Garmin Coaching

[Impetuous]

Hi all, first time posting in the marathon group after working my way up from C25K and the Bridge. I’m excited to be here! 😀

I’ve a question for fellow Garmin users... I’ve been on the Garmin HM coaching plan (Greg) for 8 weeks now and am finding it increasingly boggling. Basically it’s asking me to run less and less. Over the last few weeks I’ve gone from 2 hour long runs down to 90 minutes, 10 stride repeats down to 8 and now my mid-week easy-pace run for next Thursday is 10 minutes (plus 10 optional)!

I can’t fathom why the runs would be getting shorter when I’m not struggling with the longer runs. Is this some HM coaching science or has the plan gone screwy? Do I need an easy week at the half way point?

Would love to hear other people’s experiences. Thanks in advance!

[roseabi Ultramarathon]

Hi! Welcome to the Marathon community!!! Hope you find fun and inspiration here.

We are currently running a Spring Half Marathon group which you may find useful, posts every Tuesday, latest here:

healthunlocked.com/marathon...

Interesting question! I have not delved into the Garmin training plans until today, and I'm actually a bit miffed that they don't do a marathon version!

A couple of things to say:

Endurance sport training plans should include "cut-back" weeks at regular intervals, where the distance and intensity are cut back to give the runner some recovery time.

But also, I notice that the Garmin plans are adaptive, based on benchmark runs. It could be that your stats are telling it you need a break, or perhaps a bit more time to build up your strength and fitness.

Are you training for a specific HM event?

[Impetuous Half Marathon in reply to roseabi]

The spring HM thread is very handy, thanks for pointing me towards it!

On the adaptive point, it's a great question and I have nothing to compare against so it's tough to say. All I can really say is that the runs previously haven't felt that difficult, and previously the plan added 15 minutes on to my long-run each week so you'd think if it was adapting to my performance then it would have remained the same or reduced the time on previous weeks. Without any view on the complete plan then it's difficult to see the bigger picture. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

No HM in mind yet - actually what happened is when I set up my watch at Christmas it asked me to pick a training plan out of 5K, 10K or HM. As I had already done 10K I picked the HM plan and just set it to the maximum training duration. As it happens, the completion date for the plan is the same date as my local 10 mile run (Maidenhead 10) so I may do that. Not quite talked myself in to it yet, but almost....

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to Impetuous]

I take it you're not being given any comments about it?

Garmin does tend to use faster speeds and higher heart rates as indications of improvement - maybe have a look through your stats?

Another thought I've just had is that 26 weeks is a long time to train, so maybe it's taking you back for a while, and will build up again later. 2 hours may well be the maximum long run set by the training plan.

[linda9389 Administrator Marathon in reply to Impetuous]

10 miles? in Maidenhead? .... off to look that one up! 😍

[linda9389 Administrator Marathon in reply to Impetuous]

Is that the Easter one? I've already entered Beaconsfield 5 on Easter Monday ... 🤔

[Impetuous Half Marathon in reply to linda9389]

Busy weekend for you then. .

This is it:

maidenheadac.org/easter-10/

runbritain.com/entries/Ente...

[linda9389 Administrator Marathon in reply to Impetuous]

🤣🤣🤣 oh dear!

[Impetuous Half Marathon]

Just a mini update for anyone facing Garmin problems in the future... it looks like my Garmin Coach probably has lost the plot. It’s now giving me my long run on Fridays when it’s meant to be on Sundays, so perhaps it lost some of its settings and just started again from scratch.

Also I got 5k and 10k PBs on the shorter long runs it asked for last week, which is nice. 🙂