Getting a powermeter soon and wondering what’s the best way to have the recording set up on my Garmin 500. I’m training for 70.3 races FWIW. I had a Powertap a while back, but can’t remember what it set on for recording intervals.
First, garmins have an option to not record 0s. Never turn that on.
Other than that, up to personal preference what you put on the screen. AVG power for the interval and current power are pretty easonable. Or NP instead of AVG. Or all 3.
jackmott…confused by your “never turn that on” statement…can you give more detail? i have a garmin and quarq…the PM world is pretty new to me.
jackmott…confused by your “never turn that on” statement…can you give more detail? i have a garmin and quarq…the PM world is pretty new to me.
Be sure it is set to include zeros in the average. Refer to your user manual for how to set it. I believe garmin calls it Zero Averaging and Non-Zero Averaging. You want zero averaging.
Non-Zero Averaging should be relabeled “WRONG”
I read somewhere that one should also turn off the auto-pause function. True?
jackmott…confused by your “never turn that on” statement…can you give more detail?See: Garmin Edge 500 In Depth Review, search for “Zero Averaging options.” Ignoring the zero values will skew any power data analysis (TP, Strava, Golden Cheetah, WKO+, …) by artificially inflating your power numbers.
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I read somewhere that one should also turn off the auto-pause function.Maybe here: Garmin Forerunner 910XT In Depth Review:
Also note that for cycling with a power meter, it’s generally recommended not to use Auto Pause, as it’ll skew your Normalized Power metrics afterwards since it’ll make it appear as though you’ve had no rests (depending on the software used).
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I read somewhere that one should also turn off the auto-pause function. True?
Yes. And turn off smart recording.
It won’t actually skew your post ride data analysis (normally) because it still records the zeros, it just doesn’t use them for the on screen average power calculation. When downloaded into other apps, you still have all the data.
EXCEPT - Garmin Connect and Training Peaks online (the old version anyway) will show that wrong average power value for the entire ride. Which is just confusing stupid madness, so, never use this feature, haha.
jackmott…confused by your “never turn that on” statement…can you give more detail?See: Garmin Edge 500 In Depth Review, search for “Zero Averaging options.” Ignoring the zero values will skew any power data analysis (TP, Strava, Golden Cheetah, WKO+, …) by artificially inflating your power numbers.
so from a power standpoint you want ZERO AVG (on the edge 500)
and from a cadence standpoint would you do non zero avg or zero avg?
so from a power standpoint you want ZERO AVG (on the edge 500)
and from a cadence standpoint would you do non zero avg or zero avg?
I dunno anything about cadence.
But I imagine you would want a nonzero average for that, if you were trying to figure out what your typical cadence is when pedaling.
I like to use this setup:
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Set Garmin 500 to auto-lap @ 2.5 mi (you can experiment with different lap distances)
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Main page display (this is what I look at when racing)
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Lap Power (average W for the current lap)
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3s Avg Power (average W for the last 3 seconds) better than instant power which can jump a lot
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Heart Rate
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Cadence
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Lap Speed (average mph for the current lap)
I like to look at lap data because it helps me focus better. It’s easier to stay on task when you break your ride into smaller segments and work on hitting the goal power on those small chunks. The main field I look at is Lap Power. I use 3s Power to make sure I don’t do too much or to little at the present time. I look at heart rate to determine if I’m within my limits.
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Second page (some overall Power stats)
- NP -
IF
- TSS -
Third page (general stuff)
- Ride Time
- Average Speed
I’ve never used TSS while training, only looked at TSS and TSd afterwards. Any good resources on using TSS while training?
It can be useful if you and/or your coach have put together a plan based on TSS. Say for instance, you want to hit a CTL of 100 before race season, and that implies you need to do 800TSS per week for the next 4 weeks.
You can plan your week out in terms of TSS. So, instead of “Ride zone 3 for an hour” it becomes “ride zone 3 until you hit X TSS”
As the week goes on you can see where you are and know exactly what kinda workouts you need to hit that weekend to hit the training load goal.
It isn’t that big of a deal since with experience you kind of know what your TSS is just based on the pain and duration of the ride.
I’ve never used TSS while training, only looked at TSS and TSd afterwards. Any good resources on using TSS while training?
I’ve never used TSS while training, only looked at TSS and TSd afterwards. Any good resources on using TSS while training?
I watch TSS during recovery and opener days. I have a maximum TSS number for the day and it helps me stay under it.
What if you don’t ride laps? Just one big ride loop?
The lap feature can be set by distance or position, doesn’t matter if you are riding a loop, out and back, point to point. I typically use 10K as my auto lap. If I have intervals I turn off auto lap if I know the intervals are longer than ~15 mins.
As for the post earlier, for CADENCE, YES include Zero.
Jack- I do not believe Garmin devices will use smart recording when powermeter is detected. I believe power meter detected = every second no matter what.
I’ve never used TSS while training, only looked at TSS and TSd afterwards. Any good resources on using TSS while training?
I’ve never looked at TSS during a ride either mainly cuz my riding drives TSS and not the other way around.
I will do my planned rides and accept whatever TSS it gives. If I want more I’ll ride more another day.
Here is a discussion of Garmin page setups
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=4778104
As for my Garmin page set up
Primary Screen
Power (3 sec)
Time, Distance
Speed, Cadence
Lap Screen
Power (3 sec)
lap time, lap distance
speed, cadence
Interval Screen
Power (3 sec)
Lap time, Ave lap power
Distance, cadence
Info screen
Ave Power, Ave Speed
Total time, HR
Joules, Elevation
Time of day, Last lap Power
Jack- I do not believe Garmin devices will use smart recording when powermeter is detected. I believe power meter detected = every second no matter what.
You are partly right, Garmin devices will be set to record every second when they detect a powermeter, but this is not Smart Recording (smart recording is a variable recording rate that should not be used) and I believe you can turn on smart recording with a powermeter (but it is not a good idea).
Good stuff on that thread. Thanks. Looks like I need to spend some time setting up my Garmin devices to be totally dialed in!