Garmin Challenges and Badges
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Got the 5km run badge, with a truly shite run. But I got it.
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Last week must have been the week for step into April success. I also got the badge on the 9th. Mostly walking and a little running. Heading into week 3 of Couch 2 5k so that will start to increase. So far so good with the knee.
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Completed step into April on the 10th & active April on the 11th🙂
I really admire those of you that are doing the running challenges. I have never been able to get the mechanics right, even when job required completing a run within time limits 🤷♀️
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Well, I thought I might do the 40k bike ride today, but it's just not in me - not after my hike yesterday: 6 miles and 1,400 ft elevation change. But I've got a swim lane reserved for a hour this afternoon at the gym. So that'll get me the April Swim Week badge and half way to the April Swim badge.
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I’m just starting to explore the settings on my Garmin (Vivo 5) watch, and I don’t seem to register enough intensity minutes. If you use this feature, I would appreciate any guidance you have —
- Do I need to use a heart rate monitor to calculate the intensity level?
- If you use this feature regularly, do you have any advice for me as a newcomer?
Maybe I just need to increase the intensity of my workouts because I rarely meet the 250 minute weekly target that is set for me.
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Second this also anything about moderate v vigorous
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Do you start an activity on Garmin when you do a workout? That records intensity minutes for me.
I'm also wondering about the 250 minutes: Was that the default value for you? My Garmin default was 150 intensity minutes weekly, and 150 minutes aligns with the recommendation from most experts that what we need for basic good health is to work up to 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity exercise, or 75 minutes of more intense exercise, or a proportionate combination of the two.
Garmin gives me one intensity minute for each minute spent in activities at moderate intensity, and two intensity minutes for each minute spent in activities with higher intensity, in line with that concept. Even though I don't get many badges, I do a fair amount of activity most of the time, so it's hard for me to say what's normal across the board. I nearly always exceed 150 minutes per week unless sick or recovering from injury/surgery or something like that, and over the past year have averaged 285 activity minutes per week, but it has varied from literally zero (in the ICU at the start of that week) to 655 (normal workouts plus hours of shoveling snow) in different weeks.
Are your personal goals different from fitness for general good health, such as some kind of athletic performance improvement? If the latter, what are you striving toward?
What workouts are you doing, and how do you perceive the intensity subjectively? Heart rate is part of all of these estimations. Are you using Garmin's starting default maximum heart rate, or do you have a better estimate you can give it?
It may be that you do need more intensity in your workouts, it may be that Garmin's generic values (average values for people at large for things like heart rate) are less accurate for you, or it may be that the 250 minutes is an unnecessarily high target for your personal goals.
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Garmin does say heart rate is needed in order to get vigorous intensity minutes. Exactly how intensity minutes are calculated depends on the specific device you have.
With apologies for the long URL (I don't like URL shorteners because they hide the source), Garmin has an FAQ about it here:
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Thank you
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@AnnPT77 — Thank you for the quick and thorough answer to my questions — very helpful! I’m bolding the questions you posed and responding below.
Do you start an activity on Garmin when you do a workout?Sometimes I remember to start an activity but I’m still trying to build the habit of using my watch. So, selecting an activity - and intentionally starting the watch monitoring for that particular activity - could be the solution I need.
I'm also wondering about the 250 minutes: Was that the default value for you?
I don’t know where the 250 goal came from but I just set it to 150 based on your message.Are your personal goals different from fitness for general good health, such as some kind of athletic performance improvement? If the latter, what are you striving toward?
I’d like to set more rigorous goals soon, which is the reason I’d like to start monitoring my current intensity level. Once I understand my baseline, I’m going to decide if I want to train for a marathon, with a plan to run the Athens to Marathon race in 2026 or 2027.
What workouts are you doing, and how do you perceive the intensity subjectively?
Right now, I play soccer twice a week and just started back to (sweep) rowing outdoors three times per week. As the weather gets warmer, I add sculling once or twice per week depending on my work schedule and family responsibilities. Most weeks, my husband and I also share a personal trainer appointment — twice a week for 30 minutes.
Subjectively, I could probably challenge myself more. At soccer, one night is a pickup league with women of mixed ages and skill levels and the other is a co-Ed masters (old people) league in which the men are at least 40 and the women are at least 35. I’m not as skilled as the younger women on our co-Ed team so I’ll often let them play longer on the field if we have subs. If we don’t have female subs, I definitely run more.I like the extra time on the field so it’s good when that happens 😊 but I want our team to stay competitive, so I defer to the younger talent 👵🏻 when the games ‘count’. During the off-season pick up games, I can run the whole time and try to improve— but those are optional so I’m not as accountable and often slack off or use the time for family obligations, etc.
