What Garmin’s Recovery Time Rating Really Means
As I sit here and type, my Garmin watch tells me that I have 21 hours before I’m fully recovered from the workout I did this morning. It wasn’t even a hard workout, but I was expecting Garmin’s long-recovery ratings—and I won’t let that number stop me from going for an easy run in the morning. Recovery time doesn’t mean what you think it does.
What is the cooldown function and where can I see it?
Most Garmin sports watches calculate recovery time after each workout. You’ll see this number in the end-of-workout summary you receive as soon as you finish your workout. It’s also available on the Workout Status screen if you have it, or on the Workout Ready tile in the Garmin Connect app if you have it. On my Forerunner 265S, I can even set it as one of the smaller complications on the main watch face.
Garmin defines recovery time as “an estimate of how long it will take you to fully recover and be ready for the next workout of the same intensity.” Notice this phrase: make a full recovery. No athlete recovers completely at the start of every workout; sometimes you carry a little fatigue from one activity to the next. This number simply gives you an idea of how long it will take you to feel the effects of this workout.
The recovery time feature is available on most Enduro, Epix, Fenix, Forerunner, Instinct, Venu and Vivoactive watches, among others ( Garmin has a full list here ).
Do you need to wait until recovery time reaches zero before training again?
No! This is probably the biggest misconception about this feature (and it explains why the recovery time can be so long – up to four days). The idea isn’t that you’ll have to rot in bed until the timer runs out. It’s just that from now until the timer reaches zero, you’ll be working with at least a little more fatigue than usual.
You can read Garmin’s explanation here . They say, “When your timer reaches zero, it means you are ready to get the maximum benefit from your next hard workout of the fitness type (i.e. training effect: 3.0+).”
So if I have a 38-hour recovery time after a hard workout, that’s just a sign that I won’t be in great shape tomorrow. If I was planning my hardest workout of the week for tomorrow, I might consider postponing that workout so I can do it later on fresh legs. But if I’m planning a recovery run instead, there’s no need to change my plans.
Should I ignore Garmin recovery time?
I mean, there is an argument to be made for ignoring any metrics the watch gives you, at least in some cases. You don’t have to let Garmin recovery time rule your life. If you still want to start training and feel up to it, feel free to ignore the recovery numbers.
However, I find that recovery time is beneficial for gut testing. If I have a long recovery time, it will be a reminder that I have worked really hard, and I should make sure that my efforts are balanced with easy and hard days over time. In any case, any good training program will take this into account – with or without a clock with a number on it.
Why does my recovery time keep changing?
Garmin continually updates its estimate of how far you are from full recovery. If you do another workout before the timer reaches zero, the number will increase again because you’ve given yourself more work to do to recover.
On the other hand, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep, you may find that the number drops more than expected overnight. Again, don’t read too much into this number; after all, it’s just an estimate. But if you find yourself recovering quickly after hard workouts, that’s a good sign.