I’m curious if people here use the Garmin training metrics like training readiness to guide or influence their training or consider at all or just see it as a curiosity.
Yes
I’m new to Garmin and my watch doesn’t have a training readiness score. But it does show me HRV and overnight resting heart rate. I’ve been keeping an eye on both to guide whether I’m pushing the right amount or too hard. For example, I was sick recently and not surprisingly HRV went down and resting heart rate went up. I looked at those metrics and took an extra day or two of rest than I probably would have if I just went based on how I felt as I recovered from the illness.
No
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I track them, but they don’t rule me.
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Same I look at them and consider them at times but don’t really follow them.
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lol no
I pay a human to tell me what to do
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Of all of them Performance Condition is probably the least relevant to me. I’m actually going to disable the prompt for that on my 1040 as it’s pretty useless. I’m already on the bike, and I’m not going to change my ride based on a beep and a screen prompt of a number that I have no idea how they came up with it.
Art O’Conner (Wukarfit) famously said on Insta, All those numbers are just made up, save, time, maybe cadence, and depending on the chest strap, HR. the rest is just opaque algorithmic nonsense.
RPE rules all, the rest are just interesting things that may or may not align with RPE.
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lol me too but that won’t always be the case. It’s funny because I will say one of the primary benefits of being coached for me has become load mgmt. Not just physical but knowing when to tell me I need to take a break to keep from burning out mentally
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I’ve only just recently started to look at the data more frequently
Yes, I have just a few minutes ago been overruled on a suggestion to move up a workout one day earlier.
As far as Garmin data, I have looked at it, and do not trust it one bit. I don’t think their optical sensors and algorithms are accurate enough as of yet to tell me much of anything useful.
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It’s like anything isn’t it? A data set that you can compare to how/what you are feeling on any given day. I track my ‘feel’ in a training diary and look back at what the watch tells me in the past to see how they marry up. The trick is learning when you can push through and when to hold back. And even with a human telling you, it all is trial and error until all of you(yourself, human, AI overlord) learn what is and isn’t.
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I don’t use them for running or riding because they don’t reflect how I feel and especially endurance training. I’m convinced that Garmin will continue to invent new “scores” as a form of marketing…
Wait, what? I was thinking that I am spectacular specimen at 50yo, with 4 years of structured training and endurance score as “Elite”. Oh my, all dreams shattered.
Oh well, at least I can still ride my bike 
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I love data, I love collecting data, I love Garmin data.
I do absolutely nothing with that data 
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My watch is a bit basic (a Vivio Active 3) to capture much data and for what it does I’ll only really look at it in retrospect.
I do!
Vo2max
Training Load Specificity
I don’t care if the Vo2max is accurate, only care if it’s self consistent. It’s another way to track HR:PWR progress.
Also a good boost to the ego to see it in the 70’s when I’m at sea level.
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No, while the data would be interesting if true, it does provide a consistent benchmark.
Unfortunately if you start overlaying different aspects which then impacts from your core training programme , that’s a rabbit hole you might want to avoid.
I review Load Ratio = Acute Training Load / Chronic Training Load to make sure I’m generally trending where I want to be, not overreaching for a week at a time. Pretty sure if I ever got to that level, my legs would tell me I was overreaching, though.
HRV is a lagging indicator, from what I can tell. RHR same. As much as two or three days’ behind, and also too greatly influenced by non-training things for me to care too much about it.
If I had events at altitude or in the heat planned, I would more than causally browse the altitude and heat acclimation sections, but its tough to acclimate to altitude living at 600ft…
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Same. I let it help me review my overall load and whether I need to add in a bit more aerobic/anaerobic intensity. As Old said, I also keep an eye on the VO2 number. Not to care about the validity of the number, but to see whether it’s tracking up or down as another component of reviewing my load balance and how it’s impacted by my training.
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