Do you heed Garmin’s recommended rest time?
 

I loaded my personal stats (age, etc) into my Garmin Connect which is fed by my 530 Edge. When I finish the ride it provides all the ride stats as well as recommended rest time. Up until now, I have been blowing it off, (It recommends a day off, or two days off and I ride the next day) but it appears to have caught up to me and will experiment and see if it is worth following.

My question, above, is do you follow the recommended recovery times and if so, have your found them accurate?

To clarify
​​​​​​Garmin/Firstbeat is recommending the countdown timer until you're in race condition. They recommend hard workouts again when the recovery timer gets below 24 hours.

Is there some guide they (or anyone) has published that explains what all this stuff is? I've been ignoring it, but maybe I should see if it is useful.

I find looking at my training load gives me a better idea how I'll feel tomorrow and when I'll be ready to play again than the recovery feature. If you have a power meter it's the PMC chart (fatigue vs freshness), if not the Garmin Connect app and web page has a version by heart rate. Go to Training Status, then Load and 7 Day Load if you're using the app. I use a watch to capture non bike exercise, so be aware if there are holes in the data. I think the way the Recovery feature works is it tries to measure on its own and doesn't need data about what else you've done lately.

To your two part question: part 1, sometimes, and part 2, sometimes. From Garmin/First Beat, "Recovery Time predicts how long it will be before your body is fully recovered and ready for your next intense fitness-improving type workout.” You don’t need to stop riding your bike, but you may want to consider if it is saying 72 hours or 4 days, going hard may not produce good results and may even produce negative results. Check out that site I linked. The info is very useful.

I cycle for transportation and the recommendation is for laughs. Same with body battery… According to Garmin I’m always discharged:


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...229ac73f2.jpeg

I don’t do high-intensity so that’s probably the reason. Thanks for the reference.

I have noticed that the recovery time feature adapts to your fitness somewhat. What inputs is your 530 receving? IS it getting HR data? Power? If only speed and distance I wouldnt put much weight on it all.

If you are concerned, it might be worth keeping an eye on your HRV separately.

I dont pay too much attention to the feature but it doesnt hurt to make note of it - if you are seeing a recommended 72 hour rest after each daily ride you are going to end up overreaching at some point obviously.

See post 14 on, https://www.bikeforums.net/electroni...or-basics.html

I measure HR and power on all rides. It is not unusual for Garmin to tell me I need 4 days rest. It is a joke, almost as bad as the VO2 max guesstimator

I use HRV in the morning, sleep status, mood, and TSB as much better indicators for readiness.

The VO_2 max guesstimator says that I am dead.

My Body Battery says I'm drained most days. I don't put much stock in it.

As far as I can tell that recommended rest time is output from a random number generator.

After the "new toy feature" when I got my 1030 wore off, the rest time isn't one of the things Garmin generates those I pay attention to.

Rest doesn't mean sit and do nothing. You can go for a ride. Just don't expect to be at your very best when you try to race someone to the top of a hill. Might be beneficial not to plan your really hard rides during that suggested rest period.

When Garmin first added this feature years ago, you could see and sometimes hear the professional TdF cyclists laughing as they compared the 96 hour rest that was being suggested to them after even stage 1 or 2 of the tour.

If you regularly wait until the time they say to rest until you do anything else, then your fitness will suffer and you'll get worse instead of progressively getting better.

Personally I think it was a bad choice for Garmin to use the term rest for this. As others have suggested, it seems to be more to do with when you'll have the most energy recovered to do your very best effort.

100% this. Detraining is a thing that happens pretty fast. I sometimes go on holiday and can’t take a bike along, 4+ days no riding, the first one back is usually pretty miserable, even though I’m “rested."

To further expand what I was saying for the OP (or anyone), pdlamb really hit the right point. If this is the ONLY metric one is using, it probably won’t be helpful, but if you use this in conjunction with other data points that you’ve learned to use to gauge your condition, I think you’d find that you are more productive.

yes HR time, distance, speed. Not 72 hours after each ride but varies on intensity and distance.

