Further fun on the Garmin plan

[Ian5K]

Wow, the good October weather continues… I did another scheduled “Easy” pace run on Friday. It was the same as the first run in the training plan and nothing to report; but I loved it!

Overslept today - I know that’s what Sundays are for; unless you’re retired and no longer have use for weekends! 9:32AM, no breakfast inside and Run #4 scheduled on Greg’s Garmin 5k Plan. He’d given me a 4 minute read on nutrition - “Eat & Drink your way to 5k”. It made me even hungrier. The gist from the Garmin nutritionist is a balanced diet, blah, blah, don’t run 3 to 4 hours after a meal (slightly less for snacks; but more if you’re on a high fibre diet!), and she doesn’t recommend fancy electrolyte sports drinks: better to get the essentials from real food. Never liked pop anyways. Nothing bad said about beer so I guess that’s okay. But, first the run!

Today’s run is termed a Steady-state pace run and comprises 10 minutes of warm up (a light jog, though walking is allowed); then a 15 minute workout at between 5:13 and 5:25/km pace; then a 10 minute cool down light jog (or walk).

This is weird. I can’t seem to settle within the set limits! My watch beeps me “Ahead”, “Behind”, “Ahead”, “Behind”…. I realise there’s only 12 second band to play with and it’s not in my natural zone, either for easy or quick. It took me half of the 15 minutes to steady it, and the settled pace was 5:20 - 5:25, the slow end but no further beeps.

All this fuss meant I forgot to head back at the halfway point so the cool down jog was nearer 15 minutes, but no harm done, I suppose. It was a glorious late morning’s day.

Back home, over a hearty breakfast, Garmin Connect says the average pace for the 15 minutes workout was 5:21; cadence 174; average and max HR 126/145bpm.

The next run scheduled is another easy pace run which I’ll enjoy but I’m a bit miffed it isn’t a repeat of this one; I think I could get the hang of it better a second time. Oh well, Greg’s in charge!

And he’s given me another video to watch, “Pace goal workouts”. I think I’ll put the kettle on for another cup of tea…

Make the most of the weather, folks, and have fun running! 🙂

[CBDB Graduate10]

Sounds great. I don’t have a Garmin, but your posts make me want one! I love a good plan! And it sounds like you have one!

[Ian5K Graduate10 in reply to CBDB]

I bought it on impulse as it was on offer direct from the Garmin online shop. If I’d thought about it a day longer, I wouldn’t have bought it, I’m sure. But I’m glad I did.

It is the Forerunner 45, an entry level watch. In hindsight, I should have gone for a more sophisticated, though more expensive, model, but realistically it does a good job.

[nowster Graduate10]

I'm the opposite of CBDB. My "plan" is not to have a plan, just a vague sense of where I'm going. 😆

[CBDB Graduate10 in reply to nowster]

🤣🤣🤣 Well, you’ve managed to get so much further than me, so it’s certainly working! 🤣🤣🤣

[Hidden]

Hi Ian,

I'm glad you are enjoying the workouts with your Garmin. The 10k plan for me scheduled hill repeats which I had never done before.

10 minutes easy pace followed by 20 sec strong efforts up a hill and 20 sec moderate effort back down x6. Then another 10 minute cool down easy pace.

I was certainly heavy breathing at the end but enjoyed this different type of challenge. Also covered 4k in that time which I wasn't expecting.

The people walking their dogs in the park must have thought I was some kind of loon bouncing up and down the hill 🤣

[Ian5K Graduate10 in reply to Hidden]

I’ve been forewarned about those hill workouts, Alan. I think they’ll happen later for me but I’m already on the search for a hill - about 100m long, I think, and 5 to 7% incline. As there are no pavements to the roads around here, I want it to be a quiet road too, and not too many houses else someone may call the cops, having some idiot run up and down outside their window. 😆

[Hidden in reply to Ian5K]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

That made me laugh Ian.

My "hill" was more of an incline about 12 metres elevation for whatever distance i covered in 20 seconds.

I am really aching today. More so than doing a long run. It was quite tough but enjoyable.

[Ian5K Graduate10 in reply to Hidden]

I bet. Coach McMillan said it was to get the body used to the “pain”. Ouch!