Low intensity for marathon training with Garmin Coach?

Tigro 1 month ago

I'm trying out Garmin Coach for the first time to prepare for a marathon which is in around a month and I feel like the intensity is really low for some reason. Normally, I do 4 runs per week (usually one or two speed workouts, one easy and one long run), totalling around 40km - with the coach, I'm told to do five workouts per week, yet there's usually only one tempo run on the first day of the week and... that's it. The rest are either easy runs or recovery runs with a pace so slow that it's painful for me to even trod that slowly (pace over 1min/km slower than my easy runs). The "long runs" on Sundays are all below one hour so far which is also very weird to me as without the plan, I do LR's between 1h30 and 2h every Sunday. The total mileage is still in the ~35km/week range but I can't shake off the feeling that with the plan, my running is way easier than year-round when I'm not traning for anything.

I'm starting to worry that the plan is for some reason not setting the right intensity - it's only a couple of weeks till the marathon and the speed workouts are few and fare between, and the "long runs" are shorter than my easy midweek runs when I'm not training for a marathon. Did you also have such observations? Or may there something be wrong with my settings? I was also never wearing the watch apart from my workouts so the past data for regular day-to-day activities may be limited but I started wearing it 24/7 for the coaching now to provide it better input. My HR zones seem to be right as I've played with them in past quite a lot and now they seem to be accurate. My weight is accurate. The only thing that's not accurate are the running power zones (it always shows me Zone 4 or Zone 5) but I don't have the strap to set them properly, and I don't know if Coach even takes those into account?

It's pretty weird to me that according to the Coach I'm entering peak weeks now and yet the workouts are still on the same level which in and of itself is really light in the first place...

Thanks a lot for your input!

0 Etupes25 1 month ago

Short story, since your race is only in a couple of weeks, you should not bother with following the workout suggestions of a new Garmin Coach plan. Just look up online some tapering tips and ...

Tigro said:
Normally, I do 4 runs per week (usually one or two speed workouts, one easy and one long run),

...adjust this effective routine accordingly.

More info...

A new Garmin Run Coach will "periodize" your training (base, build, peak, taper phases). So the algorithm might be hard pressed to fit into a month...

The typical marathon training plan is 16 weeks and has long runs up to ~20miles. It didn't see these longer runs with daily suggested workouts which typically are around 2h in their longer version, but I saw them with the previous Garmin Coach plans. If my experience is representative, it is possible that the new Garmin Run Coach will max out around 2h for long runs.

Tigro said:
I'm starting to worry that the plan is for some reason not setting the right intensity

Again, that close to the race, you don't want to have this impression. Train without a plan but make sure you don't over do it. It would be bad to get an injury now...

Tigro said:
I started wearing it 24/7 for the coaching now to provide it better input.

If you forget about the coaching aspect, you will still benefit from wearing it 24h with the Garmin Coach active: the desired load balance is adapted for a marathon, so you just need to taper and keep your training "balanced". In theory, you should start seeing your HRV baseline go up as you taper (all other stressors being equal). If it doesn't, you need to ease down a bit more.

Tigro said:
The only thing that's not accurate are the running power zones (it always shows me Zone 4 or Zone 5) but I don't have the strap to set them properly

As long as you wear the watch, you will get running power, even if the strap is not supporting it. First, you still need to wear a strap. Second, if the zones are off, it is probably because your running FTP is off. You could do a lactate threshold guided test. You could benefit from running power during the race if you have a bit of hills. Otherwise, pace monitoring is enough.

Tigro said:
I don't know if Coach even takes those into account?

It is not taken into account (unfortunately) for any of the Garmin metrics. For running, only accurate HR/HRV and pace data is crucial during the workouts, with accurate Max HR, Rest HR reference data.