bogydave

Garmin 520 says I need a 62 hour recovery time after a hard 22 mil ride in the cold & wind.
Avg HR of 150 & avg speed 11.9

Couple months ago I changed my age by taking 10 years off . ( 64 to 54)
It was logging most all my HR in Zone 5, now in zone 3 & 4 * saying 72 hour recovery.
Then entered max heart rate of 170.

Still a 2-1/2 day recovery time seems excessive & don't give it much relavance
I rode after one day, 23 miles. I felt good riding in the "NO wind" & 45°
Avgs: HR 143, speed 12.7 , cadence 81
Felt good, if weather was better I would have gone farther.

Heart rate alarm set for 160, (My Doc's suggestion)
Much above that he says Is a "Stress test", & would be prudent to avoid when over 60.

Anyone follow the suggested recovery time ?
I go mostly by how I feel + the weather motivation index.

caloso

Is your actual maxHR 170?

John00

I'm 68 and I ride 55-60 miles every other day. I've been doing it for a long time. 15 years ago I'd ride even further every day. Last weekend I rode three days in a row and had to cut me third ride short because I just didn't have the energy. I won't try that again. I don't use a Garmin to rate my recovery needs. I can't use my HRM because I have persistent A-Fib which throws my monitor way off. For me 24 hours is enough, 64 sounds excessive, but everybody is different.

Iride01 

speaking of recovery time.... Did anyone notice just after winning stage 3 of the AmGen a few days ago, Toms Shujins looked down at his Garmin and said to another "49 hours" "not happening".

I caught on to that being recovery time he was talking about and found it hilarious.

OldTryGuy

I never paid much attention to recovery time on my Garmin 920XT so I just ride at a level that is comfortable unless I need to push due to being on a group ride. 68 in July, 106 miles yesterday and getting ready to head out at 6PM for an overnight'r of no hard riding just tooling around. Thankfully winds supposedly will be 4mph instead of yesterday's 12mph/15mph swirling from all directions.

22 miles, 150 average HR, 11.9mph average speed -----did you have thousands of feet of climbing?

DrIsotope

The Recovery Advisor is only as accurate as the numbers it's given-- so without a LTHR test, you'll get some huge Strava Relative Effort scores, and the recovery times to go with them.

I've programmed myself for endurance over power, so a typical ride for me rarely exceeds a 70% effort, and therefore has a recovery time of 20-30 hours. Today was 58 miles @ 61% intensity, recovery advisor said 23 hours.

I did get a Recovery time on one ride that said simply... 3 Days. I took a day off.

grayEZrider

Forget about recovery time. If you can take ten years off your age with a 520 Garmin I have to have one of those!!

bogydave

bogydave

bogydave

Ald1 

I believe the Garmin uses your HR against your speed/power watts to determine effort. So if you are doing 12 MPH and getting up there in your HR Zone Garmin will tell you it's a big effort for the amount of work produced. It's a riot as I'm having a problem with my Garmin HR freezing on rides. When it freezes on 116 I'm superman, when it freezes on 156 I'm "overreaching!"

gregf83 

caloso

bogydave

Yea
My GP /doc says max should be 156, (220-64 ) then exercise at 85% of that. .... 132 (Really ???? )
He referred me to Heart Doc:
Did tread mill test, last year. Checking heart with ultra sound, then tread mill ...MRI. then tread mill ...add a die then MRI
All good.
They didn't want to push a 64 yr old to find max, said nothing to gain.

Told Heart doc about HR in the 170s, he said that's OK, for short periods now & then
but realistically no need to go that high to prove anything. That it is a "self , stress test" . Go by how I feel.
Have slightly high cholesterol,
Since I push high heart rates doing stuff, he recommended a low dose statin / & aspirin & recommend stay below 170.
Good numbers there now.
So set 170 as max.

This getting older thing is not all golden years... LOL
Just trying to keep getting older. Stay on the "right side of the grass"
Paid docs for their advice, so I use it + blend in how I feel .

Every day is a good day, some just better than others.

Kurt Erlenbach

It seems to me that if anyone's been cycling long enough you've got a pretty good idea of how much recovery you need. Any algorithm-based recovery figure seems like a gimmick.

bogydave

Hondo Gravel

TimothyH

220 minus age wildly inaccurate to the point of being meaningless.

Max heart rate is interesting to doctors in terms of your health but it has little to do with training.

What matters is lactic threshold heart rate (LTHR). Raising LTHR is what makes you go faster and it is highly trainable. Zones should be created as a percentage of LTHR and it should be tested periodically as fitness increases or decreases. Testing and setting up zones is very easy.

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/j...setting-zones/

Training Peaks is going to give you a much better indication of how much fatigue you are carrying and how recovered (fresh) you are. You can get a free Training Peaks account and sync your Garmin workouts to Training Peaks.


-Tim-

OldTryGuy

I hit 182 a few years ago, felt light headed and like I wanted to puke so I figured I was close to max. Don't really care about max-68yo in July since 2015, prostate cancer and orchiectomy plus meds preventing glycogen production.

Any doc who says (220 - age) should retire.

caloso

CliffordK

Oh, I wish I had a computer to tell me what my body feels like... rather than just paying attention to my own body.

Low 50's for age here. What I'll say is this.

20 miles or so, and I'm essentially 100% recovered the next morning. However, I do a lot of commuting, errands, utility riding, and etc. So, riding say 20 miles in the morning PLUS 20 miles in the evening, and I'll do fine, but probably not fully recovered (no night in there).

50 miles or so, and I'm again ready for another 50 miles the next morning. However, I may not be fully recovered. But, it may not make any difference either. Just go out for a ride.

100 miles or so, and I have a pretty strong morning after feeling. I can still ride the next day, but I can feel it.

150 to 180 miles or so, and again a very strong morning after feeling. I can still ride... but... I'd say it does take me 2 to 3 days and nights to fully recover. Oddly, I usually hit two long rides in a week, and the recovery after the second ride is much quicker than the first. So, 1 day, 2 nights after the second long ride, and I feel fully recovered.

From reading the notes above, it sounds like Garmin is trying to judge a person's overall fitness based on age + a single ride, whereas one really needs to make a full overall profile of the person based on multiple rides.

Still, I'm not convinced the "recovery period" is meaningful unless one is headed out for a race.

Personally, I also believe there are benefits of riding say 3 or 4 times a week. Any less than that, and I can certainly feel it in my knees.

bogydave

I ignore the recovery time , but there are times I thought I shouldn't have.
Felt whooped , mid way thru a ride after a previous days longer tougher ride.
Weather has sucked for the past month, mostly exceed the recovery times , but for weather, not an algorithm.

Good idea :
Gonna try 177 max, see how that compares.

tourisme

If you want the HR figures, and any recovery time advice, to be meaningful, do a LTHR test. Otherwise it's just garbage in, garbage out. The 220-age formula is hopeless and misleading, at 63 years old I regularly see my HR in the high 160s and sometimes the low 170s. My current LTHR is around 158.

I can't remember a ride that required a 62 hour recovery time, that seems absurd.

Harumph

Unplug and start listening to your body....

wphamilton

I would be skeptical if my doctor used one of those formulas for maximum heart rate to recommend a heart rate limit during exercise. I'd also want to know the reasoning of setting a limit of 94% of maximum HR. In other words, is that just on general principle or from a justifiable medical reason? The 85% limit is a conventional recommendation for aerobic exercise.

It almost sounds as if the Doctor, and your Garmin, just don't want you to exert yourself very strenuously.