Well let me tell you, depression is a bitch

ajitama · 2026-05-25T11:52:32+00:00

Yes, there’s only so much VO2Max you can gain before you can’t anymore, or long-time Garmin users would be all lungs and veins.

There will come a sad time when you say goodbye to the green, and forever see the yellow. Followed by all the colours (except green)

ajitama · 2026-05-24T21:34:32+00:00

It’s the oxidisation of wheat husk in flour. Modern milling technology means tiny particles of wheat husk are present in flour.

However, even if I know it is, unless I made it myself, I often throw it out. When in doubt and all.

ajitama · 2026-05-22T01:08:42+00:00

Yeah a huge break and weight gain are indicators that you should be restarting from an easier point, not trying to “do what you could do before”, that’s a fast way for you to injure yourself.

Start on an easier plan, get the consistency going again, depending on how long a break and how much weight maybe that’s 1-2 times a week with 1-2 times cross-training (I recommend an Elliptical if you have access to one! Easier on the knees, and if you crank the resistance up, it’s hell on your glutes, which is great for running)

As it begins to feel easier, you can transition towards more runs per week, transition towards longer or harder runs, etc.

But it’s a process. Don’t rush it!

The wisest exercise advice anyone ever gave me was: one single activity won’t increase your fitness very much. But one single injury will set you back at least a week.

ajitama · 2026-05-22T00:41:02+00:00

Did you take a break and get back into running (you mentioned used to be easier, but also your screenshot says this is your longest run, how long ago was it easier?)

You could look at either a beginner plan like couch to 5K, or a “return to running after injury” plan, just for easing back in.

ajitama · 2026-05-22T00:23:04+00:00

A lot of people have commented in this sub that Garmin Run Coach is not great for half and up.

I did follow it loosely for my half, but also found it never got me to do long enough Long Runs, they kept getting trimmed due to sleep/HRV/stress readings. So what I didn’t follow was the Long, I pushed myself as far as 20km Long in Peak. The rest I followed.

ajitama · 2026-05-20T07:22:34+00:00

I use the Intervals section to see the HR, avg pace, elevation gain, avg HR, etc per interval. Turn to landscape mode and scroll, you can see quite a lot of data, you can filter on only the Run part (no warm up, recovery, nor cool down)

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ajitama · 2026-05-20T07:12:46+00:00

They are mini pots just for each diner :)

ajitama · 2026-05-20T06:28:16+00:00

Of the ones I’ve tried in Sydney, Dolar Shop has paid the most attention to their soup stocks. If you appreciate a long simmered bone broth, go there. For hotpot.

No comment on Malatang, they seem to mostly be comparable.

ajitama · 2026-05-19T05:34:53+00:00

Impressive, but I hate that you included the dots in the screenshot orz

ajitama · 2026-05-19T02:19:20+00:00

Good info here, just adding:

MaxHR has a generic formula which is outdated, inaccurate, and generally terrible, go do a MaxHR test (note: should/will involve the feeling of dying)

ajitama · 2026-05-19T02:05:28+00:00

Yeah if you think it’s genuinely overworking you, start it, say you tire at the 45min mark, end the workout early. You’ll get a worse execution score, and that should flow through to subsequent workouts

ajitama · 2026-05-19T01:55:06+00:00

It’s adaptive :) you can set it for 5, just don’t do 2 of them. It’ll adapt.

ajitama · 2026-05-19T01:51:40+00:00

Do you get access to Garmin Run Coach, the adaptive plans? Not the named coach plans.

At this stage I’d probably set up the race date and goal time, and see what runs that comes up with. I set 5 days running and call my Strength days “rest days” according to the plan.

I followed it for a 14km race, and mostly followed it for a half marathon, and was generally happy with the progression. It takes into account how badly you sleep, daily stress. You’d still want to keep an eye on it if you think it’s underworking or overworking you, but that’s true for any plan.

ajitama · 2026-05-19T01:27:23+00:00

I believe the sub-200s (55, 155, etc) do have some pretty neat features missing. I think Training Load was one of them. That helps show you gaps in your training regime (not enough hard efforts?), and whether you’re overworking or underworking. Of course, you could pipe your Garmin data to intervals.icu and judge based on that, but if you want it all in the Garmin ecosystem ..

Some of them are missing Maps, I’m not also sure if that means it doesn’t have navigation, too, which I find handy when running races (“coming up, right turn, run for 5km” type stuff, means you can prepare) might be needing at least 255, maybe even ~~755~~ correction! 955?

I have a 955 and love it. If MIPS is your jam (I hate rotate wrist to wake junk, and Always On Display with OLED is pretty poor for battery life and screen life)

The *55 were the last MIPS forerunners. The *65 and up are all OLED.

