had a bit of a Google and it seems to have happened to a few people but not very many. I suppose it's going to need a call to Garmin support. I guess it might be a poorly-sealed unit, so it only went bump when I got it properly wet? I don't shower in it. I do go out in the rain, though. A bit worrying that a device some people wear in bed can overheat like that.
Lizzie Whizz Sep 2021 7:55pm, 26 Sep 2021 25,539 posts	0 Lizzie Whizz
quimby Sep 2021 8:07pm, 26 Sep 2021 5,028 posts	0 quimby After trying to charge it, it got hot again after about 10 minutes. So I've got no trust in it, no way am I going to leave it to charge for longer. I have a return label for a Garmin replacement, but they are out of stock at the moment. Tried to charge an old Forerunner 220, but it hasn't survived its long rest. With no idea how long my replacement will take, I've ordered a Forerunner 45s from Amazon to tide me over (yes, I have bare wrist anxiety - eyeballroll). I really wanted to wait until the new Fenix was out. I've saved my pennies for that for quite a while. Oh well, let's see what transpires. My wrist is fine, BTW, just glad I was sat at a desk when it overheated and not driving or something.
LindsD Sep 2021 8:25pm, 26 Sep 2021 49,851 posts	0 LindsD
jelly (limegreenjelly) Sep 2021 11:13am, 27 Sep 2021 1,404 posts	0 jelly (limegreenjelly) That sounds quite worrying, I don’t like not having a watch on my wrist!