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Garmin Run Coach is constantly recalculating everything

Tigro
1 month ago

I have a FR265 and decided to use the new Garmin Run Coach to train for my next marathon, however the way it's working is driving me crazy. It's constantly recalculating everything to the point of there being no reason for ever trusting anything it says that's further away than on a given day after midnight.

To give a few examples:

- every day it bounces between a 2x16min @ 5:05min/km and a 2x8min @ 5:05min/km session for upcoming Monday, ping-ponging from one to the other and back

- once it told me to rest on a Thursday and do a slow jog on a Friday - for my schedule, it was more convenient to do it the other way around. So I did the Friday's session on Thursday to have Friday free instead. What did Run Coach do after I ran the Friday run on a day that was supposed to be free? It just added a new one on Friday.

- regularly when I have an off day in the plan and I do it (so I don't work out that day), suddenly after midnight of that day everything gets recalculated for some reason (times, paces, durations for the upcoming workouts) even though I did exactly what the coach wanted me to

- workouts get drastically recalculated even though I hit >90% success on my sessions

I get that the plan is supposed to be adaptable but for me it's arbitrary rather than adaptable. I have trouble fitting it into my schedule when I never know how hard of a workout is awaiting me until midnight of the day that I actually have to do it on. And looking at a workout that's further away than today is meaningless as it'll change anyway.

Is there any way for it to be more stable and predictable? I'm not wearing my watch at all apart from during the workouts so I don't know if that's the problem or if it lies elsewhere but so far my experiences are rather infuriating. How did it work out for you, did you also have the same kinds of problems?

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  • 1 month ago +1
    Tigro said:
    I have trouble fitting it into my schedule when I never know how hard of a workout is awaiting me until midnight of the day that I actually have to do it on. And looking at a workout that's…

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  • 0 1 month ago
    Tigro said:
    I have trouble fitting it into my schedule when I never know how hard of a workout is awaiting me until midnight of the day that I actually have to do it on. And looking at a workout that's further away than today is meaningless as it'll change anyway.

    Yep, there are drawbacks with daily recalculation to take into account your training status, focus, balance, recovery and overall readiness.

    There is not much you can do except not going harder/faster/slower than expected. Since I want to run every other day, I replace some light recovery runs with some cross-training (strength training, cycling).

    So, the drawbacks come with the advantage of flexibility...

    Tigro said:
    So I did the Friday's session on Thursday to have Friday free instead.

    It is not the way it works, alas. Garmin run coach will never propose a workout on a day selected as rest day, but any other day, anything can happen from becoming a rest day, to having a modified workout.

    Tigro said:
    - workouts get drastically recalculated even though I hit >90% success on my sessions

    The key is not the execution score, but whether your training effects (aerobic and anaerobic) are matching the forecast of the workout (it is displayed when you view the workout details). Too much difference will shift the expected training metrics and the next workout(s) will be adjusted.

    If you execute a workout to perfection and still see some significantly different training effect when compared with forecast, you have other issues with your set up or data collection.

    Tigro said:
    ow did it work out for you, did you also have the same kinds of problems?

    In my case, the watch is very good at forecasting the training effect of the DSW, so when I execute the workouts as intended and do only minor extra curricular activities, my DSW are very stable.

    I do see some tweaks, and sometime I see a switch from one style of workout to a close style (for example from sprints to anaerobic).