Heart rate is part of all of these estimations. Are you using Garmin's starting default maximum heart rate, or do you have a better estimate you can give it?
I think my maximum heart rate level is set a bit higher than the default, but I just re-set that goal to 173. I’m 58 but my resting heart rate and recovery time has always been a bit lower than the average for my age, so I think somewhere between 165-175 might work for me.Thanks for all your help with this! 🙏🏼
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Hey, I'm a rower, too! 😊 I mostly scull, usually 4 times a week in season with the local club (not in season here yet 😐️), but a breast cancer survivors team I'm on just got started again, and we usually sweep there.
It seems like what you're doing ought to be enough to add up to at least the 150 intensity minutes, maybe even the 250. Maybe starting activities on your watch will be important for that, not sure. Of course it does matter how intensely you're doing the thing, too.
I have to say, I find I get better stats from Garmin when rowing - boat or machine - if I use a chest belt synced to the watch: There's enough arm flexion for me that sometimes the watch loses contact with wrist HR, and things get inaccurate until it gets back in touch with HR again during that activity session. The chest belt avoids that problem for me. I don't generally have that problem with other activity types.
I set my heart rate zones on my watch in the settings menu (gear icon), user profile, heart rate zones by resetting the defaults. I think some models might let you set custom zones for different activities, or set in the Garmin Connect user profile, not sure.
Resting heart rate and recovery time are fairly independent of maximum heart rate. Resting rate and recovery time are very much influenced by fitness level, though there is potentially a genetic underpinning to resting rate. Max heart rate is mostly about genetics, IMU, though usually max declines with aging and I gather that it can decline more slowly with age in people who remain active. Other than than that, I don't think fitness and HRmax are tightly linked.
The age-based estimating formulas are inaccurate for a fairly large minority of people, IMU.
There are various better ways to estimate maximum heart rate than the age-based estimating formulas. I wouldn't suggest anyone try any of those max-estimating methods until they have pretty good base fitness, which it sounds like you do have. There are various sub-maximal methods for estimating max, and max can be tested directly, too . . . though I really, really wouldn't try the latter unless reasonably fit. Sports labs do tests, but there are self-tests, or partner tests, too.
I'm going to ramble a bit more about tests and such, but I'll put it in a spoiler and leave it up to readers to decide if interested, since it may be a bit off topic for this thread.
I did a test some years back (in the end of my 40s or early 50s, can't recall exactly without looking for the written results). That was a rowing machine test. I've forgotten the exact timings, but after a warm-up we were to drop the 500m split by maybe 5 seconds every . . . 15 or 30? . . . seconds, until we couldn't sustain the pace for . . . some number of seconds, or maybe it was 5 strokes? That's the general idea, though. While it was happening, another person recorded heart rate at designated intervals, also something like every 15 or 30 seconds.
The resulting graph of HR was analyzed by the coach to estimate HRmax. At the time, mine was around 181 bpm. I'm now 69, but I don't think it has dropped much since, from comparing RPE (rate of perceived exertion) based on subjective things like talk test to how I'd expect to feel in various HR ranges. I know my exercise HR is over the basic 220 minus age estimate fairly often for minutes at a time, and I can still talk in at least short sentences at that intensity.
My old HRmax of 181 would suggest that 220 minus my current age (151) would be around 84% of HRmax, or a few beats below anaerobic zone by HR reserve method (which takes resting rate into account), maybe 77%-ish. Last week's team practice (rowing machine) HR peaked at 164 bpm, and there were several minutes above 151. I was tired after, but felt fine during and after, so I think I'm OK sticking with 181 as the HRmax estimate for now.
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@PatriceFitnessPal I'm going to pile on even though @AnnPT77 already answered the technical stuff. I also have a VivoActive 5 which I've only had for 3 months so am still learning myself. One of the toughest things for me was to remember to tell it that I'm doing an activity. I've gotten better but not perfect, yesterday I set off an alarm because I forgot to tell it that I was spinning and I hit an excessively high HR. Oops LOL
The next setting I need to master is how to set a lap. My neighborhood is 3.5 miles out and back. Yesterday I did two laps so 7 miles (far short of the 25 needed for the badge 😕). If I look under laps it has lap 1 as 5 miles and lap 2 as 2 miles. I've Googled how to change the settings but haven't ridden again to see if I did it correctly.
