Garmin HRV Stress Balance: When Life Gets in the Way

Garmin HRV Status graph showing 4‑week HRV trends with balanced and unbalanced readings, baseline range, and overnight HRV summary.

Garmin HRV Stress Balance: When Life Gets in the Way My training, recovery, and daily decisions start with Garmin HRV Stress Balance. I love the fantasy version of training: ride hard, lift heavy, eat clean, sleep eight hours, repeat. And with all the data my Garmin wearables give me — especially my older Garmin Fenix […]

The Garmin Ecosystem: Why Your Watch is More Important Than Your Power Meter

Updated Garmin Recovery Time of 13 hours showing Train as Usual status after a night of rest.

Garmin Recovery Time: Why Your Watch Beats Your Power Meter By The Garmin Guru | April 24, 2026 Understanding Garmin Recovery Time is essential for any athlete following a “Physiology First” approach. As a coach with over 20 years in the industry, I know that your bike computer is only half the story. To truly […]

Physiology First: Navigating a “Red Light” Morning with AlphaHRV

Screenshot of a Garmin HRV Stress test showing a high stress score of 75.

    Physiology First: My Red Light Recovery Ride This morning was a masterclass in why I apply a Physiology First framework to every session, looking at the internal engine before I look at the wattage. Between a late meal and the devastating news about my friend Murray being struck by a motorist—suffering a serious […]

Physiological Threshold Vs. FTP: The Power Illusion

Graph of SmO2, VO2, and power data showing physiological threshold during 4x8 intervals.

The Power Illusion: Resetting 20 Years of Training with Physiological Data After 20 years of cycling, I realized my FTP wasn’t telling the whole story of my actual physiological threshold. My identity as a cyclist was defined by a single, flickering number on a head unit: Watts. If you’ve spent any significant time in the […]

Garmin Sleep Tracking: How to Use Garmin Connect Sleep Data to Improve Cycling Performance

Screen Shot from accompanying video about Garmin Sleep Score

Garmin Connect Has A Sleep Tracker That Can Help You Optimize Sleep and Recovery!

[caption id="attachment_12776" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Garmin Connect Sleep Tracker The Garmin Connect Sleep Tracker provides assessment for sleep quality and quantity.[/caption]

The Garmin Connect Ecosystem is RICH with features that are either under-utilized or perhaps are misunderstood. I have wanted to explore Garmin Connect with my followers for a while now. I think the Sleep Tracker is a great place to start.

Garmin Connect, when paired with any of…..

Vo2Max and Heart Health – A Single Ride Following Dr. Paddy Barrett’s Formula

DFAA1 and SmO2

Vo2Max and Heart Health Correlation With DFAA-1 and other Metrics I recently stumbled across a Substack post by Dr. Paddy Barrett that explains how Vo2Max is impacted by low intensity exercise. While I had not known about Dr. Barrett previously, when I read his history and other posts, I became intrigued. I think he’s a […]

The OBC Dicta

OBC Dicta - Welcome to the Cathedral of Watts

The OBC Dicta (or, The Nine Commandments for Peak Performance In Cycling). *** I wrote the first version of this over twenty years ago, hoping that it would become the foundation for another book, but life and acceleration got in the way, and I just found it again in my Google Drive. A ‘Dicta‘ is […]

Rotor Q Rings Revisited – Yet Again

Rotor Q Rings Position using InPower App.

Rotor Q Rings DO Work – Just Not The Way You Might Think I’ve been using Rotor Q Rings ever since they came out. Prior to that, I was using Rotor’s ‘RSX’ technology, because the company gave their product to trained scientists for honest review and application. The theory behind Q rings is that they […]

Vo2Master Vo2Max Value Affirms Garmin Vo2Max Estimator

Richard Wharton Vo2Master OBC Headquarters

Vo2Master’s Vo2Max Value Was 98% Consistent with Garmin In May of this year, I wrote a post about the Garmin Vo2Max Calculator. In July, I was able to test my Vo2Max at OBC Headquarters, to compare values. I performed a Graded Exercise Test, using the Vo2Master app. This app, on a cell phone, trapped data […]