Garmin Data Fields

Herbsman · December 2012

I want to stick to one screen so I don't have to press buttons during a ride. I'm after people's opinions on which are the most useful data fields.

Eventually will be measuring power - should I use current or 3s average? Should I use a longer average for longer intervals, e.g. 2x20?

Once I have done an FTP test I will have %FTP and power zone displayed - other than during an FTP test is there any need to display the actual power figure once I know my FTP and zones?

Also obviously need to know ride time for doing intervals. I don't want to be looking at the screen at any point during a one minute interval for example. Is it better to use regular time alerts, or set up a workout in the training centre?

I probably won't look at it when racing, unless on a solo breakaway. In which case do I need to display anything other than %FTP, distance and time?

bigpikle · December 2012

Current power is pretty much useless as power levels are so stochastic - you'll see this as soon as you try riding with a power meter. 3s av power is most helpful in monitoring your actual efforts. Otherwise I use lap av power for monitoring intervals like a 2x20 and have 30s av power on screen as thats helpful for pacing in longer intervals. I do think pacing is still important in intervals as short as 1 min if you're going to finish them consistently and do multiples of them properly. Only when I do stuff like 15 sec do I ignore the computer all together.

I use all numbers in watts and dont see the need to use % FTP as I prefer to have a number to focus on eg keep the lap av power as close to 280w for the 20 mins etc. Choice is yours though. I also have a field for lap time so I can monitor how long is gone/to go for each interval.

I sometimes create workouts for short intervals, so I get beeps etc but mostly because I find that for high intensity intervals I tend to lose count of how many I've done and how many to go etc, so having it all programmed into the Garmin is helpful.

I dont worry about using 2 screens for all the data I use. I have HR info and speed info on a 2nd screen as its just a touch of a button to change and unless I'm doing super short intervals there really isnt any challenge in switching between screens.

okgo · December 2012

After a while you can stick to one figure give or take a couple of watts by having the live reading, but 3 sec is much better for trying to stick in a certain range.

So my main screen has Speed, Avg Speed, Elapsed time, Distance, Power and Average power.

Wouldn't bother with the %age of FTP

Herbsman · December 2012

okgo wrote:

After a while you can stick to one figure give or take a couple of watts by having the live reading, but 3 sec is much better for trying to stick in a certain range.

So my main screen has Speed, Avg Speed, Elapsed time, Distance, Power and Average power.

Wouldn't bother with the %age of FTP

I thought percentage of FTP would be useful for pacing if, say you break away solo knew you had 10 miles to go, this would take you roughly 20 minutes, and you knew you could ride at say 105% of your FTP for that long.

Is speed actually useful other than for working out how long it's going to take you to do a certain mileage? I don't know why there isn't a 'pace' option so you can see how long it's taking you to do each mile, so you can more easily figure out how much time you have left

amaferanga · December 2012

I have 5 screens set up. First screen is my current lap power screen. 6 data fields, top 2 big ones are Power and Pwr 30s. Then I have Lap Pwr, NP Lap, Current Lap (time) and Cadence. I prefer instantaneous power over 3s power as I find the 3s power is too slow to respond to changes. This is more of an issue with crank based power meters as there's a lag anyway, but even when I had a PowerTap I didn't use 3s power. The instantaneous power is much less variable with my P2max than with the PowerTap so it's certainly not useless IMO. 30s power is really useful for intervals.

I then have a display that's pretty similar, but for total ride power instead of lap power. Again, 6 data fields with the 2 big ones as Power and Pwr 30s. The other 4 are Avg Pwr, NP, Distance and Time.

Next screen is a ride summary screen - the stuff that I might like to see towards the end of a ride, but don't need to see through the ride. 8 data fields with Avg Pwr, Max Pwr, NP, TSS, Distance, Time, Avg Speed and Kilojoules.

I then have a silly pointless screen that shows L-R balance. Don't pay much attention to it other than to note that my L-R asymmetry is rarely more than 2 or 3%.

Final screen is a non-power screen for rides without power. Not much interests me really, but I have 6 data fields because I can, the 2 big ones are speed and lap speed, then temp, time of day, distance and ride time.

The first screen with the lap power parameters is the one I ride with 99% of the time. % FTP and zone stuff is pretty pointless I reckon. You should have a good idea of what zone you're in anyway and working things out in your head out if interest can be a welcome distraction during boring rides (well it is for me).

fish156 · December 2012

I only really use the one screen

[3s Power]
[Interval Power]
[Cadence][Heart Rate]
[Time of day][Interval time]

I'd rather all power (instantaneous, 3s and lap) were presented in %FTP rather than Watts. It would save me having to recalculate my interval sessions as my FTP changes.

Garmin Data Fields

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