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:
- 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).
- 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.