Understand that 3 days off is suggested and a light recovery ride is fine. My real indicator is climbing a flight of stairs and if my legs feel tired on the second to last step, I know I need a day off.

what prompted the question was doing two higher mileage days in the heat and Garmin suggested 3 days this time. My staircase confirmed how tired I was since it my legs felt tired after the first step. That prompted the question whether people take it seriously

did like the comment about the random number generator. 😀.

I am taking the prescribed days off as an experiment but am still dog walking, gardening and not sitting on my backside full time.

yeah have to agree there. Will be traveling abroad for 3 weeks in the near future and know my soul will be filled but my performance will suffer. Always a trade off

​​​​​​I read a lot and count on google to find things I remember, in this case I'm having trouble finding more detail for you than the basics that have already been posted here.

The short answer for this one is that it tries to estimate (using your fitness level, training volume, and especially HRV magic) how long you need to return to peak form.

Your watch will adjust the recovery countdown timer based on your stress levels and sleep quality.

Following because I've been wondering about this, not that I have anything to add.

I run with a youth group and will either run with a teen that pushes me to near my limit some days, and with some that will take walk breaks to look up in the trees or kick rocks and everything in between. The suggested rest time seems to reflect those varying efforts.

For my 530, my rides are all over the place more than my runs. Some rides are with HR broadcasting from my Forerunner and the Duotrap cadence and speed sensor on my bike. Some rides are just a leisurely spin about the neighborhood or multi-use path on an old steel bike. I still broadcast HR if I use the 530, but the older bikes don't have speed or cadence sensors. I don't own a power meter which I would assume helps Garmin measure effort to calculate a rest suggestion.

But I'm trying to think and can't remember a time I ever really took the suggestion. If I've wanted to run or ride and had the time, I seem to do it.

My Fenix and Edge give me different recovery times every time I ride. I'm not sure if this is to be expected or not?

I have auto upload turned off on the Edge, which I think only applies to the actual ride record. I have "Physio True Up" turned on. I don't know exactly what data gets shared between them with True Up. The watch knows how I slept, my stress levels, etc, so as far as I trust this feature at all (it's a piece of the puzzle) I trust it more from the watch.

I use the garmin on my commutes and it varies a lot on rest times. I am not working that hard but tend to ride 18 to 20 miles doing so. sometimes no time sometimes 12 hours

Do you use an HRM?

yep. my bike has a power meter though not connected to the garmin.

fooferdoggie the recovery advisor takes into account the “Training Effect” of the ride, which is based on HR data, and how much time (if any) was remaining in the countdown when you undertook the ride. Without getting into a really long explanation, it doesn’t seem strange at all that you’re commutes give off different recommendations, especially if you smash it on some, and on others you just chill (which is how I approach commuting).

my rides are fairly consistent. like this morning I get to work and I have a 12 hour recovery time. but 0 when I get home heart rate was 112 on the way to work and 137 watts and 104 on the way home way to work I averaged 132 watts. a little difference but I would think it would haver some recommendation, I will see after the tandem right tonight see what it says.

I do and I don't heed Garmin's recommendations. For example my watch currently says 33hrs until I am fully recovered. I will not wait 33hrs before my next ride/workout. Weather permitting I will hop on my bike tomorrow and get a workout in.

The load graph on the bottom of my FR745 does a pretty good job of calculating how I feeling. I have noticed that when the bar graph is getting up towards the upper end of the green section, or even into the red section, I AM physically tired. I do not know if it is psychological b/c I am reading the bar graph or not, but I am tired and I noticed my workouts are not as good as they could be.

What I do want to start doing though is following Garmin's workout suggestions. I am curious to see what their workouts are like and if I will progress as an athlete or just hang in there for the status quo.