I am coming to the end of week 2 of my 14 week plan but am already starting to get frustrated. It seems very inflexible. There are 4 runs a week, which Garmin says have to be Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, but this doesn’t always fit with life! I couldn’t do Sunday’s run due to a festival, so thought I’d do it Monday. Because I hadn’t done it onSunday though it hadn’t registered 😡
Also the type of run isn’t always the one I want to do because I go out with my French running group twice a week so it would be better to do intervals, progression runs etc when I go on my own. Is there any way of changing the days or types of runs within the week?
Finally, some of the runs have optional add-ons. How do I skip this to go to the cool down?
I’m sure many of you have come across this before so look forward to you saving my sanity 😂😂
Written by
Sandie1961
Half Marathon
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Hi there.I have done a couple of Garmin plans and am currently following one to try to speed up my 10k.
I have found that it is sometimes useful to reschedule the runs via the Garmin connect app if the run for that day doesn'tfit in with life.
With regards to the optional part of runs my garmin always brings up a notification to say "
press lap to go to cool down or continue running to continue "-or words to that effect. -On my Garmin (which is a 45 s) that is the button on the bottom right-the same one I use on the speed runs.
Hope this helps-sorry it's a little vague but I have been "off plan " for a couple of weeks-but in my defence I have been on holiday and did my first ever holiday run!
Hi Sandie, If you tap on the run you want to reschedule, on the screen which tells you all the steps of the run (warm ups, drills, cool-downs etc) in the top right corner there are three little dots. If you press this it should give you the option to reschedule.
This was how I rescheduled too Biscuitbaker .I don't know if it works on a run which you have already missed tho'. I couldn't check because I have just been "rescheduled " by Coach Greg after a "pause" in my plan!!
It doesn’t seem as though I can reschedule to record a run retrospectively, but at least I’ve found out how to reschedule so will be able to do that going forward 😊
You've perfectly described why I loathe "you must do this on this day" plans so much Sandie1961 ! Personally I'd bin it and find a plan that worked better, but I'm sure clever people who understand Garmin will come up with helpful technological solutions.
Joking apart, surely the point of plans is to enable you to do varied and appropriate training over a period of time, taking rest days as necessary, and ideally without getting injured? Who cares if you do speedwork on Monday instead of Tuesday, and hills on Saturday instead of Sunday? As long as you've got a sensible balance the days are irrelevant.
There are various different types of run, although some of them seem quite a leap - 50 minutes one day, 90 minutes later in the week; easy pace 6.50/7.30 per km, then being asked to run for 10 minutes at 5.35-5.55 per km, which would be a heck of a struggle. Maybe I just do what I can when I can, rescheduling when possible, as long as I’m moving forward. I might just look at the NRC plan though too!
I'd swap to the NFC HM plan if I were you, simply because everyone says it's way more flexible. If the Garmin plan's not working for you you're less likely to stick to it anyway.
I just checked on the Météo France site and yes, it's all going a bit mad again, isn't it? Bon courage !
Looks like we'll be getting similar just a day or two behind you. I timed my faceplant really badly - these past few days would've been great for getting out.
Hoping to go to watch Le Tour a week tomorrow, if I can find a suitable spot and route to get there. Initial plan was to park up some way away and run the remainder, I'm now rethinking.
The good thing is that the pool water is lovely and warm! Enjoy the Tour. Shake-and-run and her hubby are off to the Pyrenees the week after next to watch it
Hmmm. Sounds very frustrating. I've not tried a garmin plan so can't help there I'm afraid. I have tried the NRC HM plan though and that is VERY flexible. Choose the number of weeks, choose the number/type of runs you tick off during any given week, choose your run type/day, take longer than a week if you wish ... flexible and varied to the nth degree 👍
If you don't like the NRC app, there is a printable version of the NRC HM plan that you could stick on the fridge and mark off the good old fashioned way 😍
I’m going to second the NRC HM Plan Sandie. It couldn’t be more flexible if it tried. If you have no luck with tweaking your Garmin plan I’d wholeheartedly recommend Coach Bennett and his pals. It’s awesome. 🙏🏻
I’m thirding the NRC HM plan. I’m about three weeks in and really enjoying it. I’ve got longer than the plan duration until my HM so I’m not sticking rigidly to the five runs a week and will have a few catch up type weeks. It’s really flexible in that way. I’m loving the variety of the runs in the plan and it’s got me out of a bit of a rut. Definitely recommended.
