Running Dynamics and

Physiological Measurements

By monitoring key aspects of your running and fitness

progress, you get a better look at your current performance level and what
you need to do to keep up the good work or continue improving. Select
Garmin devices collect data while you work out in order to bring you these
running metrics and physiological measurements. If your device is showing
you stats, but you want to know more about what they mean, then you’ve
come to the right place. What can you do with this calculated information?
That’s up to you, but we’ve got some suggestions.

Physiological Measurements
VO2 Max

Your VO2 max score is the key to seeing, understanding and, more
importantly managing your personal fitness level. At a technical level, it describes the
maximum rate at which you can bring oxygen into your body, transport it to your
muscles and use it for efficient aerobic energy production. At a personal level, it is a
remarkable and versatile tool with a variety of health and performance implications.

When it comes to understanding your VO2 max score, it’s easy to remember that low
VO2 max scores represent poor fitness levels, and higher VO2 max scores indicate
greater performance capacity. Like most aspects relating to physical performance,
there is a genetic dimension to how efficiently your body uses oxygen and, by
extension, your VO2 max range. That said, your VO2 max score is dynamic, and it
reacts to how you live and train. With the right approach, practically everyone can
improve their VO2 max score.

The people least likely to be able to improve their VO2 max are elite athletes, because
they are already in excellent shape. This is great news for everyone else.

Studies have shown that being more active can make you happier and live longer.
VO2 max is a key metric used to study and verify this from a scientific perspective. If
you’re looking to improve, your device also offers the tools you need to get things
headed in the right direction.

For those interested in performance, VO2 max can be used in a slightly different way.
The more oxygen your body can use during exercise, the more power you can
generate and, therefore, the faster you can run during a race.

Race Predictor

Once a VO2 max is established, your device can provide a target

race time based on your current state of fitness. Projected race times can be viewed for
5K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon distances, which will get faster or slower as
your fitness goes up or down. At all race distances, but especially in longer races such
as marathons, there are many important and necessary factors for success that go
beyond just aerobic fitness; that’s why it is important to complete proper training for
an event to give yourself the best shot at reaching your predicted race times. And
remember, these times are just predictions, but they give you a good idea of the kind
of performances you can reasonably expect, given your physiological data. They also
provide a terrific goal to try and reach.

Performance Condition
 For a real-time assessment of your current ability to perform, look at
your performance condition. During the first 6 to 20 minutes of your run, this metric
analyzes pace, heart rate and heart rate variability. The resulting number is a real-time
assessment of the deviation from your baseline VO2 max, with each point on the scale
representing about 1% of your VO2 max. The higher the number, the higher you can
expect to perform. Keep in mind that your results may vary a bit during your first few
runs with a new device, since it’s still learning your fitness level. This will stabilize,
and then checking your performance condition will become a reliable day-to-day
indicator of your capability.

In addition to the alert during the first part of your run, you can add performance
condition as a data field to your training screens, and keep an eye on it as your run
unfolds. The value may move around slightly as you encounter hills or strong winds,
but it will trend down once you have been going hard for a while if the run starts to
take a toll on you. This is an objective way to keep an eye on how your ability to
perform is or isn’t declining as you go, because it’s telling you if your body is
working harder than normal to run at your current pace. So, performance condition
can give you a bit of an early “wall” warning and allow you to adjust your tactics
before you hit that wall too hard.

Training Effect

If you’re like most people, you train because you want results.
Because of how our bodies work, the type of training you do determines the type of
results you can expect and the types of performances you will be well prepared for in
the future.

Training effect is the metric that gives you a sneak peek at how each training session
is expected to impact your future fitness levels. Of course, to get the full benefits of
your training, it’s important to incorporate a proper recovery schedule.

One of the most common usages of training effect is to coordinate and balance
workouts that maintain and improve your current fitness level (see VO2 max).

Training effect builds over the course of your workout and is updated in real time.
This means you can use it as an on-the-go resource to tailor your workout to your
needs. You can push yourself harder when you are striving to improve and slow down
before you wander into the overreaching range, where the results may not be what you
wanted.

Aerobic Training Effect

Aerobic training:

 Develops aerobic energy production

 Utilization of fat for energy
 Endurance and stamina
 Prolonged performance capacity
Available on select Garmin watches, this measures the aerobic benefit of exercise,
which should correlate with the fitness improvement you expect to get from it. When
you crush a difficult run, you’ve likely given yourself a bigger dose of aerobic
exercise and, therefore, a bigger training effect. What good is this information for
you? Well, training effect uses your heart rate to measure the accumulated intensity of
exercise on your aerobic fitness and gives you a good indication of whether you’re
maintaining your current fitness level or improving it.