Have a great day everyone and keep earning those badges!
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Hi Y'all,
This is a great discussion. I'm a Garmin user for about the last 8 years. My Fenix 6s has lasted really well. Prior to that, I had a Vivoactive, or something like that. I don't think it broke, I just decided to upgrade. All that is to say that Garmin's seem worth the money, and it doesn't seem that you have to spend that much to get the best features: tracking of exercise, steps, sleep, and a daily calorie estimate (perhaps not perfect, but better than nothing). Yay, Garmin!
Now, my wife is thinking about getting a fitness tracker of some sort. The first question for any iPhone user is "why not get an Apple watch?" They are very capable and, in certain circumstances, they will "give" you one when you get a fancy new phone. (Of course that's a lie, they charge you substantial set-up fees plus you are required to pay for cell service on it for three years. Still, if that's what you want, then it's a pretty good deal.) The main downside (IMHO) is that the apple watches TRY TO DO TOO MUCH— I don't need a watch that attempts to duplicate the functions of my phone, but worse (some are completely useless, like composing texts). I just need a thingy to track my activities and my HR. Also, it's nice if the battery life is at least a few days.
My suggestion to her (which she hates) is to start simple and, if she likes it, upgrade later. She has tossed aside so many expensive items in the past that ended up just annoying her, including a FitBit she once bought. I see that the Vivosmart 5 is well priced and looks like it has most of the features someone would need for health tracking @PatriceFitnessPal , is that what you have?
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HRmax, resting HR and Zones
You can set these independently for running, cycling and swimming. All other activities will use the default setting. To access these in the Connect app, open the device tab, select your device, then select User Profile (this is a profile specific to your device), and click on Heart Rate and Power Zones. There you will see options for Max Heart Rate, Resting HR, Zones, and Sport Heart Rate. Under Sport Heart Rate, you'll see Running, Cycling and Swimming. Under each of those, you'll see options for Max Heart Rate, Resting HR and Zones. This allows you to set HRmax and zones differently for these activities.It seems to me HRmax and Resting HR would be the same regardless of activity, but that option is there nonetheless. I was unaware there are settings for these 3 activities that are different than the default settings (which I've changed), so I need to update these.
I also noticed there are four options for heart rate zones, under Based On:
- BPM - Beats Per Minute
- %Max HR - percent of Max Heart Rate
- %HHR - percent of Heart Rate Reserve
- %LTHR - percent of Lactate Threshold Heart Rate
I computed BPM manually years ago after reading about %HHR and set my zones using my computed BPM, not realizing there was an option here where Garmin will compute it for me. 😂
I want to look further into %LTHR.Laps
Lap settings are specific to each activity. For example, the default lap distance for running is 1 mile, while the default setting for biking is 5 miles. You can change these settings either on your watch or in Garmin Connect. I find it easier to use Connect, an option that hasn't always been available.In Garmin Connect, select your device to access the device settings menu, then select Activities, then the activity you want to change, then Laps.
Also, note that you can manually start a new lap during an activity by pressing the lower right button on your watch. I do this during my tai chi activities so I can later see how long we spent doing
1) warm-up, 2) long set, 3) break, 4) family set x2, and 5) Tiger Mountain Qi Gong.1 -
@frankwbrown , good information, some of which I didn't realize. Thank you for that!
I'd point out, though, that not all Garmin models offer all those settings in Garmin Connect, and labels may differ. My Vivoactive 4 doesn't appear to offer all of that. There's no Heart Rate and Power Zones section where you indicate, just Heart Rate Zones where I can change default HRmax or the thresholds of the 5 zones, and set different zones for cycling or running but not swimming.
I'm not mentioning this to be disputatious or critical, but so that others understand they may have different options with different labels. There should be something close to what you describe for most models, I assume, in roughly the same sub-menus.
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@Jthanmyfitnesspal - I have the Vivoactive 5 watch, and I recommend it as a solid fitness tracker. It has all the wellness features I need for monitoring sleep, heart rate, steps, and other activities. I was hesitant to invest too much money because I wasn’t sure if I could wear something on my wrist 24 hours per day, everyday. I had a couple of Fitbits and they were alright but one didn’t last too long and I lost one section while the other section was charging the second time I used a Fitbit.
My husband has an Apple Watch and he likes to ‘close his rings’ but I wanted a watch that includes rowing as an activity. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the lower cost Vivoactive 5 has a rowing option! I was also interested in linking the Garmin to MyFitnessPal. So, it’s worked well for me. The battery life is another positive feature, lasting much longer than the Fitbit, in my experience.
