Hello, I was wondering why in my Z4 workouts I’m actually spending so much time in Z5/Z6 (4-5min, not just seconds) even though I’m for sure not running in Z5/Z6. When looking at the session chart I noticed that when smoothing is enabled, no time is shown in Z5/Z6, but when I disable it, time in Z5/Z6 is shown - but only small spikes. So I’m wondering how the calculation of time in zones work and if it should not work based on the smoothed data. (I’m speaking of pace zones, and GPS signal must have been good, as I was running on the beach, no trees, valleys, buildings).
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This has already been reported in some other threads. I still have this problem, too, with every run. I thought it had to do with me using Garmin and Stryd, but my last run was without the Stryd and shows the same symptoms:
It was a recovery run and I may have touched zone 3 for some seconds, but not all the other zones above and for sure not with the amount of time I see in “time in zones”.
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This is getting worse and worse for me. It also seems to be causing the load to be calculated incorrectly, making my load control useless at some point.
Why is there still no solution to the problem? I also don’t have the feeling that I’m alone in this. Is there anything I can do to help you solve the problem?
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Thanks @okoeth & @Harlerunner for raising this and for sharing such detailed screenshots and explanations — it’s really helpful.
The trouble as far as I understand is in the way that time in pace zones is currently being calculated. The issue is that raw GPS/stride spikes are being logged into Z5/Z6, even when you’re clearly not running at those intensities. That’s why you see a mismatch between the session chart (especially with smoothing on) and the time-in-zones breakdown.
We know this is frustrating, especially since it also affects downstream metrics like load. I will ask our dev team to look into it and work on a solution.
In the meantime:
- HR zones remain accurate, so they’re the most reliable guide for load and distribution until the fix is rolled out.
- If you have FIT files that show this issue clearly, sharing them with us will help speed up debugging.
Thanks again for your patience — we know this is important and want to get it right.