Aerobic training effect is the same as the original training effect feature offered on
many earlier Garmin watches, except the scale has been modified slightly to account
for — let’s face it — those really short or really easy activities that have no
meaningful training effect. In other words, we added a “0” at the bottom of the scale.

Technically speaking, aerobic training effect is the excess post-exercise oxygen

consumption (EPOC) accumulated during exercise, mapped onto a 0-to-5 scale that
accounts for your fitness level and training habits. Typically, as you get fitter, you
need larger “doses” of exercise to continue seeing improvement. So, while an exercise
session generating an EPOC of 60 ml-O2/kg might have given you a great training
benefit when you were out of shape, it might not do very much for you once you have
whipped yourself into wickedly good shape. Training effect reflects this reality by
giving a higher number in the first case than in the second case.
Note: The training effect scale for both aerobic and anaerobic is: 0 – None, 1 –
Minor, 2 – Maintaining, 3 – Improving, 4 – Highly Improving, 5 – Overreaching.
Anaerobic Training Effect
Anaerobic training:

 Develops anaerobic energy production

 Sprinting abilities
 Fatigue resistance
 Maximal performance capacity
While there isn’t a specific metric tied to it, the aspect of performance most easily
associated with anaerobic training effect is your ability to perform and repeat sprints.
The flow of a soccer game is a good point of reference here, where the activity of the
game is punctuated with sudden flurries of high-intensity activity.

Your body’s most efficient method of transforming fuel into energy requires oxygen,
but sometimes your demand for energy exceeds the rate at which enough oxygen is
immediately available. Luckily, your body has a backup process ready and waiting.
While not nearly as efficient, the anaerobic energy process can jump into action and
keep you going. The downside is that it becomes depleted quickly.

Whereas aerobic training effect ties nicely with increasing your aerobic fitness level
— expressed in terms of VO2 max — things are a little more complicated with
accounting for improvements on the anaerobic side of things.

By analyzing both heart rate and speed (or power, in the case of cycling) the anaerobic
training effect feature quantifies the anaerobic contribution to EPOC made during
these periods of exertion. The higher the anaerobic training effect, the greater
expected benefit to your anaerobic athletic capability. High-intensity intervals, for
example, have been shown to improve several components related to your ability to
perform, and anaerobic training effect quantifies this for you. However, the feature
goes one step further. By analyzing the type of workout you did, it can tell you more
specifically how the workout helped you. For example, if it were detected that you
completed several high-speed repeats, you might get an anaerobic training effect of
3.5 saying, “This activity improved your anaerobic capacity and speed due to several
high-speed/power repeats.”

Training Effect Samples

The following table should give you an idea of the typical aerobic and anaerobic
training effect you can expect from a good workout.

Run Type Typical Aerobic TE Typical Anaerobic TE

2.0 - 3.0Maintaining
Long, slow distance 0No Anaerobic Benefit
Aerobic Fitness

3.5+Improving Lactate
20-minute threshold 0No Anaerobic Benefit
Threshold

Lactate threshold 3.0+Improving Lactate

0 - 2.0Minor Anaerobic Benefit
intervals Threshold

Sprint intervals10 x 50m

0 - 2.0Minor Aerobic
@ 2.0 - 3.0Maintaining Speed
Benefit
150-200% VO2 max

Speed intervals10 x
2.0 - 4.0Improving Aerobic 3.0 - 4.0Improving Economy
400m @
Fitness and Anaerobic Fitness
100-105% VO2 max

Speed intervals10 x
2.0 - 4.0Improving VO2 4.0+Highly Improving
400m @
Max Anaerobic Fitness
110-115% VO2 max

2.0+Maintaining Aerobic 2.5+Maintaining Anaerobic

800m race
Fitness Fitness

1.0 - 2.0Minor Anaerobic

5K race 3.5+Improving VO2 Max
Benefit

4.0+Highly Improving VO2 0.0 - 2.0Minor Anaerobic

10K race
Max Benefit

Note that the above training effect values and phrases are illustrative examples. Your experience
may differ depending on your personal training habits. For example, if you incorporate strides
or faster fartleks into your distance runs, these can add an anaerobic training effect.
As with many Garmin Firstbeat features, it may take several training sessions for the watch to
learn your fitness parameters and produce the most accuraute results. While the device is still
learning about you, you may see uncharacteristic training effect values.
Lactate Threshold

Your lactate threshold is that specific level of effort or pace when fatigue accelerates.
For a well-trained runner, this usually occurs when they’re at about 90% of their
maximum heart rate corresponding to a pace somewhere between 10K and half-
marathon race pace. For a less experienced runner, the lactate threshold is often below
90% of maximum heart rate.

