Does anyone know how Garmin calculates your FTP?
I did a short bike interval today at the gym following a strength session.
The bike session was 15 minutes including cool down. When I saved the activity it told me I had a new FTP which is around a 10watt increase.
How did it arrive at this figure?
PFM
It’s all First Beat algorithms, it’s described as something like VO2max estimates and then HR variability data across a whole range of intensities - presumably your low intensity bike session was enough to fill out the HR data such that it was ready to make an estimate. However because it was a cool down after a strength session, I’d say even if the first beat algorithm was perfect, that would devalue the data at a guess.
The specific algorithms are of course not published, and you probably don’t have the HRV data anyway, so who knows if you could reproduce or identify exactly why it decided you were better.
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Anyone else find that when you upload a Garmin Multisport activity to Strava that it averages out the heart rate across the activity? Looks fine in Garmin connect but Strava it’s a straight line 
No, I do a bike/run brick most weeks and get 3 completely separate activities in Strava (Bike, T1 & Run) all with their own stats. It shows as a multipsort activity in Garmin but the details all match.
At long last I’ve signed up to OudoorActive (the free version of the old Viewranger) to load the NC110 into my phone. I can’t quite work out how to save it but I can access it offline by looking at Recently Viewed.
I exported it to GC and after a bit of Googling, got it into my watch. I’m not really planning on using it on my watch, I just wanted a back up on phone for if I get lost. I know most of the course but there are some sections I’ve not done and it’ll be at night)
Two questions:
If I have it in GC, is it easier to view on the phone via that, or Outdoor Active. (do you need a mobile signal for GC?)
If I do run it on the watch, does it kill the battery life a lot quicker than just my regular Trail setting? I only have distance and time on a main screen for trail.
If you use the course on the watch it will take very little battery unless you are actually on the map screen as that takes a bit of cpu grunt to rotate and display the course. So don’t keep the watch on the map screen, but if you flick to that screen occasionally to check the course it won’t use much power.
Another big battery killer is the backlight, so turn that to minimum brightness and with the shortest timeout.
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Cheers Doug. I was going leave the backlight off and just use my headtorch really. So the course itself can be set up as a data screen in your Trail options I assume?
I’ve never been a fan of using GC to see the route map, as i don’t think it’s very clear at all. Haven’t used Outdoor Active before, but do use Viewranger all the time. Just make sure the route is properly downloaded for offline use, and that includes the map displaying at a decent resolution to actually differentiate the paths. Most of it is straightforward, but i did get lost in the night about 3 times when i did it. Partly becuase i was running very hard and solo, but also because i thought the map had downloaded. Hint … it hadn’t. So i had a line on a fuzzy, pixelated map that was next to useless in a valley with no signal. I think i calculated a total of over 30 mins wasted being lost in that race!
I had the map loaded onto my Forerunner 235, which doesn’t have full mapping. Just an arrow with the next instruction on it, and a really rough ‘line’ for the course. Then i use VR as a backup for any tricky bits.
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Before pressing start (or even during the activity) press and hold the menu button (middle left) go to “Navigation” then “Courses” select the course you want and the “Do Course”. Once it finishes loading the course it will add a data screen with the course on it (and a few other screens, things like ETA to finish, distance remaining, course profile, etc).
You will need to switch it back to your preferred data screen.
Worth giving it a try before race day
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Chers Doug.
GB, thanks for that. I tried going via VR but it defaults to OutdoorActive when you try and save. I reckon if didn’t have a VR account before, you have to use OA now.
Yes, the download is tricky. I will have another look today but when I hit the ‘Download’ icon it just takes me to the download instructions, rather than actually downloading it (as far as I can tell). I’ll PM you about the course.
I think it’s time to replace my (once) trusty old 920XT. A few months back it started to randomly reboot during activities. Now it has stopped doing that but I’ve lost faith in it a little. During the London marathon is has a crazy KM where GPS was all over the place and added 400m and reported some crazy paces.
In addition to this I’m about to start training at a track, so track mode would be good. And I have a Stryd and the 920XT doesn’t really work with it properly.
What should I get? I’m almost tempted to get a running watch as I don’t plan to do many tris in the short term, I have an 820 for the bike, and I never really bother recording swim training.
So really I want a running watch that has decent GPS, works on tracks, and ideally works with Stryd (but that’s not a deal breaker).
I’m tempted to go Corros next but I’d like to see one IRL first.
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If staying in the Garmin family:
245 (£200): Dedicated running watch, can record swim and bike but no ‘multi-sport’ mode
745 (£360): Cut down tri-watch, though not that cut-down except the battery - you will need to be fast to use it for a full IM
945 (£450): Everything Garmin can throw at a multi-sport watch
Then there are the various Fenix versions, which do more or less the same thing, depending on how old they are.
As they have all been around a while now, good chance they will appear in a Black Friday sale somewhere.
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If you really want proper stryd integration, then the Coros is probably the one. They basically created the concept of track mode, which garmin then copied, and has native stryd connectivity
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Thanks for the inputs. The Coros Pace 2 looks very interesting. I guess I’ll hold fire until Black Friday, but the Pace 2 seems quite new, so probably wouldn’t expect to see much/any discount.
This is an interesting change given the well known altimeter issues and the various fixes tried over the years.
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How does it know I’m squatting, benching or rowing?
I can’t get my planned workout synched to the watch so I used Free workout, and it correctly guessed 75% of my sets. Spooky.
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25% of the time it’s getting it wrong though. I uses the same accelerometer as for swimming to guess the stroke. The with some algorithm to match the patterns to come up with the exercise being done.
Lot more variables and variations which is why it’s not as accurate as it is for swim strokes (also they probably put note effort I perfecting it for swimming)
Don’t know if this has been bought up before but thought of @Jorgan when I read this.
The barometer is combined with the temperature sensor and Garmin have worked out that Chlorine accelerates the demise of the barometer whilst its powered up hence no more temperature readings in the pool on the new watches.
So if you’re a regular pool goer your barometer is more likley to be fubar’d.
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