On your watch
Watch Metrics Explained
Acute vs Chronic Training Load
A comparison of your recent training over about a week against your longer-term baseline over about a month,
View metricBody Battery (Daily Energy)
An all-day energy score, roughly zero to one hundred, that charges while you rest and sleep and drains with
View metricCadence
How many steps you take per minute while running. Normally measured in Steps Per Minute or SPM.
View metricCalories (Active vs Total)
An estimate of the energy you have burned — active calories from exercise, total calories including everything
View metricDistance (KM or Miles)
Very simply, the total distance you've covered in that run or activity. This will be in your preferred metric
View metricElevation / Total Ascent
How much you climbed over a run, in metres or feet. Total ascent adds up every uphill section. Watches with a
View metricEndurance Score
A number rating your ability to sustain effort over long durations, built from your training history. A
View metricFitness Age
An estimate of your biological age based on all the metrics about you your watch has access to. For example if
View metricFloors Climbed
An estimate of the flights of stairs, or equivalent climbing, you did during the day. Nice to see in a similar
View metricGrade / Incline
The steepness of the ground beneath you at any moment, shown as a percentage.
View metricGrade Adjusted Pace (GAP)
Your pace adjusted for the hills — an estimate of what your effort would equal on flat ground. Best known from
View metricGround Contact Time (GCT)
How long each foot stays on the ground with each step, measured in milliseconds. Usually needs a compatible
View metricGround Contact Time Balance
How evenly your ground contact time is split between your left and right legs.
View metricHeart Rate
How many times your heart beats per minute, shown live and as an average for the run.
View metricHeart Rate Zones
Bands of effort, from very easy through to flat out, based on percentages of your maximum heart
View metricHill Score
A rating of your strength and stamina specifically on climbs. A premium Garmin feature.
View metricHRV (Heart Rate Variability)
The tiny variation in time between consecutive heartbeats. More variation generally points to a more rested,
View metricIntensity / Active Minutes
Minutes spent in moderate-to-vigorous activity, often tallied against a weekly target like 150.
View metricLactate Threshold
What is lactate threshold? Lactate Threshold is simply the exact exertion level that, past which, causes the
View metricMaximum Heart Rate
The highest number of times your heart can beat in a minute. Almost every heart-rate zone and score is
View metricMoving Time vs Elapsed Time
Elapsed time meaning in running Elapsed time on your watch or on Strava is simply the total length of the
View metricPace (current, average, lap and split)
How long it takes you to cover a set distance, usually minutes per kilometre or per mile. So if on your run,
View metricPacing Strategy (PacePro)
A pre-planned pacing guide for a known course that tells you what pace to run each section, accounting for the
View metricPerformance Condition
A reading a few minutes into a run that tells you whether you are performing above or below your recent norm
View metricRace Predictor (Predicted Finish Times)
Your watch's estimate of the times you could run for distances like 5k, 10k, half and full marathon, based on
View metricRecovery Time
Your watch's countdown of how many hours it thinks you need before training hard again.
View metricResting Heart Rate
Your heart rate at complete rest, usually measured automatically overnight.
View metricRunning Power (Watts)
An estimate of your mechanical effort in watts, a concept borrowed from cycling.
View metricSleep Score / Sleep Stages
A nightly score and a breakdown of light, deep and REM sleep, estimated from your movement and heart rate.
View metricSplits (Lap Times)
Your time for each segment of a run — usually each kilometre or mile, or each lap you press manually. It is
View metricStress Score
An all-day score, usually zero to one hundred, estimating your stress level from your heart rate variability.
View metricStride Length
How far you travel with each individual step.
View metricTraining Effect (Aerobic / Anaerobic)
A score, usually from zero to five, for how much a run stressed your aerobic system versus your anaerobic,
View metricTraining Readiness
A single morning score that blends sleep, HRV, recovery and recent load into a sense of how ready you are to
View metricTraining Status
A label for what your training is doing to your fitness — building, holding, peaking, or losing it.
View metricVertical Oscillation
How much you bounce up and down with each stride, measured in centimetres.
View metricVertical Ratio
Your bounce as a percentage of your stride length — a tidiness score for your running form.
View metricVO2 Max
An estimate of how much oxygen your body can use at full effort - a rough proxy for your aerobic fitness. The
View metric