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Reconciling Garmin Training Status?

One of the reasons I bought a Garmin fēnix 6 was so I could more accurately track my activity levels, which I hoped would lead to better insight into my fitness level, workout recommendations, and a better handle on my training status. What I seem to be getting though is borderline useless…

Below is a table indicating the last month of activity: what Garmin suggested, what I actually did, how it impacted resting heart rate (RHR) (note that this is a trailing indicator), and the Training Status associated with the actual activity for that day.

Date Suggested Actual RHR Training Status
4/8/2021 Anaerobic 1:02:00 Tempo 59:04 46 Unproductive
4/7/2021 Base 1:13:00 Hike 1:04:19 / Run 10:13 / Strength 42:56 45 Unproductive
4/6/2021 Threshold 1:02:00 Tempo 1:22:28 / Base 55.37 45 Unproductive
4/5/2021 Threshold 1:02:00 Run 10:10 / Body Weight 22:43 46 Unproductive
4/4/2021 Base 1:33:00 Base 2:53:00 50 Unproductive
4/3/2021 Base 1:46:00 Base 3:48:06 / Hike 32:46 45 Unproductive
4/2/2021 Base 1:46:00 Run 10:21 / Strength 39:24 45 Peaking
4/1/2021 Base 1:39:00 Base 1:00:44 47 Peaking
3/31/2021 Base 1:13:00 Run 12:19 / Body Weight 27:56 50* Unproductive
3/30/2021 Tempo 1:20:00 Tempo 1:38:56 47 Unproductive
3/29/2021 Base 1:13:00 Ride 18:08 / Strength 38:55 47 Unproductive
3/28/2021 Threshold 1:07:00 Base 3:35:24 46 Unproductive
3/27/2021 Anaerobic 1:02:00 Base 2:04:23 49 Unproductive
3/26/2021 Base 1:13:00 Run 10:08 / Strength 45:06 46 Unproductive
3/25/2021 Recovery 30:00 Threshold 1:11:49 / Base 1:03:19 47 Unproductive
3/24/2021 Base 1:13:00 Run 10:30 / Body Weight 23:33 47 Unproductive
3/23/2021 Base 1:45:00 Threshold 1:14:36 45 Unproductive
3/22/2021 Base 1:13:00 Run 10:06 / Strength 42:12 48 Unproductive
3/21/2021 Anaerobic 1:15:00 Threshold 2:04:41 46 Unproductive
3/20/2021 Base 2:02:00 Recovery 2:04:41 48 Recovery
3/19/2021 Base 1:13:00 Run 10:11 / Body Weight 24:29 48 Productive
3/18/2021 Threshold 1:10:00 VO2 Max 1:09:59 45 Productive
3/17/2021 Threshold 1:10:00 Run 10:08 / Strength 35:41 44 Peaking
3/16/2021 Base 1:53:00 Base 1:32:51 42 Peaking
3/15/2021 Base 54:00 Run 12:27 / Body Weight 23:40 46 Productive
3/14/2021 Base 1:33:00 Base 2:11:56 48 Productive
3/13/2021 Anaerobic 1:20:00 Sprint 2:56:56 45 Productive
3/12/2021 Base 1:15:00 Base 1:15:27 46 Productive
3/11/2021 Base 1:10:00 Tempo 1:09:16 46 Productive
3/10/2021 Rest Run 10:05 / Body Weight 23:57 47 Unproductive
3/9/2021 Tempo 1:20:00 Tempo 58:06 45 Unproductive
3/8/2021 Recovery 30:00 Run 10:09 / Strength 40:17 48 Unproductive

* I suspect this number is abnormally high because I got my first COVID shot the previous day and I slept poorly because my arm was really sore.

There’s a lot going on there that I do not understand, but covering the big ones:

  1. I spend a lot of time being “Unproductive” according to my Garmin watch. Even though I consistently workout at numbers above what Garmin thinks my FTP is, and today (the screenshot above), even though “my fitness is declining” I felt good enough after the first two sets, to bump up the third by 5W (104% over what I have my FTP set to in Zwift).
  2. There doesn’t seem to be a strong relationship between what’s suggested one day, what I do, and the impact on that the following day. For e.g. on 3/25 Garmin suggested a 30 minute Recovery workout, I did a 1:11:49 Threshold and a 1:03:19 Base workout instead, my RHR went down, and then it suggested a Base workout for the next day. If I really needed a Recovery workout on the 25th, going the opposite direction should have created a Rest suggestion to avoid overload, but obviously that’s not what happened. So the fēnix clearly didn’t understand where I was physiologically on one of those days, and probably both.

Maybe I’m holding it wrong, or don’t understand what the data/suggestions are telling me, but frankly it just seems like a random number generator with little actual sense driving the bus.

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