Suunto ZoneSense
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@brave_dave I do not use ZS to set thresholds and personally I do not think that is the intent as I have stated before. I primarily use ZS in real time to assess my effort and as I have stated before it does a phenomenal job of matching my RPE. As far as I am concerned RPE is a far better estimate of effort than any thresholds I have obtained via lab testing or individual testing.
Second, I would argue that any lab test is going to have at least a 5bpm or greater error so that would be 10bpm around the median for the test. I find it rather surprising that anyone would believe their LT or AT is an absolute, our bodies do not work that way.
There is no way that 10 bpm below my LT would be a marathon pace, and 10bpm above is definitely interval effort.
So the point of ZS is not to set zones but to assess effort in real time, it does that well for me and for others. Given the lag in ZS (a couple of minutes) it is well suited for endurance efforts and not well suited for shorter efforts.
Vector/T6c/Ambit 3 Peak/S5 Copper/S3/S7 Ti/S9 baro Ti/S9P Ti/S9PP Ti/Vertical Ti/Race Ti/RaceS/Ocean/Wing/Race2Ti
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@brave_dave said in Suunto ZoneSense:
For me personally, when I know that on average, even under perfect conditions, the ZS estimated threshold is off by 8-10 BPMs in either direction, it is not usable for me
It is way worse for me. I’ve seen example of ZS suggesting anaerobic threshold that is even below my aerobic threshold - that is almost 30 BPM below what it should be. These are laughably inaccurate estimates.
Let’s look at another example where I actually had a steady threshold effort for a long time that was a good indicator of my anaerobic threshold. ZoneSense still managed to detect my anaerobic threshold at 148 even though I ran for 20 minutes in the 160-165 range. By the way, that closely matches multiple of Garmin’s LTHR estimates that all detected my LTHR at 162-163. How ZoneSense managed to detect that at 148 is beyond my understanding. I can’t seriously trust that at all.
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@sky-runner this reviewer did lab tests along with ZoneSense . Among his group was DC Rainmaker. The findings suggest Zonesense is not to be trusted.
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I only ever look at zone sense in the app after a workout, I have found it wildly inaccurate at times and others fairly accurate. For me the gold standard is RPE followed by HR however even HR can be misleading as I’m often training fatigued and when doing an hour long effort at near threshold in terms of RPE when fatigued my HR might only be in high zone 3. When fresh HR seems to align better with RPE. Zone sense has often shown nearly all green with a few tiny spurts into yellow when I’m at 9-9.5 RPE doing a threshold effort up a vertical kilometre!!!
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@Doodoo-Runner said in Suunto ZoneSense:
@sky-runner this reviewer did lab tests along with ZoneSense . Among his group was DC Rainmaker. The findings suggest Zonesense is not to be trusted.
curious to know why, with the same HR source, the SV and SR results differ.
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This reviewer did a lab test along with ZoneSense and came to the conclusion that it’s very good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Sr0-Ig_oQ
Written form: https://www.nakan.ch/wp/2025/09/17/tout-savoir-sur-zonesense-de-suunto/#Conclusion_sur_lalgorithme_ZoneSense_de_Suunto
Just to show that in today’s world of influencers it doesn’t take long to find someone who claims the opposite.
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@Brad_Olwin I agree - it’s the real time feedback, that is most valuable and for me too it really corresponds on how I feel. I used to train a lot by HR Zones and sometimes it worked great but often I felt they were too low to or too high compared to my set zones (having had a tested LTH).
With Zonesense this feels much more ‚realistic‘ and actually Zonesense for me is (besides others) one of the features why I would never use another brand. -
@Brad_Olwin I don’t really get what you want to convince me of. I am just stating scientific facts and want to point out that the accuracy of ZoneSense is just based on anecdotal information like yours and that the scientific data rather hint to a too high inaccuracy to recommend it for training control on a population level. Therefore, users with strange data should not be unsettled that they do something wrong in their training.
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Is it possible to turn Zonesense off in the app (iOS). I do not use it. Unfortunately it set default in the graph.
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@MarkusG big problem of our modern society where everyone can just spread unverified and anecdotal information! Better rely on verified data from independent researchers and experts. But apparently there is too much money to make with just claiming that you have developed something special. Garmin is the worst example with their “body battery”, “heat/height acclimation”, “Real-Time stamina”, “endurance score”, “training readiness”, “running tolerance”, “race predictor”. Nothing of that has ever been scientifically validated that it actually works and every good coach and athlete can do more accurate race predictions