There are definitely benefits to the higher priced models, especially for people who use the ones with satellite access when exploring more remote outdoor areas, etc. Regarding the Heart Rate monitoring discussion above, the Vivoactive 5 has the following device settings in the profile section, @frankwbrown and @AnnPT77:
- Max HR
- Resting HR
- Zones 5-1
- Running
- Biking
So, there’s no swimming option but I haven’t been swimming for exercise lately so it’s not a problem for me. I could imagine setting my Max HR a bit lower for swimming because I’m not as confident in the water as I am on land, but I set the same Max and Resting HR for all the activities for now. The Lactate Threshold HR sounds interesting but the Vivoactive 5 is limited to HR beats per minute (BPM), and the Zone percentages can be personalized so I guess that is the Percent of Max HR %MHR). However, it doesn’t look like the Percent Max HR (%Max HR) or Percent Lactate Threshold (%LTHR) are available on the less detailed models.
I’m sure your wife will make the decision that best meets her needs @Jthanmyfitnesspal. I might upgrade at some point but I’m happy with this model for now. Best wishes!
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@AnnPT77 and @frankwbrown — Thank you for all the terrific information. I appreciate your guidance and it’s already made a big difference for me — I registered 71 ‘intensity’ minutes today! The key was selecting a specific activity so I guess that might help motivate me to intentionally start a new workout. @DaffyGirl88, we can help each other build this habit of remembering to initiate a new activity!
Based on the advice here, I changed my max. heart rate (HR) to 180 and my resting HR to 50. My average resting HR is 43 and today’s highest HR was only 154 so I might need to adjust those settings but I could talk easily during this morning’s row so I guess I should continue to challenge myself a bit more. I have a doctor appointment later this month - so my primary care physician might have some advice for me - but I’m guessing she’ll just encourage me to reflect on what I learn by monitoring my progress and self-assess based on how I feel.
BTW, I’ve followed some of your (very knowledgeable) posts before @AnnPT77 and see that you’re an amazing role model 🤩 as a rower and overall healthy person — 💪especially as a cancer survivor! 🎉 In the summer and fall, I sometimes sub in with a group of We Can Row breast cancer survivors who row at the beautiful Potomac Boat Club (est. 1869) in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC. It’s such a wonderful way to connect and support one another while building relationships, strength, confidence — and a fun but challenging new skill! I just love that group of people!
Again, I appreciate the help and inspiration. You, @frankwbrown, and @DaffyGirl88 all awe me with your level of activity. Keep up the great work!2 -
@PatriceFitnessPal, thank you for the kind remarks . . . I'm blushing.
I think you've figured out that you may be able to use the "talk test" and other subjective factors, plus rate of perceived exertion, to figure out roughly what your HRmax might be. There are various web sites with charts that try to correlate HR zones with RPE including specific subjective measures. This is just one example, far from perfect, that does some of that. (I'm not endorsing the site as a whole, I know little about it, it's just an example of the type of chart I mean.)
I've been thinking about upgrading my Garmin again - formerly had the Vivoactive - but this one is doing what I need so I'll probably (😉) wait until I have a more urgent reason than wishing.
With apologies to others for the off-topic bit that follows, which I hope you'll forgive:
If you're back at WeCanRow DC sometime, and she's still there - as I think she is - give my best to Doris, and others. 😉 My team here in Michigan was an early WeCanRow offshoot, and I've met her and others at camps and events. Such a great group! I rowed in a composite breast cancer survivors four at Head of the Charles years back with another DC WeCanRow rower, but I'm sorry to say I've forgotten her first name. I've never had an opportunity to row with the team at the Potomac club though. That would be delightful, I'm sure.
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As has been mentioned, some features do vary between devices. I used to have a Vivoactive 4, but currently using a Forerunner 255: it gives me intensity minutes even without starting activities! So far this week I've gotten 18 intensity minutes from running to catch my train to work 😄
To get back to the topic on hand:
- I earned the Step into April badge on April 10th
- I'm slightly over halfway to getting April Step Month
- dismal for the exercise badges - not been feeling that great (digestive issues and general energy level/motivation issues) and my running mileage plummeted 6 weeks ago. Currently working my way back up to my normal mileage gradually - it's a bit depressing to see how fast I lose my fitness level when I stop exercising (truly no natural athleticism) 🙄
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