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Half marathon with coach Gregg, easy runs not so easy, how does the programme take into account HR readings from workouts?

Hi there! A few months ago I upgraded to Forerunner 965 after years with a 235 and I have really enjoyed the daily suggestion workouts. I then decided to start the HM programme with coach Gregg and having run one in the past at 1:45 I thought it’d be achievable to run at 1:32.

Originally I thought this was an available, recommended goal based on my stats and fitness levels, but after reading a few other posts in this area I figured that time goals are off the shelf / universal?

Anyhow, at the moment I’m doing easy runs with the occasional workouts. But I’m dubious about it all, in that pretty much each easy run is, according to my watch, either a threshold or a VO2 max run. I can finish the runs in relative good shape, but I’m surely not at a 60-70% of my max HR. Definitely above.

Two questions: first, based on the above should I drastically change the goal and aim at a slower finish time? Secondly, does anybody know what’s the point of all the fitness data if they’re not properly used to help the users achieve their ambitions safely?

The first run of the programme is a threshold ‘baseline’ run, which I did wearing a HRM. Surely if the lactate threshold indicated that I’m not ready for a 4:22 pace then I’d expect the software to actually prevent me to?

I‘m sure I’m in good company. Thanks for reading and for your suggestions. Toni.

0 TIPSKU over 1 year ago

Hi there, I'm currently doing the 10k programme with Coach Greg and I've used it for other distances in the past, too. I've got some experiences with Greg and Amy.

I would say that going from 1:45 to 1:32 is quite a big step which would make you run your training runs at future fitness (where you want to be in 12-16 weeks), not current fitness. I would start with an easier target for the first 4-6 weeks so that the easy run paces are achievable and you're running easy, not threshold or VO2 max. Once these paces feel easy, you can increase the goal pace during the plan. I started my last 10k plan at 45 min pace (4:30), found that too hard so dropped it to 46 min goal pace (4:36 min/km) about halfway through and then ran a 44:29 in my goal race. In my experience, training slower lets you race faster. The plan can be adjusted during the training period. The goal pace repeats never were the problem, there I didn't feel much of a difference; it was the slightly slower easy paces that made the programme doable for me.

The first run of the programme is a benchmark run, 2 min warm up, 5 min all out, 2 min cool down so you should run as fast as you can for 5 min. Running it at threshold would be slower than intended and normally, it should tell you that there's room to grow or something like that. What kind of feedback did you get? The software of the coaching programmes doesn't take HR data into account, I think. It's focused on pace. E.g. when I run my easy run in Z2 but miss my goal pace range by 20-30 seconds per km, I get a 'room to grow' feedback. On the other hand, when I run in the goal pace range for my easy runs but HR is in Z3, I get a good job because I ran the right pace - whether or not the pace was easy for me isn't relevant.

The Garmin watches capture a lot of fitness data but the coaching programmes don't include a lot of that. I don't know if that's too much analysis for them and potentially based on uncertain data. The HR zones need to be set correctly for the individual so that they can be used for analysis. Because that isn't guaranteed, Garmin Coach doesn't take it into account and that's due to its own generic settings.

If you've never done a max HR or LTHR test, Garmin is just going to use the generic HR formula 220-age for you and that may be over 10 bpm off in either direction. My measured max HR is 8 bpm higher than what my age would give, for example. This said, I'm going by LTHR, a test I can repeat more frequently than the max HR test and with more consistency.