Select Garmin devices can detect your lactate threshold either through a guided
workout or automatically during a normal run. Either way, by gathering heart rate data
across a range of paces, the device will estimate your lactate threshold both in terms
of a running pace and a heart rate level in beats per minute. For best results, it’s very
beneficial to go for several runs after first taking the watch into use in order for your
device to accurately learn your overall fitness level. Then, once this is well
established, subsequent lactate threshold results will be more accurate than they might
be initially.

Historically, athletes hoping to utilize their lactate thresholds to personalize their

training regimens needed blood testing to assess the amount of lactate accumulating
during their training sessions. This process limited the number of athletes who had
access to this valuable training information.

The Firstbeat method of lactate threshold detection used in Garmin devices relies on
the fact that your respiration rate — how hard you are breathing — can be detected
through analysis of your heart rate variability. The process of inhalation and
exhalation produces tiny changes in the interval between heartbeats (HRV). When
these variations are decoded and combined with other performance data, your device
can recognize the simultaneous changes in your heart rate to indicate when you are
performing above your lactate threshold.

How can this help you? Your lactate threshold is the single best determinant of your
endurance performance capacity. As your ability to cover long distances at a faster
pace increases, you’ll see increases in your lactate threshold. This metric is also a
valuable resource for recognizing the personal training zones that will boost your
individual performance. That’s because your training will be based on real
physiological state transitions in your body instead of arbitrary percentages of your
maximum heart rate.

Knowing your lactate threshold lets you train with more precision. Many coaches
prescribe some running at lactate threshold as part of an overall training program. The
lactate threshold feature in compatible Garmin devices helps you determine where
your threshold is — without paying for an expensive lab test involving multiple blood
samples.

Recovery Time

Recovery is a critical, but often overlooked, portion of the training

process. The recovery period is marked by adaptation of your body in response to
training and the replenishment of vital resources. In fact, insufficient recovery can
lead to missing out on gains in fitness and performance entirely. Keeping track of
your recovery levels will reveal when training hard will be beneficial and ensure your
work is rewarded with the results you expect. You gain the ability to update and
optimize your training programs with confidence.

After each workout, your device reveals the number of hours before you will be back
near 100% and capable of performing a hard workout or running a race. Provided by
Firstbeat, the calculation is produced and personalized using a unique digital model of
your physiology. It utilizes a combination of the session’s training effect score,
performance and fitness level assessments performed during the session and the
number of hours of recovery time remaining on your clock at the start of your
workout.

Recovery time ranges up to 4 days.

For best results, it’s beneficial to first go for several runs with your watch in order for
the device to accurately learn your overall fitness level. Once this is established,
subsequent recovery time results may be more accurate.

Training Load

Want to look at the bigger picture? This is where you need to go.
Training load is a measure of the total volume of your training for the last 7 days.
Furthermore, your compatible Garmin device compares this weekly training load to
your longer-term training load — also taking into account your fitness level — and
shows you if this load is in the optimal range. The volume of a workout is the EPOC it
creates as estimated from heart rate data gathered during the workout. Your current
training load then is just the sum of EPOC measurements for the last 7 days.

It’s true that pushing yourself is the way to get results, but overreaching and training
too hard is a real possibility that is counterproductive and could even lead to injury.
So look carefully at your training load, and see if you’re doing too much, too little or
just the right amount.

The available training load ranges are:

High – Based on your current fitness level and recent training habits, your training
load may be too high to produce positive results.
Optimal – This range is ideal for maintaining and improving your fitness level. Keep
up the good work!
Low – Your training load is low for your current fitness level and training habits. If
you stay in this range, you are unlikely to see further improvement.
Training Status

Training status is the first feature offered by Garmin that truly

analyzes not only today’s run but also your longer-term training habits. This provides
you with powerful insight into how your training is really going. If other metrics offer
you a window into the process, training status knocks down the walls to let you enjoy
the panoramic view.

Is your current training intense enough, or long enough, to help improve your fitness?
How do you know if you’re working hard enough to make a difference in the long run
or if you’re not pushing yourself hard enough? Training status helps you make
decisions about future training by automatically taking into account changes in fitness
level, your current acute (7-day) training load and any change in training load with
respect to previous training. In essence, it tells you the effectiveness of your current
training and provides guidance to help you improve your training decisions.

