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garmin coach vs Training state

Hi there,

I'm following Garmin Coach half Marathon plan (coach Greg, 4/week). I'm in the 3rd week now and I still haven't had anything else then a smooth run. Moreover however, I see the garmin coach is very inconsistent with my Training Status. Just following the coach renders my training state Unproductive. Even more, my VO2max has decreased in the last 3 weeks (only 2 points, but still).

What should I do? Keep following the Garmin Coach, or go about my own and follow the info from Training status?

Hope to learn something from this!

Best

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  • Garmin Coach training plans do not currently factor in their suggestions on your next workout based on your training status. As an example, if you are able to complete all of the workouts in the specified criteria, the adaptive training plan will not factor in whether this was an easy effort or a very difficult one. 

    On a related note, you may have already seen this link but it offers a more detailed breakdown of Training Status and what each reading means. One tactic might be to take some of your upcoming runs a little easier to allow for more rest and then see if your training Status improves. Skipping a workout from your Garmin Coach plan may also be an option, although I understand that's not a perfect suggestion either. 

    Your feedback on how these could be more integrated will be taken into consideration. 

  • You should integrate the Garmin Coach with the Training Status. A lot of what these watches measure is honestly useless. They only work in perfect situations: you do this, but you don't do that.

    With all these features that you add and the countless number of bugs I don't see these watches improving really. You add features that don't work together. How is this making sense after all these months.

    Why didn't you fix them by now?

  • This is really weak for 2020. I sincerely hope that Garmin is working on a "Coach" which actually makes use of the relevant data. I never tried Garmin Coach but i thought that at least a basic intensity measurement (e.g. actual average HR vs. prescribed Intensity) is factored in and the trainingplans adapt.

  • On: "One tactic might be to take some of your upcoming runs a little easier to allow for more rest and then see if your training Status improves. Skipping a workout from your Garmin Coach plan may also be an option, although I understand that's not a perfect suggestion either."

    The point is that my training state tells me I should include more anaerobic training. So I guess the unproductivity is not due to training overload, but rather the oppposite.

    Would indeed be very interesting to see the integration of these things.

  • I feel that the integration of training load and status isn't that tight. Given it's Firstbeat that implements these algorithms and Garmin "just" include them in their watches, don't know how much Garmin can influence or give other feedback to you. But for me whenever my Vo2max goes down or stays around the same level, I get the unproductive status regardless of my training load. And a fluctuating Vo2max value, at least with a point or two, seems to be "easier" to do now with my FR945 as opposed to my Fenix3.

    Or it could just be that I've gained a couple of kilo's during the holidays, and obviously my Vo2max then drops.

    More information on the training load and status here, from Firstbeat -

    www.firstbeat.com/.../

  • Or it could just be that I've gained a couple of kilo's during the holidays, and obviously my Vo2max then drops

    That will only happen if you update your weight in Garmin Connect. Did you? Or have you just got slower?

  • So I guess the unproductivity is not due to training overload, but rather the oppposite.

    That's quite possibly the case. Any training program needs a good mix of high and low heart rate training. There also needs to be intervals in the mix where heart rate range is quite large between recovery and work intervals. Total training intensity for an activity session could be the same but it's how you arrive at the number that counts. 

    And the foundation for all this is good heart rate data. You need the zones set correct. You need the heart rate data from your activity to be accurate and reliable, which often means you need a strap.

  • I have the Garmin Index Scale, so I update every morning! Yum So I know that I have slightly over a kilo added over the holidays, and Garmin knows too!!

    But I can also say that after the interval session this evening, running hill sprints(? back-intervaller in Swedish) I am now back into the Productive status because my Vo2max got raised a notch (up one). So whether my Vo2max fluctuates without any real change, or the fact that the my vacation caused me to skip my weekly interval sessions for a couple of weeks and it affected my training status I can't say for sure.

    But I will still take the assessment of my training as being Productive or Unproductive with a pinch of salt, and a thought of my own about what I have done during the last four weeks. Thinking

  • VO2max is not a metric that should be monitored daily or per training session. In reality it's a long term measure of how aerobic capacity develops in response to training. Usually, you would undertake a specific program of training over six to eight weeks and then see how VO2max has been affected.

    VO2max by definition is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen the body can utilise for energy. There is always (unless you have a respiratory problem) plenty of oxygen available. While there is debate about whether central (heart and lungs) or peripheral (muscles and capillaries) drive the improvement there is no doubt that regular aerobic exercise develops more mitochondria (the body's batteries) and more capillaries in the muscles (therefore more opportunity for oxygen to pass from the blood into the mitochondria.

  • In reality it's a long term measure of how aerobic capacity develops in response to training

    I couldn't agree more, and that's why I'm - trying at least - to say that I don't fret too much whether Garmin/Firstbeat tells me that my training are unproductive one day, and then flipping it over the next. By following a training program with a mix of intervals, longer runs, tempo runs and recovery you are doing it right in my eyes. If the status turns into Unproductive occasionally I don't worry too much.