I’m just choosing three or four of them. I’m sure it says somewhere that that’s fine. I’m doing the long run, at least one speed run and at least one recovery run.
Hi Sandi, I too got frustrated with the Garmin plans, I love my Garmin but the plan I’m following is the NRC half marathon plan, there are 5 runs a week but 2 are optional, they are guided and you just choose the run of that week to fit your day, mind you I did leave the short 15 minute run to the end of the week and he told me all about the runs to come which I’d already done. Also due to work and general laziness my week is a lot longer than 7 days but I’m progressing, I might have to take it a bit more seriously once the runs get longer though Good luck with whatever plan you follow
You can chose a missed run, I believe (not tried it) from the watch.Run -> up button (when options show at the top of the screen)
Scroll the options until you see ‘training calendar’ and select it.
The you can scroll through all the weeks runs and and select which you want.
I’ve no idea if it ticks it off the training calendar on the app though.
At the start of the week, I usually look through the runs it has given me and arrange them to fit in with my life.
I’m doing Amy’s HM plan and it gives me 5 a week, one usually gets dropped as I like to go out with the local running group one evening and don’t record that against the plan.
I’m using a FR 945 so the options may be different.
One point that wasn’t covered previously is that you can configure your run days if you edit the plan settings. For example Thursday I go to the office so I don’t want to run that morning, and Sunday is my long run day.
I did the NRC plan last year after having too many problems with the Garmin plan - it seemed to get confused if I moved things around too much. I’m training for a HM again this year so giving Garmin another try. I did love my quality time with Coach Bennett and team but found they interfered with me listening to anything else (particularly audiobooks). Hopefully they’ve worked out the kinks in the plan rescheduling by now.
As others have said you can reschedule your run and when you set it up you could stipulate what days to run and your long run day, but tying in with runs you already do is, in my mind, more difficult. I’m doing a Garmin plan, but not the adaptive ones, a 10k one based on heart rate. So I can see all the weeks of the plan and what they are from the get go. I can also drag and drop sessions in the calendar function on Garmin connect, and/or alter the workout too, so this suits me better, but it won’t alter what’s coming up as a reaction to what I’ve already done (not that I think the adaptive plans really did that anyway, but there’s no way to prove that!). I also like the guided NRC runs, but I like the plan being loaded to my watch as I find it easier and quicker to follow, rather than setting up the run from scratch, or having to constantly look to my watch to check I’m at the correct pace etc. I’m not actually training for a race, just directing my runs in a more formalised manner by following a training plan, so if I miss a day I don’t feel too bad, but it is difficult to not feel guilty😂 Good luck with your training and I hope you get Garmin sorted to your satisfaction.
Thank you 😊 Some really good suggestions here. Mind you, the weather here in SW France is due to be in the high 30s next week so that might scupper some of the plan anyway 🥵 At least I know I’ve got 7 weeks to my HM when we get back to the UK next month
Nike Run Club, flexible and fun. Life is to short to stressing about Training Plans. Yes I have a Garmin, its just a very useful tool to tell you how you are doing. So my one is set up to voice, Pace and HR each minute and thats it. Thats my attitude at 75.
You may well have a very good point. I did my first (and only to date) HM with my only plan being to run 1km further each week on my long run! I completed it, so maybe there’s something in just keeping it simple
I found the Garmin plans quite rigid as well. You can move workouts to different dates (though as Tabbles says it is a bit cumbersome to swap) but not having the option to log runs you've completed but which didn't register is annoying because it doesn't feed into the "personalisation". I found the distances varied a bit unpredictably as well, not at all sure what was going on there. Plus doing a 1k or 1 mile time trial every so often got a bit annoying.
I second the recommendation of the NRC plan which I enjoyed and found much more flexible - I quite often did the 15 minute "x weeks to go" run before one of the easy runs or as I cooled down from the previous week's long run.
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