Provided by Firstbeat, the calculation utilizes several dimensions of a personalized

model of your physiology. Changes in your VO2 max fitness level in light of your
recent training loads over time indicate the effectiveness of your training.

The dynamic and interwoven nature of our physiology often makes the process of
training seem more like art than science. On the surface, what we expect isn’t always
what we get, and what we get isn’t always what we expect.

To explain in simple terms, when you stop training, your fitness level will decrease,
but depending on your previous training load, a break from normal training routines
may result in an increase in fitness level. Similarly, it’s expected that regular hard
training will improve our fitness levels, but watch out — push too hard too often, and
your fitness level will start to decrease due to the overtraining phenomenon.

As an example of how this works, imagine that you’ve been training consistently for a
number of weeks, and your fitness with normal, small day-to-day ups and downs is
nevertheless increasing. This trend is automatically identified and your current
training will be classified as “productive.” Similarly, you could find yourself training
very hard but with your fitness starting a pattern of decline. In this situation, your
training would be identified as “overreaching,” and additional recovery will be
recommended.

The recognized training states are below.

Peaking – You are in ideal race condition! Your recently reduced training load is
allowing your body to recover and fully compensate for earlier training. Be sure to
think ahead, since this peak state can only be maintained for a short time.
Productive – Keep up the good work! Your training load is moving your fitness in
the right direction. Be sure to plan recovery periods into your training to maintain
your fitness level.
Maintaining – Your current training load is enough to maintain your fitness level. To
see improvement, try adding more variety to your workouts or increasing your
training volume.
Recovery – Your lighter training load is allowing your body to recover, which is
essential during extended periods of hard training. You can return to a higher training
load when you feel ready.
Unproductive – Your training load is at a good level, but your fitness is decreasing.
Your body may be struggling to recover, so pay close attention to your overall health,
including stress, nutrition and rest.
Detraining – You’ve been training much less than usual for a week or more, and it’s
affecting your fitness. Try increasing your training load to see improvement.
Overreaching – Your training load is very high and has become counterproductive.
Your body needs a rest. Give yourself time to recover by adding lighter training to
your schedule.
No Status – You typically need a week or two of training history, including recent
activities with VO2 max results from running or cycling, before we can determine
your training status.

HRV Stress Test (Stress Score in Older Products)

If you’re wondering whether your body is ready for a hard run or in need of a lighter
effort, it might be time to check your stress score. When you’re fresh and rested inside
and out, you’re better able to absorb the training effect from a tough workout.
However, the same hard workout can be counterproductive if you’re tired or on the
verge of overtraining. Your stress score is calculated during a 3-minute test during
which your heart rate variability (HRV) is analyzed. The resulting stress score is
displayed as a number from 0 to 100, with a lower number indicating a lower stress
state. This measurement helps you assess what level of activity your body is ready for.
More accurate results are gathered by taking the test at the same time and under the
same conditions every day (recommended prior to the workout, not after.) This also
helps you get a feel for your own day-to-day and week-to-week variations.
You are required to stand to take the HRV stress test, because that makes the test
more sensitive to low and medium levels of stress. When you are lying down,
moderate levels of stress may not be revealed, but standing puts a slight load on your
cardiovascular system. That load causes a meaningful drop in HRV when you have a
moderate amount of stress compared to very low stress.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Your heart does not beat in a perfectly regular rhythm as would a metronome, and, in
fact, beat-to-beat variations in your heart rate are healthy and normal. To understand
more about how Garmin and Firstbeat use heart rate variability to give you better
information about the state of your body, start with why heart rate variability exists.

Your heart is controlled by your autonomic nervous system (ANS), which is the
involuntary part of your nervous system. Furthermore, there are 2 branches of the
ANS called the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. The sympathetic branch
of your ANS is active when you’re under some kind of stress. It is the part of your
ANS that puts all systems on alert. By contrast, the parasympathetic branch is the
more relaxed part that just hums along when you are relaxed and not about to be
charged by a mountain lion. When the sympathetic branch is more active, your heart
rate typically increases, and it beats in more regular rhythm — meaning HRV
decreases.

On the other hand, when the parasympathetic branch is more active, your heart rate
decreases, and it beats when it gets around to it to meet the body’s needs, but not on
such a strict schedule as when the sympathetic branch is in charge. In other words,
HRV increases. Because of these characteristics, HRV is a great indicator of the
balance between the activity of the 2 branches of the autonomic nervous system, and
therefore it’s an indirect measurement of stress. Higher HRV means lower stress.

There are many different statistical methods used to characterize HRV, but the HRV
stress test (formerly called stress score) feature makes life a lot easier by putting your
stress on an easy-to-understand 0-to-100 scale specifically designed to be another tool
for you to assess how your body is doing and how it’s handling training stress and life
stress.

