Date: 11/18/21
Training Day: 4
Miles: 3.9
Shoes: Xero HFS
Weather: Fucking cold again

How It Felt: My heart rate is still high-ish, and I kept this run plenty easy. It felt good overall.

Commentary: I find it annoying that I seek approval from Garmin via my training status.

Garmin only uses “qualified” activities to calculate your training status. For a run, this means heart rate and GPS. For a ride it means heart rate and either GPS for an outdoor ride, or power meter for an indoor ride.

After the Mountain View Half Marathon I did a few indoor rides as part of my recovery. My watch tracked my heart rate, and iFit tracked everything else – cadence, power, miles, etc. I couldn’t connect my heart rate monitor to my spin bike because it’s only ANT+, and the bike is only Bluetooth. Figures. So, even though I imported my rides from iFit to Garmin Connect, since there was no heart rate, Garmin acts like I didn’t do anything when it comes to training status.

So, for the past couple of days Garmin has told me my training status is unproductive because I’m not doing enough aerobic activity and I’m too focused on anaerobic activity. Today my run was entirely aerobic, and guess what Garmin had to say about that?

Garmin is like Goldilocks, and clearly my porridge is either too hot or too cold. Is it because my training is lacking? Or is it because Garmin just sucks? I’m thinking it’s the latter.

Anywho, in a desperate attempt to get the coveted green, productive training status from Garmin, I bought a new heart rate monitor. Meet the Garmin HRM-Dual with both ANT+ and Bluetooth technology. No, it won’t replace my current HRM, the HRM-Run, because I still want all the running data the HRM-Run gives me. Instead, the new one will be my dedicated spin bike HRM. This is my life.

I have yet to do a ride with my new HRM. But in theory, when I export my ride from iFit and import it into Garmin, it will be a qualified activity because it has both heart rate and power. We shall see…

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