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Garmin Connect HRV Status Update

Garmin Connect HRV Status Is FINALLY Showing Some Improvement – And I’m Feeling It!

This Garmin Connect HRV based Ecosystem Is really getting interesting. I’m literally using just about everything Garmin; The Scale, the Watch, and the Head Unit. I probably ought to buy a Neo 2t and a pair of pedals, but I’m fine for now with my current setup. I know there is debate over the accuracy of NIRS, the validity of the FirstBeat HRV claims, but let’s face it; no other company is showing the commitment to data collection and general health guidelines like Garmin Fitness. It’s not cheap, but I think the long-term gains for overall health and wellness are working. The Garmin Connect HRV Status shows overnight heart rate variability, and I think the combination of regular exercise, a new bed, a more private bedroom, a LOT less alcohol at night, and a LOT more water throughout the day, is leading to better sleep, and better rides.

***Before we go any further, I’m curious to know if you think these blog posts are informational. IF you feel like they are, then .

Garmin Connect HRV Status Shows How Sleep Is Leading To Better Workouts – and Vice-Versa

Have a look at my 6-month TREND for HRV Status.

6 Month Garmin Connect Training Status Report Including HRV Status
This is the 6-Month Training Status Report from Garmin Connect. Specifically, look at the third chart; HRV Status. It shows the incredible stress I was under at the end of last year, which resulted in a severely suppressed HRV status. Once I started simply walking the dogs last winter, and we had a home we could call our own (that’s a whole other story that remains unfinished), the HRV Status began to stabilize, albeit still ‘low’ (stress) and ‘Tight’ (again, stress). Once I started training regularly again in February of this year, however, HRV Status began to stabilize, and it’s FINALLY starting to rebound, which I’ll show in the next image. Also take a look at the Garmin Connect Acute Training Load, below HRV Status. As my training load grew, HRV Status actually improved, and it was on the days where I rode an acute overreach that the HRV Status dipped back into ‘Unbalanced‘ Territory. We’re Tempering Action With Wisdom.

Now, here’s the corresponding 28-day trend, which is a bit of a close-up of the 6-month chart.

28 day Garmin Connect HRV Status April 26 through May 23rd 2023
The dots on this chart represent a rolling 7-day average of HRV Status, measured at night, from the time I fall asleep to the time I wake up. The grey zones represent a baseline range. I’ve been told that my range is too low (too stressful) and too tight (again, too much stress), but I’m encouraged by the STABILITY I’m seeing in this chart, and the RISING TREND as well. This means that I AM recovering better, and sleeping better to some degree. And as we know, a good night’s rest is critical to a good day’s performance.

Is it leading to better results?

Honestly, I don’t yet know. I am confident that my Threshold is improving, and I believe that my Anaerobic Work Capacity is growing. More importantly, I’ve started losing weight, and I just ‘feel’ better, all around. The first chart shows that Vo2 Max is improving, and I think I could probably break 300 watts for 20 minutes if I really tried. But I’m not ready yet to tax my system like that. I want to focus on consistency, and on learning as much from this Garmin Connect ecosystem as possible. There is SO MUCH DATA available!

Garmin Connect Body Weight 1 Year Graph
I’m convinced that a good night’s rest and improved overnight HRV Status, leads to better workouts with higher calorie counts. This leads to a more optimal weight. I’ll continue to avoid alcohol and increase my caloric expenditure, especially on weekends, to try and achieve my goal of 70kg. If I start to lose fitness because I’m too light, I’ll report that.

Garmin Connect HRV Status and Periodization

If you look at my Acute Training Load chart, you may see that the black line, which is a rolling 7-day average of TRIMPS. It’s bouncing near the bottom of the Green zone, known as the ‘Optimal Range’. This is intentional. I’m backing off on the intensity for the week, to avoid a fitness plateau and stale performance. My clients on VQ Velocity are really enjoying this hybrid approach to Physiology and Physics. 8 weeks in, and we’re set for one of our best summers of activity yet. I’ll be attempting a new 20-minute breakthrough next week, along with a new Threshold and Vo2 Max. I like to attempt these indoors, because it’s consistent. But if the HRV Status or Sleep Scores trend in the wrong direction, I’ll listen to my body, and will delay Breakthrough Efforts until I’m recovered and mentally prepared.

