First HRT run with new Garmin Forerunner 55

[ChannelRunner2]

Last week, I (finally!) got my Garmin Forerunner 55 primarily to do heart rate training (I had ordered it in April!). I set the watch and its app up on Monday. On the watch I chose English as that is actually my default language. The app is on my phone, which is set to German, so it's in German. I did change the distance to default to km on the app...

Today, I used the watch the first time on a run - also switching to my summer time, working out before work. As I had read that some people have to slow way down using HRT 💓, I realized that a 5K might not be the best choice as I want to start my paid work at 9 am. So, I decided on 30 minutes - and set up a goal for that on the watch (or at least hoped I did...). After my warm up walk, I got the watch started (yea! I managed!) and plodded along 🏃🏽‍♀️

The pace was waaaaay slower! My 10K on Monday had come in at an avg of 07:29. Now it was around 13:00... Weird, I thought, but tried to focus on my heart rate. Since I wasn't sure if the watch would tell me when the 30 minutes were over (and cursing myself that I hadn't set up the display so I could see time...), I did some quick math and decided I'd stop at 2.5 km.

Well, it DID announce when I reached 30 minutes! I managed to stop the watch *and* save my data 🥳 coming in slightly below the estimated 2.5. Then during my cool down walk, I was curious to see what got saved in the app. I was confused because the app showed that I had run 3.7 km at a pace of 8:08. Huh? How could the watch and the app be that much apart?! They were synching after all!

Then it dawned on me! A quick calculation with my conversion app confirmed: 3.7 km are 2.2 miles 🤣 The watch had been displaying things in miles when I thought it's kilometers...🙈

So, in the end I managed to run at a 137 bpm, which is still higher than I am supposed to according to the MAF method. Yet, I reached that HR at the pace I had thought would be my recovery pace! And clearly, I still have a lot to learn about that Forerunner and its app 🤣

❉

(And omg ordering that thing was an ordeal! I ordered it directly from Garmin who informed me after a week or two that the shipment was delayed and would be in about a week... That week came and went, so I emailed them and was told the shipment was delayed and would be in about a week... That week came and went, so I emailed them and was told the shipment was delayed and would be in about a week... Seriously! So, I looked around and found a place in France that stocked the Forerunner 55 and got it in a few days! 🥳)

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate]

You are going to enjoy your new Garmin but they can take time and lots of patience to get set up to your liking. I questioned Google lots when I first got mine.

[ChannelRunner2 Graduate10 in reply to SueAppleRun]

Thanks, Sola! Fortunately, I did read that the Garmin isn't the most intuitive to use, so I was prepared... I picked it because it's fairly accurate in monitoring the heart rate via the wrist, which is what I want to do primarily... And, yea, search engines are our friends 🤣

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate in reply to ChannelRunner2]

I love my Garmin and like the monitoring to see if I improve

[Instructor57 Graduate10]

Well done !Hope you enjoy the new watch !

The MAF training takes a lot of commitment and months of work, something I tried but not for anywhere near long enough!

I was having to walk so often to keep below my MAF HR .

Hope you get on well with it 😊🤞

[XenaZelda]

i love my garmin, but i have the forerunner 45 which meets my needs, when i ordered it last October direct from Garmin i got it pretty quick and then i ordered another after christmas as a back up and that came pretty quick too, so sorry you had a flap about when you ordered your one, that must have been frustrating for you.

[ChannelRunner2 Graduate10 in reply to XenaZelda]

Yea, it was especially frustrating because they kept promising it soon... Maybe they don't stock them in Germany? Would seem odd to me... Oh, well! I got it 😎

I did compare the Forerunner 45 and 55 and can't remember the reason why I picked the 55 🤣 I am sure it was a good one 😉

[XenaZelda]

oh your in Germany, maybe they don't stock them in Germany, but i too would think that odd, at least you have it now, i don't think there is much difference but there must be some difference, i got my watch for £100 in the sale (and the 2nd one) as long as it records my pace, time, heart rate, route i am happy, with the 45 i can also get coaching sessions on it i think, but will work out how to do that later 😀

[Dexy5 Graduate10]

Welcome to Garmin land ChannelRunner2 . It certainly does have its frustrations .

[MrBassmanjazz]

Had my 1st Forerunner 55 run yesterday, too. (Up from a 30). Changed as I want to record swims too. Can't find a watch face that I like ! There's a lot to learn.

Messed up as I thought I would tell the Coach about my running. (Baseline run - not sure if I'll use this). Managed to record most of my 4k.

[ChannelRunner2 Graduate10 in reply to MrBassmanjazz]

Because weird things were happening in Apple Health (see below), I started looking around on what's going on. In that process, I stumbled on a page that is talking about nice looking watch faces and thought I'd share, though I have no idea how good the info is: medium.com/@voroninman/usin...

As for the Apple Health problem (on a day I did a 10km run, the data downloaded from Apple Health showed only 1km of distance; deleting data uploaded from Garmin connect at 23:59 fixed it): Apparently, Garmin does weird stuff during the data upload that confuses Apple Health. Garmin could fix that and decides not to. I am still trying to figure out a workaround, though the one suggested here (turn off data loading directly into Apple Health from Garmin) seems to be the simplest: forums.garmin.com/apps-soft...

[Curlygurly2 Graduate10]

That's a nice watch, I Googled the stats and stuff. Does everything mine does (FR245) but £75 cheaper...Have fun with it xx