Although HRV decreases as you begin to exercise and continues to decline as you go
harder, it still yields useful information even when you’re running fast. Available on
some Garmin devices, the lactate threshold feature uses a Firstbeat feature that looks
for a point of increasing HRV that corresponds closely to your lactate threshold heart
rate.
EPOC
Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption is the phenomenon where for a period of
time after exercise, your body will continue to use oxygen at a higher rate than it
would otherwise at rest. This makes sense. When you exercise, you disturb your
body’s usual state, and this disturbance requires your body to do some extra work to
put things back to normal. In fact, the point of training is that after exercise, your body
will build itself back up to normal and then some. It is the “and then some” — also
called “supercompensation” — that makes you a little fitter and faster than you were
before.

Since the oxygen used by your body is related directly to the amount of energy it uses,
the EPOC measurement is perfect for quantifying how much your body’s normal state
(homeostasis) is disturbed by a session of exercise. In other words, EPOC is a great
measure for exercise volume or dose, since it quantifies how much work your body
had to do to get back to normal — and then some.

Directly measuring EPOC requires fancy laboratory equipment and a lot of time.
However, Firstbeat created a patented method for estimating EPOC from your heart
rate data during exercise. These EPOC estimates are at the core of how we determine
your training effects, weekly training load and training status.
Running Dynamics
Ground Contact Time
This is the amount of time in each step that you spend on the ground while running.
Ground contact time is typically pretty short, so it is measured in milliseconds. In fact,
ground contact time tends to be especially short for elite runners, they will often have
ground contact times of less than 200 ms. Virtually all experienced runners have
ground contact times under 300 ms, likely because they have learned to “pick up”
their feet quickly and not to over-stride as they are landing. Over-striding describes a
running style where the foot lands too far in front of the body leading to braking
forces at impact and, typically, longer ground contact times.

Ground Contact Time Balance

By monitoring the balance between your left and right foot ground
contact time (GCT), this measures your symmetry as you run. On your Garmin watch,
it’s always displayed as a percentage greater than 50% with an arrow to the left or
right, to show which foot is on the ground longer. For most people, a more
symmetrical running form is preferable. Color gauges on Garmin watches and Garmin
Connect™ show how balanced you are compared to other runners. Many runners
report that GCT balance tends to deviate farther from 50/50 when they run up or down
hills, when they do speed work or when they are fatigued. Anecdotally, some runners
also notice that injuries are reflected in greater imbalance.

Cadence
Simply put, this is how many steps you take per minute, counting both feet. It’s a
commonly measured running metric and can tell you a lot about your form. For
example, at a given pace, quicker cadence and shorter stride length result in smaller
forces at many places throughout the body, such as at the ankles, knees and hips. The
reduced magnitude of these forces is widely believed by experts to also reduce injury
risk. It’s clear that running cadence can be increased only so far, but for more injury
prone runners in particular, working on increased cadence could be beneficial. An
often-cited target for running cadence is 180 steps per minute, though taller runners
tend to have somewhat slower cadence. Interestingly, higher cadence is also
associated with lower vertical oscillation and shorter ground contact time.

Stride Length
Another key part of measuring your running form — stride length — is how far you
travel with each left and right step. It’s shown at the end of your run or as an in-
activity data field you can view as you run. Later, you can view this data in more
detail on Garmin Connect™ to see how your stride length varies with your pace,
cadence, elevation or other metrics. Your stride length is dependent on a number of
factors, including body morphology, muscular strength and flexibility.

Vertical Oscillation
This reflects the amount of “bounce” in each step while you run. Measured at the
torso, it tells you, in centimeters, how much distance you are travelling up and down
with each step. Many running coaches believe that lower vertical oscillation is more
economical, because less energy is wasted going up and down. Garmin has researched
many runners of all different levels. In general, more experienced runners tend to have
lower vertical oscillation. However, faster paces often come at a cost of somewhat
higher vertical oscillation. Vertical ratio (see below) takes this into account. Another
advantage of lower vertical oscillation is that it typically means less stress on the
lower body at impact.
Vertical Ratio

This reflects your running efficiency based on how well you propel
yourself forward with each stride. Vertical ratio is the amount of “bounce” in your
stride, divided by your stride length, then expressed as a percent. Since stride length is
the horizontal movement of running, it’s the benefit of the action, whereas vertical
oscillation is one of the energy costs of running. A low vertical ratio number indicates
a small cost for a large benefit. That means more efficient running.