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Coach Galloway 10k - really heavy loads

So I bought a 245 in June and decided to try a coaching plan to improve my general speed. I have done a 10k in 55 min before and wanted to improve - no particular reason. I selected coach Galloway purely because of the three runs a week plan as I knew I'd be busy over the holiday period.

No problems for a while - in July I had a couple of weeks where I was ill or busy and unable to complete all of the runs, but I've done most of them. I'd been marking the 'feeling' at the end as Moderate partly because they weren't bad but also because of pride (possibly my first mistake?).

End of August: plan is going well but I'm noticing that I'm now alternating between two weeks:

Week 1/2 Tue: Hill repeats
Week 1/2 Thu: Speed repeats
Week 1 Sat: Goal pace repeats
Week 2 Sat: Long easy run

No problem in principle, but at this stage the speed repeats are increasing by 2 each week and I'm now due to do 18 lots of speed repeats (800m at 4:55 min/km, with 3 min recovery). This is both really punishing and also takes over 2 hours to complete just the speed repeats (on a Thursday - my long run day is Saturday). Surely doing 2 hours of tempo intervals isn't good for someone at my stage?

Similarly, the Long easy run is increasing by 4km each week, and this weekend I'm due to do 24km - 15 miles. This is training for a 10k, and of course if you're doing an easy run (7min/km) this is nearly 3 hours of running.

A couple of weeks ago a knee injury came up and I can't help but feel that the gruelling regime has got me this. I know I am not beholden to my Garmin, but at the same time I like to think I can trust them to have put together a sensible workout. Has something gone wrong with the algorithm? Or is this just how training plans work?

I'm aware that the most likely suggestion is that I should try a different coach, which I think I will - once I've finished this plan, and selectively skipping some of the sessions. But it seems like this plan is really crazy! I'd be really interested in people's thoughts and experiences...I'll also try posting on the Garmin forum but I'm aware that it's a bit quieter over there.

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0 Toto over 4 years ago in reply to peterdedecker

today it is much better. don't forget I am a beginner and perhaps some of the pain is just normal. The planning was to run the hill drill tomorrow, but since heavy rain is forecast, I did it already today and now I feel very well.

Thanks

0 Vipero_ over 4 years ago

I've ended plan almost 8 months ago, and I want to add my opinion.

This plan is demanding without a doubt. In my opinion the intensity of reps and pace are too high comapring what you want to achive, but on the other hand if you follow this plan you could be 100% sure that at the race day you will beat your 10k assumed time withou any problems.

If I remember well I missed couple trainings, but it was not affected on my time at my race day. I wanted to beat 50min / 10k so I set a target 49min same as Toto, at my race day weather was not good, it was windy and cold, but I manage to end with PR 46:30 :) much better than 49 min.

I run alone, I never attend to any of competition, so I think if I had a rival my time could be even better. I wonder if I will do 70% of this plan, maybe I still will be able to beat 49 min, but we won't find out now.

And at the end of it I want to add that mostly I did my trainings on stadium tartan track, maybe because of that I ended withoud injured. Only long runs and uphills was on asphalt. Plus of it I did my first half marathon during my long runs ;)

Willl I start this plan again? I don't think so at least not anytime soon, because I did not enjoy it, it was a hard fight.

0 Toto over 4 years ago in reply to Vipero_

I would be happy to have a target of 49'...I'm aiming at a much less challenging 60'!

0 Vipero_ over 4 years ago in reply to Toto

Oh.. yes my mistke, sorry for that ;)

0 Toto over 4 years ago in reply to Vipero_

nothing to be sorry! you simply spur me to run faster!

0 archieburbidge over 4 years ago

Thank you all so much for this thread - I've left this plan at week 4 and switched over to Coach Greg's 10k plan as it seems to have much better reviews.

0 mrswadge over 4 years ago in reply to archieburbidge

I think it's a good choice! I've got my "race" on the weekend. I'm still not sure how it will go!

I did find the second 20x800m speed repeats surprisingly okay and finished surprisingly strong. My target was 4:29-41 and I averaged 4:34/km over all 16km of repeats, so that is encouraging. The training load has been incredibly high and it's supposed to reduce injury risk - I'm not convinced! It's definitely not for beginners.

0 Toto over 4 years ago in reply to mrswadge

my race is scheduled for Sunday 28th (ten days to go).

I was lucky enough that the day I had the 18x800m, it was raining like hell and I did it on the treadmill and due to the not perfect calibration of the Garmin, it was much shorter and easier than the reality.

Last Saturday I had my 20x800m speed splits and it was a killer. My target was 5:41/km, I did the first sixteen with an average of 5:31/km but after those I was hardly able to run. The overall average over the 16 km 5:43/km that is not bad for my race goal (10km in 60 min), but I was really walking in the three minutes recovery time. In total it was more than 24km.

it took me three days to recover from knee pain, I had to reschedule the last "race pace training" because of the pain and I'm really happy that the difficult part is over.

I will for sure write an overall blog post with my impression at the end of it, but I won't do it anymore

0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to Toto

Can you tell me where to find the length and time of a workout on any given day? I’m only starting week 2 with coach Jeff but I can’t find how long the total workout should be. Do I need to add up all the steps? I would think it should be easier to figure out

0 Toto over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

it is not written anywhere. You have to sum up all splits and do a bit of guessing because some exercises are defined with a given distance, some other with a given time.

I do agree with you, at least they could provide you a rough estimate of length and duration so that one can plan better his schedule and also select the right path.