I been getting a few queries about “Training Status” on the
Garmin device, and why after the weekend KLSCM (Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered
Marathon), their “Training Status” went into “Unproductive”. The conversation
triggered as I showed my “Unproductive” status after sharing my 42km run
results. It raised a lot of questions. Many asked how can one be unproductive
(as a negative verb) when you just, well, ran a freaking 42km? I realized this
can be discontenting for some, while for me, having understand how this work,
not too worried and fully understand the message that is being sent by the device,
to me.
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| Should you be worried? |
Training status is a feature by Garmin that analyses your
historical training load and habit and put them into an easy-to-understand bigger
picture. If you do not use your device when you go for your exercise, or loan
your device to another person, this will screw up your overall reading. This is
because many of the user settings are set based on your ability; your Maximum Heart
Rate, Lactate Threshold, Resting Heartrate, sleep, VO2Max, and even your
sleeping time. These metrics has significant impact to how the “Training Status”
are derived.
What Training Status does is to help provide a guidance and
help your training plan in future – should you consider putting more intensity,
train longer, and if you are working hard enough to see changes. Your
effectiveness of your current training is being considered (in the form of the
past 7-days training load) and your fitness level changes.
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| Training Status vs VO2Max vs Training Load - All related! |
If you look at the logic, if you reduce your training, your
fitness level will decrease. But if your previous training load is too high
(meaning you need rest), a break or slow down or “recovery” may actually result
in increase of fitness level – hence sometimes you get a surprised “new VO2max
detected” after a day or two or rest, followed by a hard workout such as
interval and speed work.
Along the same way, logically, if you train everyday and
have the training load (in past 7-days) to be high, and you are happy with your
progress – only to see your fitness slip into unproductive (like in my case),
you know you may be bordering on “overtraining” if you are not too careful.
So, if you been training consistently for weeks, and your
fitness level has been good. You make small day-to-day improvement in terms of
load (optimal), the device will identify this as “productive”. Similarly, if
you keep putting in hard training (intervals, hill work, speed work) day after
day, the device will detect this as overreaching and you may have to cut back
down on the intensity, or even take days off from training to recover.
In the device, these are the typical indicator to help you
understand. These definitions is available in your Garmin Connect and also on
Garmin website.
Peaking –
You are in ideal race condition! Your recently reduced training load is
allowing your body to recover and fully compensate for earlier training. Be
sure to think ahead, since this peak state can only be maintained for a short
time.
Productive –
Keep up the good work! Your training load is moving your fitness in the right
direction. Be sure to plan recovery periods into your training to maintain your
fitness level.
Maintaining –
Your current training load is enough to maintain your fitness level. To see
improvement, try adding more variety to your workouts or increasing your
training volume.
Recovery –
Your lighter training load is allowing your body to recover, which is essential
during extended periods of hard training. You can return to a higher training
load when you feel ready.
Unproductive –
Your training load is at a good level, but your fitness is decreasing. Your
body may be struggling to recover, so pay close attention to your overall
health, including stress, nutrition and rest.
Detraining –
You’ve been training much less than usual for a week or more, and it’s
affecting your fitness. Try increasing your training load to see improvement.
Overreaching –
Your training load is very high and has become counterproductive. Your body
needs a rest. Give yourself time to recover by adding lighter training to your
schedule.
No Status –
You typically need a week or two of training history, including recent
activities with VO2 max results from running or cycling, before we can
determine your training status.
So you been “unproductive”
The mystery of this can easily be explained this way. If you
been running and exercising and you get this beep on your device that says “Performance
Condition +5” or “Performance Condition -10”. On Garmin Connect, Performance
Condition is defined and classified as this:
“As you run,
performance condition analyzes your pace, heart rate, and heart rate
variability to make a real-time assessment of your ability to perform compared
to your average fitness level. During the first 6 to 20 minutes of an activity,
your watch displays your performance condition score. Performance condition can
also be an indicator of fatigue level, especially at the end of a long training
run.”
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| Performance Condition indicator |
Now it starts to make sense… despite having a good “fitness
base”, the 42km run that I did returned a performance condition that denotes me
having only a “fair” condition, which is below my baseline. Hence, the decline
and the fatigue indicator.
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| The KLSCM 42km, my Performance Condition has been at average -3, which is "Fair", which resulted in "Unproductive" |
When my Vo2Max went from 55 to 56 about 3 weeks ago, my
Performance Condition during a 5km BRICK run was on the +4 and at baseline. The
device algorithm checked this as Productive and hence the increase.
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| Compared to this 5km BRICK Run, which I completed in 22mins, It's on "Good" level, which help me to record new VO2Max |
I will not touch into the Training Load for this article –
as I am assuming the concern here is because despite a good Training Load, the
status is on the decline. If your Training Load is already sub-optimal, it is
expected your Training Status will be on the lower end as well.
Your Training Status ties in very closely to the Performance
Condition at the time you are doing the exercise. If your heart rate
(hence why finding your
HRMax and LTHR is important) is higher at a
particular pace (hence why it is important for you to put in the correct lactate
pace in your User Setting) for your Garmin calculated VO
2Max then you will
have a negative Performance Condition.
Likewise, If your heart rate is lower at a
particular pace for your Garmin to calculated VO2Max then you will have a
positive Performance Condition. Make sense – as you are now more efficient
(lower HR threshold) and running at a higher speed (pace), a good indication
you are improving.
To maintain a Productive status you must be working out above your Training Load while keeping positive Performance Conditions during
workouts that calculate your VO2Max.
My personal take on this Training Status is to use it as a
guidance, and to provide insight into our own training regime – we tend to fall
into three categories; training too hard (in desperation to improve) or thinking
we are training hard (in denial that the fitness is on decline) or training
insufficiently (or wrongly) because of other factors. For this “Unproductive”
status to show on my device since September 24 – it closely relates to the
detraining status in the run up of KLSCM, and the 42km itself being take much
easier (ave HR Z2/3) vs a very slow pace (Z1/2 threshold pace) which resulted
in the “unproductive”.
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| Ruled By Device #FeelMyPain |
Am I worried? Not really. I believe it will go up back again
within the next 2 weeks. Even if it doesn’t show “Peaking” before my
Ironman Langkawi on October 26, 2019 – I will still be racing at my own
personal peak condition. Use these as guidance, not absolute indicator, very
much like how Maximum HR calculation of 220-age is too generic for someone that
is active and train at least 7 times a week!
Hope today’s article help you to understand how to continue to maximise your Garmin device!
