Garmin Coach

[Ealaigh]

I’ve treated myself to a new Garmin running watch. Recently posted about trying to get faster and stronger and wondering if anyone has used the coach feature to achieve this?

I'm using the Coach half marathon plan at the minute, I like that it just gives you a workout and says 'do this' and i don't have to think about it!

I think you need to pick a distance and time goal for it to work properly (on my watch anyway), did you have one in mind?

It starts off by getting you to do a test short run, measures your HR and how fast you run, and sets up your workouts from there. I was thinking "I'm super fast, me!" and the Coach was like okaaaay, I'd like you start by running for 20 mins at 7.15 min/ km

@DecayedStrumpet did you follow that pace and does it pick up / did it work? I had the same thing where it suggests stuff that seems much slower than my usual 5km pace so I’ve ignored it so far!!

I’d like to do a half marathon but thinking of starting with a 10K. Or just trying to improve my pathetically slow 5K time. Only been running again since May after 3 years of babies/illness/surgeries/steroids and between reconditioning and weight gain I’ve gone from an easy 5-5:30/km to 7+/km or even slower so I’m keen to get a bit faster and stronger.

Sorry @mrsbobble missed your question!
Yes it just started me off with some plodding along at the slow pace to get the miles in, and now it's throwing in some speed work etc

@Ealaigh of course, the good thing about aiming for a faster 5k is that the training runs don't take long the HM ones are a bit of a pain in the backside... uh, DH, can you just mind the kids for 1.5 hours please?