Garmin VO2 Max drop

Equipment
22

It appears it is calculating the Benefit and Load, just only showing it in the Training Load screen and not in the individual workout details. My workout on 2nd December was recorded on TR:

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Problem I have is that was a VO2 Max workout with only a few minutes spent in Tempo zone during the warmup, but Garmin has categorised it as Tempo, presumably based on the AP or NP. Which makes me have very little faith in the overall Garmin metrics, since if they’re categorising rides wrongly then all the other metrics that rely on that will be wrong as well.

1 Like
23

Wow, it’s true. How odd that there’s no easy way to find it.

24

Thanks. This is what I’m trying to say, much less eloquently in my word salad.

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25

While it was a long time ago, I did a lab VO2 Max test when I was no where as fit as I am now and it was a pretty close match to what I am now in my off season (baring in mind my off season is 20 hours a week, low intensity). My numbers have been going up steadily since I started doing more interval sessions.

If it was a huge drop from one ride, I would ignore it. You may have had an off day heart rate wise or something.

26

The problem is that it was instant, but now it stayed there even after several rides. I will now just continue to train and observe it for a few more weeks.
At some point, Garmin may arrive in the 21st Century and develop a well-organized, fully-functioning app.

1 Like
27

May have missed this, but has your performance correspondingly decreased?

If not, wouldn’t worry.

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28

It did not. FTP went up and i feel fitter as well.

1 Like
29

All good then!

30

I have a exactly one workout recoded on my new garmin. I was surprised to see when I finished my workout yesterday when it told me my vo2max was 76 and it was ‘superior’! The clincher was it went further and said I was in the top 1 percentage for my age and gender, and there’s more lol. I’m really 20 years old instead of 46. At this point I immediately showed my wife and asked her how she feels being married to such a superior young stud?

All this to say, I don’t think I’d put any stock in this number regardless of how they calculate it.

2 Likes
31

Hi! I have the same problem. Outdoor season is at end and I started my first indoor season. Vo2 max in Garmin instantly dropped 5 points and it looks like it won’t go back up. What happened to you in the remaining winter season and then in spring when you did first outdoor rides? Is it really only because higher body temperature indoors that increase my HR? I am using fan for cooling myself.

32

same powermeter?
I notice the opposite… even on very low volume (last few weeks 1 or 2 hard indoor sessions)

I -think- in my case the combination of hard efforts coming in fresh is bumping up my Garmin VO2Max estimation (from 59 to 65)

33

I wouldn’t stress about it as a number.

But for troubleshooting, check your max HR settings on all of your devices, and as mentioned above ensure the power is calibrated to be close enough.

I had the maxHR change on my Garmin devices by itself at one point and my VO2 climbed way up high. As soon as I corrected the max HR settings the VO2 number climbed back down to where it should be.

If you have all the same number settings and same power meter you might just need some adaptation to trainer life again.

34

I’m guessing that the lack of air movement is leading to a higher HR indoors, which will give you a lower VO2MAx estimate.

Additional/more powerful fans might improve your cooling situation, and bring your HR closer to what you might ecxperience outdoors.