To push or not to push Lap Button during Cadence drill and Acceleration-glider drill? Coach Jeff 5km trainig

Hi All

I have gone through the forum, and see lots of people asking this question, but can't find an answer that makes sense.

I have a training workout of 10 minutes warm-up, 4 x Cadence Drill (30 seconds cadence, 30 seconds walk), 4 x accelaration-glide (30 seconds each), 10 minutes cool down.

I feel every time a new drill starts and I push the lap button, I shoudnt have!  And when I don't push the lap button then it doesn't start the new lap!  I'm so confused!  With common sense, I would think I should push the lap buttons as such:

10 minutes - push lap button to start 30 seconds cadence

10:30 minutes - push lap button to start walk

11 minutes - push lap button to start 30 seconds cadence

11:30 minutes - push lap button to start walk

12 minutes - push lap button to start 30 seconds cadence

12:30 minutes - push lap button to start walk

13 minutes - push lap button to start 30 seconds cadence

13:30 minutes - push lap button to start walk

14 minutes - push lap button to start accelaration glide

14:30 minutes - push lap button to start accelaration glide

15 minutes - push lap button to start accelaration glide

15:30 minutes - push lap button to start accelaration glide

16 minutes - push lap button to start 10 minute cool down

It just seems that sometimes the Garmin (Instinct) starts a lap on its own, and sometimes it doesn't, and I can't figure out the pattern....and even though I'm running the drill perfectly according to Jeff's plan, Garmin keeps telling me there is room for improvement....lol....I would love a comprehenc=sive answer or an exact youtube example to see where I'm going wrong.

PS...on the run-walk-run drill, I pushed the lap button and it skipped the drills!  So frustrating....so don't use the lap button for that drill!

  • Usually on these workouts you need to press the lap button only fat the end of the warmup to signify the start of the intervals.  The rationale is that you need to be in a proper place to start, not waiting for the light to change, or on that really steep hill by the track.  So you start the workout, finish the warmup, figure, "yeah, this is a good place to do cadence drills," and then go. After that, you should just go and stop when the watch tells you to. Some hill workouts have you press the button at the start of every uphill, because they want you to have a chance to get into position at the bottom of the hill before you go again.

    In general there is very little button pressing during workouts. The device knows how far you have gone and how much time has elapsed, so why should you have to tell it?

    I too have many times started off on my first fast lap only to realize that it wasn't in the right mode yet.

  • Thank you! Makes sense, I will try that on my next run.  Regards

  • Thank you for explaining. I'll give it a try on the next run.

    Whish the developer thought to offer such an explination.

  • Same question: excellent, VERY clear answer! Thank you!

  • I'm not using a Garmin prompted drills but this week I did a bunch of 1/4 mile track sprints (15 of them) and, in my case, I only wanted the sprint data, so at the end of each 440, I hit lap immediately followed by the stop button.

    After a short rest, I hit start at the beginning of the next 440, I had tripped the lap at the end of the last 440. Rinse and repeat.

    If I wanted the rest data, I would have hit lap at the end of the sprint and lap when I started the next sprint.

    Phantom Lap issue: Maybe a possibility, my 245 has an auto lap feature that is set to default at 1 mile. It did not trip an auto lap on my 440 sprints but maybe its an issue on the instinct, or some specific version of firmware. To change Auto Lap; for the 245 it's hold the middle left button, scroll down to Activities and Apps (select), then Run (select), then Run Settings (select), scroll down to Auto Lap.

  • What you want for that workout is not autolap, but to set up and save an interval workout, then launch it as a track run. The track run helps Garmin know that you are on a curved track, and that the distance and trajectory should conform to that. You can set 15 x 400m run intervals with either a set time or "until I press the button" for the rest intervals.  That way you can have different interval lengths in the same workout,  if you want. This way you don't have to fumble for the lap button at the end of each interval, or as you're launching into the next lap. You get a little countdown to go, if you choose a set rest interval. The watch will count the laps for you and tell you how many you've done. When you view the data later you can choose to view only the run data. I'll check back to see if you need any help setting up and launching the workout.

    Autolap is more appropriate for people who are going out on a longer run, but would like to be told each time they finish a mile/km, or who want to be able to analyze their mile-by-mile or km-by-km performance later.