HRV Status Is One More Metric That Can Help With a Holistic Approach to Training, Recovery, and Fitness.

I sell these watches. I love these things. Any cyclist who owns a Garmin head unit and is half-serious, needs to be looking at this stuff. I DO think it’s accurate enough and consistent enough to be effective. I can’t wait to see just how fit I can become, with my clients as well. This is my new platform going forward. We’ll be migrating to this HRV-based ecosystem for the majority of our cycling, and then use wattage for those SUPRA-THRESHOLD efforts that require taxing the Central Governing Theory to its’ limits.

Thanks for reading, and ENJOY THE RIDE!

3 Weeks of HRV Stress Readings

HRV Stress Readings Can Help You Look at the Holistic Fitness Picture

Garmin Connect HRV Stress 4 weeks report
The Garmin Connect HRV Stress Report is one more tool in Garmin’s tool chest. I use it prior to my indoor rides, to try and determine how best to proceed with my daily rides. If I have a high reading, a low sleep score, and a strained HRV Status, well, I’m goin’ back to bed.

I’m now 3 weeks in to taking a morning HRV Stress reading, and I’ve missed just a few days so far. It’s not fun, it’s probably 3 minutes where I wish I was doing something else or warming up for a bike ride, but it IS providing that ‘+1’ metric that can tell me whether I’m achieving my results, or if there’s something else going on that may require a day off, a lower intensity ride, or maybe just work to get some real stress out of my life.

HRV Stress and Life In General

Garmin Connect HRV Stress Explanation Page 1
I THINK this measurement is looking at my Heart Rate Variability as an “RMSSD“, which means “Root Mean Square of the Successive Differences”, or, ‘How Variable is Variable’?

If you’ve been reading this blog, or you know me, well, you know I’m a pretty reactionary individual and my right-brained ADD has led me to this point in life. I had a stable existence until 2010, when I got divorced and began trying to grow my studio. I left that location in 2012, opened two locations in retail spaces in 2013, got remarried in 2014, dealt with the loss of the studios in 2015 and 2017, became homeless in 2018 (thanks, Dallas DPD), and moved to Reno, NV in 2019.

Then, in late 2022, my wife and I relocated (Temporarily) to Pueblo, Colorado.  We almost immediately realized it was a mistake, and moved all the way back, to Sacramento, California. Since we arrived, we’ve lived in 3 Airbnb’s. In December, we bought a house that is a complete lemon. It’s been a struggle, figuring out how to make a living out here. We are broke, and we are broken. We are stuck here in this valley while we try to dig our way out of a house that is more shelter than home.

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That’s a LOT of STRESS.

I gained weight. I lost fitness. My bikes took months to come out of storage. We suffered the worst winter in Sacramento and Tahoe area in decades. Until recently, we had literally ridden outside TWICE since December. If this isn’t a midlife crisis, I can’t imagine what a real crisis really is. That’s why I’m so interested in what the Garmin Connect Features are providing. I’m actually seeing some great results. My clients are as well. But we are all riding LESS, and riding LESS INTENTLY than before. This is anathema to my three decades of pushing watts, pushing w/kg, pushing some PHYSICAL RESULT, instead of LISTENING TO A PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE.

I mentioned in my previous post, that I was using HRV Status overnight to try and ensure better preparation for daily rides. This is step 2. I get up, make coffee, look at my overnight HRV Status, Glance at my Sleep Score (The Muse EEG seems to be more accurate), and then, while it’s still quiet and I’m still processing that magic first cup, I put my chest strap on, wait 30 seconds, stand up, breathe in and out for 30 seconds, then tap the ‘MEASURE’ button and watch the timer count down.

HRV Stress LEVELS

HRV Stress Explanation Page 2
This is the chart for Garmin’s HRV Stress values. I really don’t know how I’ll ever get below a 30. Maybe when I hit the lottery, or the house gets finished, or the client load is full, or….

I really ought to run a video of the recording process, but for you readers and viewers, you’d probably end up sticking a needle in your eye, out of boredom. IF I had the ability to record this information, one would see an initial low reading, then a rise, then a plateau, then maybe a fall. If I get to 64 beats per minute, I’m usually happy, but it doesn’t stay there.

Tight Band HRV Status
I usually do get called out for being an uptight, overly passionate grouch, but I really thought I was making gains in the sleep department. Maybe not.

