Getting more than 5 HR zones on a Garmin Edge 25

courtmed
courtmed Posts: 164
edited March 2017 in Training, fitness and health
I did a max HR test yesterday so attempting to change my zones. Googled to check the thresholds and realised most of the prescribed zones online use more than 5, but I can't get more than 5 on my Garmin. Apparently it can be done, I think there should be a little "+" icon in my Garmin Connect browser but that doesn't seem to be there...

Any ideas?

Comments

  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    Not even sure you need 5 zones, tbh...
  • Alex_Simmons/RST
    Alex_Simmons/RST Posts: 4,161
    5 is more than sufficient number of intensity levels for HR.
    RST Sport : Coaching - Training Plans - Powermeters -- My blog -- AeroCoach Australia
  • VamP
    VamP Posts: 674
    One for easy, one for tempo, one for threshold and one for above threshold. Any more than that is trying to introduce pointless complexity to an imprecise metric.
  • fenix
    fenix Posts: 5,437
    Stay with the Garmin Zones for ease.
  • fat daddy
    fat daddy Posts: 2,605
    edited March 2017
    noooo, you need ALL the zones

    Zone 1 - listening to your wife whilst the adverts are on
    Zone 2 - resting heartrate
    Zone 3 – active recovery
    Zone 4 - thinking of getting off the sofa to get a beer
    Zone 5- walking upstairs for a wee
    Zone 6 – endurance zone
    Zone 7 - walking fast to catch that train without running so if you miss it it looks like you wernt really trying
    Zone 8 – tempo / sweetspot
    Zone 9 - tempo / sweetspot the morning after you went to the pub and realise you should have drunk that much
    Zone 10 - The door bell rings when you are taking a sh1te
    Zone 11 – lactate threshold
    Zone 12 - your heart rate when your missus talks during the game
    Zone 13 – Vo2 max zone
    Zone 14 - trying to keep up with your kid
    Zone 15 – aerobic capacity zone
    Zone 16 - realising you have been swiming underwater for too long and you are trying to get back to the surface before you drown
    Zone 17 – neuromuscular zone
    Zone 18 - realising you put the hob on 2 hours ago to boil pasta and forgot about it
  • courtmed
    courtmed Posts: 164
    Alright alright point taken :mrgreen:
  • Alex_Simmons/RST
    Alex_Simmons/RST Posts: 4,161
    VamP wrote:
    One for easy, one for tempo, one for threshold and one for above threshold. Any more than that is trying to introduce pointless complexity to an imprecise metric.
    I'd probably have:
    recovery; endurance; tempo; threshold. Enough to be useful but recognising that more doesn't make much sense with HR.

    You can add an above threshold level as well if you like, however by the time HR gets there your effort is probably nearly finished.

    See the example HR response below to efforts at threshold power, and shorter harder efforts done at a power designed to elicit VO2max. See how little time, ~14 minutes, the rider's HR actually spends in the maximal aerobic "zone" even though the they actually spent a total of 28 minutes at that power level.

    Even when riding at threshold it takes HR several minutes to actually reach the threshold "zone". When it does then you should notice a gradual increase in HR throughout such efforts (cardiac drift).

    So when using HR to guide threshold efforts, keep in mind that if you get to that HR "zone" quickly, then you've started way too hard and while HR may remain high, power will no doubt be fading throughout.

    For supra-threshold efforts, better to find an alternative to HR as the lag in response makes it pretty useless as a real time intensity guide.

    HRResponseAPITTI.png
    RST Sport : Coaching - Training Plans - Powermeters -- My blog -- AeroCoach Australia
  • courtmed
    courtmed Posts: 164
    Cheers Alex, that's really useful

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