Comments on: Garmin VO2 Max Accuracy Reviewed (+ Other Metrics)

By: Whitney

Whitney — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 23:27:15 +0000

In reply to Jess Carson. Jess, my advice to you is to completely ignore Garmin!! A couple of my running friends are 2:3-something marathoners and Garmin has them running much slower marathons. I think because their heart rates are higher so garmin underestimate a their fitness. Trust your training and let me know how it goes!

By: Jess Carson

Jess Carson — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 21:17:47 +0000

Hey thanks for the write up! I’ve found a few posts of yours over the past few weeks (loved the Carb Loading one!) as I’ve been in the final weeks of training for my first marathon in several years.

This is what worries me: I’ve been training to run a sub-3 hour marathon. I’ve been able to follow the training plan more or less to a T, and my last “long” run of 12 miles felt amazing…a 7:10 avg pace (running negative splits) felt easy and relaxed. However, my Garmin race predictor still has my marathon prediction at 3:14 and my half marathon at 1:29 (I ran 1:28 in a race near the beginning of my training cycle). If Garmin overestimates race times, does this mean I don’t stand a chance running sub-3?

My mind is going crazy just a few days away from race-day 🙂

By: Whitney

Whitney — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 10:14:57 +0000

In reply to William. Wow! That is a huge difference! Glad you found your correct easy zone :)

By: William

William — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 08:23:20 +0000

My Garmin has me at 57-58 VO2max for running, which I – someone who was never into sport but got into cycling and running in my 30s – thought was great but took with a grain of salt. I’m preparing for my first running race and recently splashed out on a lactate and a vo2max test – and it turns out my number from the lab was 69!

I think the discrepancy has to do with me mostly having run at an easier pace (but not easy enough it turns out) the last couple of years since I got into running, and hence my threshold is still not great, and I think that’s a large part of Garmin’s calculations. I’m now all about my measured Z2 and threshold pace and I feel amazing! I run more than before but I feel both rested and powerful, and the race predictions are dropping after every run!

The test cost a bit of money but it turned my ambition in running on its head, and finally running in my correct zones feels great.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 00:05:09 +0000

In reply to Harley. That is great you stay mostly in productive! What Garmin do you have??

By: Harley

Harley — Sat, 09 Jul 2022 10:58:29 +0000

Great write up Whitney. I train almost every day and I’m usually in a productive state on my Garmin. I noticed that after being sick I went from detraining to unproductive. It was like my garmin saying, well you aren’t getting worse now, you have plateaued. Then after more workouts I’m back to productive. I’m only ever peaking with I stop working out. Otherwise I’m constantly in productive I find.

Great article. Didn’t know about EPOC and