A professional coach who knows MUCH MORE about HRV than I do, Jim Galanes, commented about my earlier post on HRV Status. He mentioned that my HRV range was both ‘Tight’ and ‘Low’, meaning high stress. My resting HR, which was once in the low 30’s, is now in the mid 50’s. I’m not sure whether this is just a product of age, or if it’s stress related, but I’d love to get six hours of sleep every night. Right now, it’s maybe 4 before a 60-90 minute awakening, and finally, a return to sleep, before waking up right at 3:58am, just before the alarm goes off.

HRV Stress – What’s Holding Me Back?

I think my parasympathetic nervous system is probably holding me back. I AM happy about the fitness gains I’ve made have been DESPITE this handicap. There is always the hope that things will improve, that income will be steady, that my wife will be happier, that the house repairs will approach completion. What’s even more frustrating is that I’ve made investments to improve these values. A better mattress… a better pillow… 96 ounces of water or more every single day…. no beer or wine. I’ve given up sugary drinks and I don’t drink caffeine after 2pm.

HRV Stress Explanation Page 3
Try doing ANYTHING for 3 minutes without distraction. It’s not easy. My mind wanders. I think about past and upcoming performances and the house.  My wife’s well-being pops up, and I drift to her family, my family, the dog. The second I get a solid week of low HRV Stress scores, I’ll make sure to write about it. Maybe that will lead to the ensuing expectation of good workouts…….

As I write this, my wife is dealing with an attempt to access healthcare. We’ve spent 90 minutes on the phone, for three days, just to find a General Practitioner. The website is out of sync with the provider’s list. There are literally no doctors available. Everything has become more complicated as we’ve aged. I haven’t even begun to investigate the DAILY STRESS that the Garmin Fenix is measuring, so maybe that’s just it – a Holistic attack on a body, from work, family, training, performance, society. There has to be a middle ground somewhere. Maybe Garmin’s HRV Stress is telling me that it’s not here, not now.

This is why the Sociopaths Keep Winning. They sleep, and sleep well, because they have no conscience.

I just want 7 hours of sleep, a healthy heart, and the fitness for some good cycling adventures with my wife.

Thanks for Reading, and ENJOY THE RIDE!

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Testing For DFAa1 to Determine Lower Threshold Power

The DFAa1 Ramp Test Helped Me Set A More Accurate Lower Threshold Power

The DFAa1 Ramp Test is a protocol that shows cyclists where their bodies begin to change biologically when under strain. It uses Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and I have studied it since at least 2004, when I wrote a pocket book for Suunto for their T6 watch. The absolute distilled version of Heart Rate Variability says, “The heart is beating when it wants to, vs. beating when it has to.” In other words, no two beats are the same. A stochastic heart rate is a happy heart. A consistent heart rate is a strained heart.

When the Strain of heart rate contractions reaches a value of around .75, then it’s time to look at the actual heart rate itself, as well as the power being generated by the cyclist. With that value, we then have a much better idea of a cyclist’s Lower Threshold Power.

Why is an Accurate Lower Threshold Power So Important?

Lower Threshold Power is the KEY to POLARIZED TRAINING. When a cyclist is riding below their Lower Threshold Power, they’re teaching the body to become more economical. They’re teaching the body how to improve STAMINA. They’re teaching the body to BURN FAT. Over time, with regular testing and Progression, the DFAa1 test can reveal economy at higher heart rates, and higher wattages. If you believe in Polarized Training, then it should be 80-90% of your overall training volume. But ride too hard, and the gains are not as solid.

I’ve been using the Fitness Signature Values from Xert for years, which include a calculation for Lower Threshold Power. Lower Threshold Power can be found via a Lactate Test, a Vo2 test, and through the use of a Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor, but all of these are expensive, all of them have margins of error, and the Lactate Test is invasive.

Having a modern heart rate chest strap that can calculate HRV, and using a cheap app to reveal the data, provides everything we need to know, for less than $100usd.

What is the DFAa1 Test?

My friend and fellow coach, Richard Collier, of London, UK, was the first to really compel me to attempt this test. This is his protocol, based on conversations with Dr. Bruce Rogers, Marco Altini, a professor in Japan, and the developers of the www.runalyze.com website in Germany.

I have since named the workout after Richard, in my Xert Workout Library.