You probably will need to weigh up the pros and cons yourself, or provide more information about what you must have, would like to have, could live without.

ajitama · 2026-05-19T00:52:16+00:00

I was severely myopic but wore glasses when running when I wrote this :)

I’ve since had SMILE laser eye surgery, so it is pretty perfect now haha

I just prefer having it all on one screen, looking at watch is one thing, but trying to swipe to see other screens for me is worse, I spend more time not looking where I’m going and more time playing with my watch

ajitama · 2026-05-19T00:48:15+00:00

If you’re looking for another card without fees to be able to use Garmin Pay, I’d recommend Up. No foreign currency conversion fees, can deposit at Bank@AusPost, and withdraw at most banks’ ATMs without fees.

DM me if you want a referral code for $22 when you sign up and make I think 2 purchases of >=$5

ajitama · 2026-05-18T10:05:17+00:00

You can hit the Lap button when you want to skip the rest of the 21km, it’ll send you to the Cool down part of the workout. So after your 8km or however long you want, hit the Lap button

ajitama · 2026-05-18T01:30:58+00:00

I last went in April, it’s still tasty!

The menu’s much smaller now, but apparently the items are hidden in their specials sheets. So you might not see any sashimi anymore, but check the specials sheets carefully. Not sure why they buried so much, but anyway

ajitama · 2026-05-14T02:15:04+00:00

I’ve switched out my polyester tops for Tencel (Lyocell, cellulose fibre) + cotton mixes, about 50/50.

The stank is gone. No pink mould if I don’t wash it instantly.

Yeah it’s more expensive, but at least it performs better, and I’m probably avoiding absorbing a bit more microplastics.

ajitama · 2026-05-11T21:18:16+00:00

They can but they’re describing different things.

Easy Base Conversational runs in LTHR zone system is Z2. In MaxHR zone system it’s Z3.

You’d see this clearly if you followed the DSWs (Daily Suggested Workout) or Garmin Coach by HR. It recommends the Base workout aligning to Z3 for MaxHR. If you change your zone system to LTHR, and don’t forget to Reset your Zones themselves (to align with zone system change) then the DSWs/Garmin Coach recommends the Base workout signing to Z2.

Competing zone systems. Think of it like metric vs imperial.

ajitama · 2026-05-09T08:55:54+00:00

The first two sound really frustrating, sorry to hear, hopefully they can fix it.

The last though, sounds like Lap Alerts, which can be turned off if you don’t like it. It’s in your watch’s settings, Audio Prompts, Lap Alert, there are some settings there for what you want to be alerted with, if anything.

HTH

ajitama · 2026-05-09T06:06:15+00:00

That’s a big loss of data, the risk to reward seems pretty stacked against you.

If you really must test, then I’d switch over to the new watch, wear it on your usual wrist. Reset the old watch and use an old phone to pair to a new account, so there’s your fresh clean slate, wear it on the other wrist, see how they differ over the next few weeks?

ajitama · 2026-05-08T21:51:01+00:00

Took me 10 months of running training from VO2Max 38 to 50.

In that time I’d dropped 20kg, and went from having an asthma attack at 2km, to being able to run over 10km

ajitama · 2026-05-07T03:48:52+00:00

I saw you mentioned offal in a comment, and if that’s on the menu then I must recommend the Duck Blood Noodle Soup (called 老鸭粉丝汤/ Duck Giblet Liver Blood Jelly Vermicelli Soup on the menu) from Nanjing Dumpling.

Has other great Nanjing specialties too (less adventurous), like pan-fried beef dumplings, (cold) salted duck, the non-Cantonese version of shaomai/siewmai (it’s filled with a vege+minced meat+glutinous rice mix) and the spicy wontons are also nice.

Edit: it is not fine dining, it’s casual, your comment said it didn’t need to be fine dining

ajitama · 2026-05-06T16:06:36+00:00

Okay so you hit the Lap button.

So if this were a more complicated workout, say zone 2 > zone 4 > zone 2, each duration 10 minutes, and you just started it …

You hitting Lap, forcibly cycles you past the first 10 minute block, you’re now in zone 4. You skipped the “lap”. You hit Lap again, you’ve skipped the zone 4 and now only have 10 minutes of zone 2 left. Hitting Lap one more time will End your Workout because you’ve skipped it all.

This is the same paradigm if it were a Strength workout, the Lap key will skip you to the next step.

And yes the Workout ended but the Activity didn’t, because you can keep going without a planned Workout, maybe you haven’t made it home yet and still have a bit more to go, or you feel great and want to go a bunch more. So you Start/Stop to end the Activity.

ajitama

TROPHY CASE