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My impressions on the 10k training plan with Coach Jeff

Dear all, 

I would like to share with you my personal impressions of the 10km training plan with Coach Jeff Galloway. I know this is going to be a long post, so if you don't want to read it all, just skip until the last paragraph.

A bit of background

Let's start from something basic. I'm not exactly a sportsman, I try to do some physical exercise because I like it and I think it is healthy, but I'm not running in any competitions and I'm not even a member of a sport association. Before the COVID-19 came to Germany, I was biking everyday to work and sometimes also during the weekend and this was enough. When I started working from home, I felt that something was missing to my daily routine so I took advantage of having a treadmill at home and start walking/jogging/running some km every day, until I felt brave enough to try my first outdoor run. 

5km runs were never a problem, but my first 10 km was a disaster. It took me almost 80 minutes and I felt exhausted for a few days after. Pain everywhere, feet, knees and even elbows, not to mention the tiredness feeling. When I have realized I could follow a personalized training, I felt intrigued and decided right away it was worth a try. Since I could run 5km with no problems I opted for the 10 km with 1 hour finishing time as a target. I don't remember why exactly I picked Coach Jeff, but so I did. 

Personalized training plan

At the beginning my expectations were extremely high, I was fascinated by the fact that the training plan was personalized on my performance and that it was supposed to evolve while running. Unfortunately the adaptation is very little, comparing with other runners, it looks that we all had the same training plan being the pace (in the speed and in the race-like splits) the only difference. I think that the only really personalized item is the "confidence level".

Lack of support

In the Garmin Coach tab of the Garmin Connect app, from time to time, there are interesting videos or articles to read. They were rather informative for a real beginner as me, but maybe not really adequate for a more experienced runner. Moreover I was expecting to find here a dedicated part of the forum where different Garmin users could share experiences, report difficulties or simply ask questions. Honestly I was expecting someone of Jeff's staff to be available as a moderator. Instead I could only find a few comments and questions here and there but not in a well organized way. 

Training load

Despite the fact that the training plan should adapt to you, I have the feeling - and apparently my opinion is shared by other users - that the load is by far too heavy. Coach Jeff mentioned in a video his intention to train for a bit longer distance, in order to have the confidence to finish the race distance without issues. But I had a few training sessions longer than a half marathon and this is in my opinion far too much. If at the beginning the training load is reasonable, towards weeks 9 - 10 it becomes brutal. 

Not only the running distance is exaggerated, but also the required training time is too long. If I am planning to run my race in 1 hour, I can accept a training session to last 1.5 h, but not 2.5h. 

I decided to bring it to an end, because of my character. If I take a decision, it is very rare I quit half way, but this time I was really tempted to leave the program or at least to change the trainer.

Unit of measurement

I'm European and I'm a newbie in running. So for me, especially at the beginning, it was already tricky to understand pace value ('/km) and always wondering why not using speed value (km/h). After a while, one get used and understand what it means to run "1 min faster or slower".  The situation is even worse when Coach Jeff is using miles instead of kms especially when defining running paces in '/mi. I know that many american Garmin users can find it exactly the opposite, but it would be very helpful to provide both units of measurement.

Run, Walk, Run

This is the key aspect of Coach Jeff training. When he introduced it, it said that the running and walking intervals depend on your goal pace, he pointed to a table (obviously in '/mi) and suggested that the smartwatch would have helped us in keeping this running / walking structure. I looked at the table and I didn't make out the math to convert it in '/km because I was relying on the fact that the watch would have told me when to walk and when to run. In the first real training there were running splits followed by recovery walks, so I naively though that those were the running and walking intervals. Only later I discovered that I should have run/walk/run during the running splits but the smartwatch was not telling me when to switch. Too bad...

I realized that one can use the alert function of the training program to do that, but I believed it should come automatically. Even better, the run-walk-run should adapt to your performance and change during the training weeks. 

Test races

The coach is suggesting to use the Golden Miles time to evaluate our improvements. But I would have expected during the 12 weeks a few test races, to gain confidence on the right distance and on the right pace. In my opinion this is very important for a beginner, because we are not fully capable to understand our body and to evaluate how much fuel we still have. The risk is to run out too quickly or to finish too late. 

Training evaluation

At the end of training, the smartwatch is asking how it was. That's already important, but the same question should be repeated also 12 hours later. When you finish a run, even if you are tired, you feel good, but after 12 hours you start feeling all your joints, knees in my specific case. Both evaluations should be asked and provided - in my opinion - to really allow a training optimization. Moreover I was expecting that the Garmin coach was evaluating my results telling me what I could improve and possible how. 

Final words (or read here if it was too long)

My virtual race was last Sunday (28.06.), but I had so much pain in my knees I could not run it. Thankfully it was a virtual race, so I simply reschedule it for today (30.06.), but if it would have been a real one, I would have lost my chance to run. 

As I said, I run my 10km this morning with a 55'40'' time, so more than 4' better than my goal. This is making me happy, but not really satisfied, because I had to postpone it of two days to be able to run it. 

In conclusion, I will probably try again the Garmin Coach, but with another trainer, or I will give a try to some other third party applications.

Keep on running! 

  • You won't get a lot of replies here, these foruns are mostly people complaining about the devices and not a lot of constructive discussion going . Maybe you should try Garmin's subreddit, it's fairly active with a good community. 

    In any case, you put a lot of thought in your post so here go a couple of comments:

    Unfortunately the adaptation is very little, comparing with other runners, it looks that we all had the same training plan being the pace

    I finished both 5k and 10k training plans, with coach Jeff and coach Amy, Im pretty sure that both the paces and distances are personalized. By "personalized" I mean that an algorithm will probably look at your results and do slight changes to a predetermined plan.

