Garmin 520 recovery recommendations

[Armchaircyclist]

After losing my garmin 510, I had to get the 520 eventually.

One of the new functions is that you get a summary of your time in different heart rate zones, and you get a screen that gives you a recommended recovery time.
I found that after a short but hard workout of 18 km cycling, where I spent basicly half the time in zone 5, and the other half in zone 4, it recommends me 60 ! hours of recovery ? I thought this seemed pretty excessive, and will go for a ride again soon, less than 20 hours after, but wonder if anybody else have tried this function, and how they evaluate it.
At the other end of the Spectrum, another day I spent 1 hour in zone 1 on the rollers, and got the message that I needed 2 hours recovery.

 

[King Boonen]

I'll have a look on my 810, but it sounds like something I would ignore

 

[Armchaircyclist]

When I went riding today, after a short while I got a Message on the garmin: "recovery: fair" and a yellow color, normally if fully recovered it is green.

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

When I went riding today, after a short while I got a Message on the garmin: "recovery: fair" and a yellow color, normally if fully recovered it is green.

Have you found it has helped?

 

[Armchaircyclist]

What do you mean ? It did not exactly help me recover I'll be out cycling tomorrow as well, but maybe like With cars, when the light goes red in the Dashboard, or in the recovery advisor, it's an indication that one should take it easy

 

[King Boonen]

I mean, has using the function helped with your training? I suppose I'm asking if you are doing what it tells you to do (or at least closer to it than you would usually) and if you feel that it's actually beneficial?

 

[Armchaircyclist]

Maybe it is helpful, and it is probably quite correct in its assessment, if recovery good/green means that you are fully recovered. I have not used it so long, and went out and ran 10k in zone4 today, and cycled 18k in zone 2-3 afterwards. Before this I had 30 hours recovery left, afterwards 38 I think. From my running performance it was quite Clear that I had not recovered from previous ride. So maybe I should listen to it more closely, unless I'm in a hard training period. At least before competition I think getting the green light as "recovered" would probably not hurt.

 

[Boeing]

Lots of functions I do not need or have the desire to use. I hate it when the heart rate limit warning comes on and shuts down the whole screen or the segment screen appears and tells you to go all the time!. Maybe I havent spent any time customizing. In addition I want more data screens not the dueling bikes or routes, etc.

I think they limited the brightness to save their notorious battery life issues. with the gloss screen it is quite difficult to see under trees on a mountain bike or early morning or dusk.

wish my 500 was bluetooth I'd still be using it.

 

[Armchaircyclist]

I never get a heart rate limit warning, because I have not turned that function on. I also do not use the segment function, as I hated getting those segment warnings on the 510 as well.
You need to take some time and customize if you have the wrong screens appearing. Normally I have 2 screens on, and they are customized, I chose 3 Fields of data on one, and 4 on the other. With 3 Fields you see the data very easily at a quick glance, With 4 or 5 you really have to look. Several screens With 3 Fields is probably the best way to go.

If you only need a simple Bluetooth Connected gps, there is always the garmin 25 at under half the price of the 520.

 

[Armchaircyclist]

Another update on the recovery function: It seems to calculate recovery time from time in heart rate zone 5 and 4. After a hard ride of 18 km mostly in zone 4-5 I got 60 hours of recovery. After a long ride of 140km but hardly touching zone 5, I got 23 hours recovery time.

 

[Boeing]

Re:

I never get a heart rate limit warning, because I have not turned that function on. I also do not use the segment function, as I hated getting those segment warnings on the 510 as well.
You need to take some time and customize if you have the wrong screens appearing. Normally I have 2 screens on, and they are customized, I chose 3 Fields of data on one, and 4 on the other. With 3 Fields you see the data very easily at a quick glance, With 4 or 5 you really have to look. Several screens With 3 Fields is probably the best way to go.

If you only need a simple Bluetooth Connected gps, there is always the garmin 25 at under half the price of the 520.

Yes I should and will. can I get more than 2 data screens though?

 

[Armchaircyclist]

You can have 5 data screens, so yes, you can have more than 2, plus of course Virtual partner if you like that, and the basic map. The menus are not the best. Select Train-profile, and then choose data screens, there you can enable as many screens as you want, and edit what you want to have in them.