It’s a simple ramp test, from 55 to 105% of Threshold Power (NOT Lower Threshold Power), over 24 minutes and 30 seconds.

What do I need to test?

We begin by setting our Garmins up to record HRV via BLE.

To begin, go into your Garmin head unit settings, and press “System”.

Garmin 1030 System Page
Start by going into the “System” page on your modern Garmin.

Then press “Data Recording”.

Garmin 1030 Data Recording Page
Select “Data Recording”

Set ‘Recording Interval’ to ‘1 Sec’. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see “Log HRV”. Turn that feature ON.

Garmin 1030 Log HRV Page Setting
Set ‘Recording Interval’ to 1-sec (always do this), and set ‘Log HRV’ to ‘ON’.

Next, make sure you have one of the preferred BLE Channel Heart Rate Chest Straps.

Go back into “Settings”, and press “Sensors”. Then press “Search All”.

Garmin 1030 Search All Sensor Setting
Press “Search All”. – You MIGHT have to turn the Garmin off and then back on again to catch the BLE signal.

And just WAIT.

It SHOULD give you a “BLE” AlphaNumeric Identifier. Select that, save it, and you’re good to go on that part. Remember – you do NOT want the ANT+ version of the signal. You want the BLE.

Garmin 1030 BLE Chest Strap Discovery
This takes time, and it may require a Garmin reboot. Go with the Polar H10 HR strap, or the Garmin HRM Pro strap. I also love the 4III’s Viiiva strap.

Next, go ahead and download “HRV Logger”, from either iOS or Google Play on Android. It’s a good backup and it will visually help you ‘see’ where this 0.75 fraction exists.

DFAa1 HRV Logger by Marco Altini
The DFAa1 HRV Logger by Marco Altini and ASMA gives you a visual display of your DFAa1 Fraction, as well as providing a great backup data source. ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA!

Finally, go ahead and buy a one-year subscription to www.runalyze.com. Believe me; if you can spend $10/mo on a training platform, $12 for an app on a phone, and NOT spend $$ on a coach, then the $30 you’ll spend on Runalyze, just for the DFAa1 interpretation, is well worth it.

OR, you can do the test and send me the data, which is what most of my clients do, and I’ll run it through everything for you.

The DFAa1 Test and Results (for me).

Thus far, I have performed three DFAa1 tests. Here are the results:

Richard Wharton Xert DFAa1 HRV Test
There’s not much to see here – just a standard ramp protocol with heart rate included. If I were using the old school method of trying to identify a deflection point for THRESHOLD, not LOWER THRESHOLD, I’d guess 172-175 bpm. But that’s NOT Lower Threshold. So let’s see what Runalyze shows.

This is one of the tests, performed in late May.

Here’s the HRV data from www.runalyze.com:

Richard Wharton Runalyze HRV DFAa1 Test Results
Some important notes here: 1) Set ‘window overlap’ to ‘115’. 2) Click to ‘Heart Rate’ and look for high validity and low artifacts. 3) Look at the Heart Rate first, and then think ‘When was the last time I rode a bike based on my Heart Rate?’

And here’s the Power…

Richard Wharton Runalyze HRV DFAa1 Test Results
Note: Lower Threshold Power = 172 watts. This was in late May of 2021, when I was first experimenting with DFAa1 testing.

Now – here’s the data that I just got from a test run on Sunday, June 27th, after two weeks of consistent 75 XSS training, and an emphasis on staying BELOW my Lower Threshold Heart Rate (and Power)…..

Richard Wharton DFAa1 Late June 2021 Heart Rate
HR for Lower Threshold went from 147 to 158, a 7% rise.

And here’s the Power…

Richard Wharton DFAa1 Power reading late June 2021
Note the ‘mounds’ of dots on the first half of the image. Remember the mantra from 2004: “It beats because it WANTS TO, vs. beating because IT HAS TO.” This is that value, visualized. Power at Lower Threshold rose from 172 to 205w, a 16% rise.

CONCLUSION: Use the DFAa1 Collier Ramp Test on a regular basis to help your POLARIZED Training.

In order to keep this short enough, I’m going to stop here. Next post, however, I’ll show you the Vo2master data from these rides. I’m riding for 75 XSS BELOW my DFAa1 HR, but my NORMALIZED WATTAGE keeps RISING!

It’s literally a ‘more watts per beat’ situation, and I am really loving it.

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