    I'm yet to understand how the adaptation works though, I don't know if it takes into account your times, your paces, your heart rate or simply the rating you give at the end of the run.

    Moreover I was expecting to find here a dedicated part of the forum where different Garmin users could share experiences, report difficulties or simply ask questions.

    Yeah, that would be a nice to have, but thousands of people are using those plans which are basically free (for someone with a Garmin). That kind of personalized support costs money.

    Coach Jeff mentioned in a video his intention to train for a bit longer distance, in order to have the confidence to finish the race distance without issues.

    As you just admitted, the long runs have nothing to do with Garmin. That's coach Jeff's style! If you read about his training plans (outside of Garmin) you'll learn that's normal for his plans. That's why you have 3 coaches to choose from, that's why they present themselves in the beginning. For example, I just finished the 10k plan with coach Amy (last Saturday) and my longest run was 14.8km

    So for me, especially at the beginning, it was already tricky to understand pace value ('/km) and always wondering why not using speed value (km/h).

    The min/km or min/mile is the standard on the running community. 

    I was relying on the fact that the watch would have told me when to walk and when to run.

    That's a known issue with users that did Jeff's plans. I'm not sure if that's a limitation on the devices or a decision they made. There are a couple of places online (I haven't read the book) where the method suggests proportions of time instead of strict times (walk 1 min, run 2 min), meaning that you should find the Run-Walk proportion that best fits you.

    All considered, you followed a plan that allowed you to finish your race 4 minutes under your target goal. That sounds like a huge success to me!

    After 2 training plans I also have a couple of complaints on Garmin Coach, but the simplicity of it and the seamless integration with my watch will make me enroll on the Half Marathon plan next September. I just need to decide which coach.

  • Run, Walk, Run

    This is the key aspect of Coach Jeff training. When he introduced it, it said that the running and walking intervals depend on your goal pace, he pointed to a table (obviously in '/mi) and suggested that the smartwatch would have helped us in keeping this running / walking structure. I looked at the table and I didn't make out the math to convert it in '/km because I was relying on the fact that the watch would have told me when to walk and when to run. In the first real training there were running splits followed by recovery walks, so I naively though that those were the running and walking intervals. Only later I discovered that I should have run/walk/run during the running splits but the smartwatch was not telling me when to switch. Too bad...

    I realized that one can use the alert function of the training program to do that, but I believed it should come automatically. Even better, the run-walk-run should adapt to your performance and change during the training weeks

    Great post!

    I’m using Coach Jeff for the 5k plan and was worried at one point as it didn’t seem to change too much. However now i am in week 5 the difficulty has definitely started to increase.

    I really like the Run, Walk, Run part, but would love to know how to set the alerts you mention for the run and walk parts. I am supposed to do 4 min running and 30 seconds walking and at the moment just have a Total Time data display so i can work out in my head when to start and stop.

  • Hi James! 

    To get the run / walk intervals you need to activate the run / walk alerts. So before you start the training you swipe upward to show the menu. In the settings you can then create a new alert of run / walk type and you set your timing there.

    I hope it helps you!

    Ciao! 

  • That’s great. I always thought you could only alert on time or distance and not specifically for a walk run combination. Thanks!

  • Thank you everyone on the thread for this discussion!  Toto (I tried just now, to "at" all on the thread but find I can't distinguish you from the lists the site offers, so I HOPE some of you still hang around).  your review is outstanding.  I am on about week 7 of the beginner 5K plan and for the cost, find it helpful, although sometimes I, too, would appreciate a bit more personalizing.  Carol, I think, provided the tip on how to change settings to get alerts for run/walk intervals.  I just completed a Run-Walk-Run workout where I couldn't get them, so that's top of mind for me right now and I'll be exercising that tip very soon now.  Kudos to everyone sticking with these programs, and thanks to the Jeff Galloway organization for their support for running (and walking).  I've watched several recent YouTube videos with Galloway and he seems very sincerely anxious to make running a fun, healthy thing for everyone.

  • I'm happy you like it!

    Stay healthy! 

  • Thanks a lot for your post

    I've just begun the Jeff Galloway 1/2 marathon plan and the first sessions seemed to me too easy, since I've been running for 8 years (trail running) but now I'm scared that the plan become too hard!!

    I like the plan approach and I appreciate your insight and also how to set the run/walk/run timer.

    I'll let you know how the 1/2 marathon last sessions are ... if I survive!

  • Hiya, how did the programme go for you?  I'm on week 10 (Jeff, 1/2 Marathon in under 02:00:00) and loving it.  I'm not run/walk/running but definitely dropped my pace. Got the 19 miler next Saturday but Jeff is so gentle I'm quite happy with that. Might as well so the Marathon next I guess!!

  • Hi everybody,

    im doing the same training at the moment. Sunday would have been my scheduled "final run" but my plan is messed up. The final run disappeared and is now back a week later! When i want to update it to its original date and time garmin connect (webpage) freezes, doing the same in the Garmin Connect app results in an error "An error occured. The problem is on our side and not on yours. Please try again later". Since i have found a one year old thread with the same issue i think garmin is aware of it but not realy able to fix it. Any help is appreciated.

  • My experience of Jeff's training is verry unrealistic. I am now in week 9 (of 18) Just done 14x800m interval. in 2 days there is 21km at te agenda and next week I am expected to do 16x 800mtr interval at a speed of 4min/km. that is 30sec per km faster than my fastest time on the "magic Mile". I've never been near these timings, but Garmin doesn't adjust the schedule. The distances only get longer and the number of intervals more. I find it very demotivating. I cant Imagine that a trainer as Jeff would find it responsible that anyone runs 40+ km in 3 days for a 10k schedule.  It is a pitty because I can see that the programs can have added value if they actually adapt to your personal condition. that is certainly not the case now. at least not with Jeffs schedule.