Redbullet

I recently bought and used a Garmin 520. Nice toy, lots of features.
After a 85 km ride, I was curious to check the so called "Recovery advisor" on the device and... surprise! It says I should recover for 72 hours - 3 full days!!! Obviously, I shall not rest for 3 days and I'm sure I'm not going to die because of that.

Does anybody really use the "Recovery" advices on Garmin 520? Does anybody know what they want to say and what are the scientific grounds that support such automatic advices?

Thanks

gregf83 

I think you need to have your HR zones set up properly and give it a while to 'learn'. Seems to be reasonable for me although I don't take any action based on the readings.

Redbullet

I tested FTP / FTHR 40 days ago and the zones are ok, I don't think they changed too much. It was a more intense ride with 90% in zone 4 and 2% in zone 5. My feet burn, but still... 3 days recovery? I did not ride a 5 days race...

DrIsotope

I think then according to Garmin's Recovery Advisor, I should be dead. I haven't willingly taken a day off since February 2nd.

gregf83 

Someone forced you to take a day off?

DrIsotope

Buddy, I'm married with two kids. I get forced to do more **** than you could even imagine.

gregf83 

BTDT - kids are grown now so fewer 'forced' days off...

FLvector

Same here. Nice when there are less obstacles to keep you off the bike.

GuitarBob

If I recall correctly, my first few estimates were like that. After a few rides they will drop to more reasonable durations (that you'll probably ignore as I do).

Hoonigan

If you keep riding it will reduce the recovery time based upon subsequent performances. Eventually it'll be down real low if you ride every day.

Looigi

I know nothing about what the 520 recommends. The improvement in capability that comes from training occurs during recovery. Based on your training stress, individual physiology, and riding goals, there is an optimum amount.

It's been said that the large majority of riders ride too much at moderate and moderately high intensities and would be better off riding less at higher intensities and recover more. Recovery allows hitting higher stress during the next session.

bobwysiwyg

Interestingly, this is consistent with a conversation I had with my physical therapist while recovering from shoulder surgery. My sessions were never back-to-back days but the days varied slightly through the week based on his schedule. It was a hospital based environment that shared facilities with a gym. After several weeks I commented that I saw the same people (gym rats) who appeared to be there every day doing the same things. His comment was they are and some day may regret it. His response has stuck with me. "You shouldn't work the same muscles hard on consecutive days. They need twenty four hours to recover and develop."

RJM

Recovery really doesn't mean just sitting around the house not doing something, it just means riding a much lower pace than you have been doing. That is something I and other cyclists I know fail at all the time. We will call it a recovery ride but then hammer out a two hour zone 4 workout because we just can't force themselves to go that slow and nobody wants to be the wuss who makes the group slow. Performance then starts to degrade over time because we are just tired.

RNAV

Speaking from experience here, don't have three. Three forces you out of one-on-one and into zone coverage, and is an exponential leap in parental difficulty.

Oh, and I completely ignore the recovery feature. I ride my bike to work several days a week, and with limited bike riding time available to me, I'm sure as heck not going to take 72 hours off just because my Garmin said so.

DrIsotope

You ain't kiddin'. A buddy of mine has five. The odds are decidedly not in his favor.

pacalolo

I have five kids. Still ride 6 to 8 hours per week, though less than others.

Vicegrip

Recover does not mean no riding it means lighten up if you do. Many think that light lower watt rides help rebuild after a high watt high duration ride.

bikebreak

Try 4 kids and work at home 3 days week, wife in school, carpools at 3 different schools, laundry, laundry, laundry, making breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime...
No time for the luxury of recovery

topslop1

This has been the best birth control thread I've read in a long time. Thank you.

Coming up on 28 years young in July, no kids. I'll probably have an accidental child at some point or another, would prefer it to happen at late 30's, early 40's if at all.

I'm not positive that the world needs more people running around. Hm...

Seattle Forrest

It takes several exercises before the recovery advisor learns your fitness level. The first week (for an active person) it's just going to spit out gibberish.

I've had this feature in my watch for a year and it's pretty close to the mark most of the time. I ran my fastest 5k last night and got ~28 hours, which is reasonable.

Also the time is only valid if you're wearing a chest strap. If it's a wrist HRM, the number is based on bad data.

bonz50

"recover" doesn't mean no riding, right? just means nothing long and strenuous, take a light 10mi ride at slow/moderate pace or whatever is comfy for you...

floridamtb

There's a cure for that... it's called divorce. But then again you shouldn't take marriage advice from a guy with 2 ex wives. All kidding aside I waited until the kids were grown before I got back into cycling again. Missed a lot of years of riding though.

DrIsotope

And this is stated by Garmin, or just internet speculation? Because in my experience, my wrist-mounted HRM is every bit as accurate as a chest strap, and has far fewer spikes and transmission drops.

Luckily, the wife was into cycling long before I was. I barely touched a bike between the day I got my driver's license and February of last year-- a bit more than 20 years (almost as long as I've been married.) I did have to wait until both kids got into the double-digits before deciding to get back on the bike.

floridamtb

Lucky man! I'd love to find a girlfriend that rides but I'm 50 and most if not all of the women in the group rides or clubs are either too young or already taken

Seattle Forrest

Garmin, and FirstBeat, from whom Garmin license the Recovery Advisor software, both state that the feature relies heavily on heart rate VARIABILITY which is not measured by optical wrist sensors. It doesn't look at pulse rate (like how close did you get to your max) it looks at physiological state based on the individual timing between R cycles of the ECG wave.

Suppose your heart is doing 120 bpm. That doesn't mean it's beating like clockwork every 500 ms. Unless you're dying, it's much more erratic; one beat at 400 ms and another at 600 ms will average out to 120 bpm and your wrist HRM will look indistinguishable from a chest strap to you. But those timing differences will change in predictable ways depending how much aerobic/anaerobic contribution your workout had and how much it took out of you. And while a wrist monitor can get you the right pulse rate, it cannot measure that level of variation with anywhere near enough precision to work things like recovery state and lactate threshold out.