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Daily suggested workout – Experience after 2 months of training

Since exactly 2 months I follow the daily suggested workouts.

I started 2 month ago with VO2max 48 and now I’m at 54. The last 5 training sessions I improved VO2max and performance condition is always positive. So VO2max 55 should reached very fast. I'm very happy with this result.

I think the daily suggested workout is good for people, which have no personal coach. It propose me training sessions to improve my fitness (VO2max).

More Background:

I’m 51 and train to stay fit and healthy. I do not train for any race. I always run with HRM-Run chest strap to feed the algorithm with correct heart rate. In the last 2 years I have done two 16 week Garmin Coach half marathon training plans with a 2 hour target to finish my first half marathon in my life. During this 2 years I was rated 2 sessions with VO2max 53. That was my maximum since I have the Garmin watch.

The runs of this 2 half marathon training programs, were much longer and slower than what are my daily suggested workout in the last 2 months (maximum 55min). The daily suggested workout added much faster training sessions in my program, as what I have done before (very fast sprint and threshold sessions).

In the second month of training my training load focus is very balanced. That was never the case during the Garmin Coach half marathon training plans which had in the 16 weeks a strong focus on low aerobic training's.

Are there others which were following the daily suggested workout for more than a month?

Top Replies

Ralf_23 over 4 years ago in reply to caferey +3

I can not comment the the times of the “Race Predictor” screen of the watch, because I’m not doing races. But I can comment on the proposed speeds and the prognosis of Aerob/Anaerob Training Effort of…
Fredrik_Coulter over 4 years ago +1

I have not been religiously following the suggested workouts. Basically due to work responsibilities I have to take the first and third Wednesday of each month as a rest day. Add to that occasional full…
Ralf_23 over 4 years ago in reply to jbarelds +1

Hello jbarelds,

what I see is that the training load become higher and higher. That means in general that I have to run more miles/km per week and that I have to run faster to get higher trainig load and…

All Replies

0 Ralf_23 over 4 years ago

Since I started my Daily suggested workout, I did not got automatically any new Lactate Threshold and I have not checked my maximum heart rate since more than a 1,5 years.

Does the algorithm need that I integrate regularity a Lactate Threshold test where I try to reach my max Heart Rate at the end of that test? I’m sure that my Lactate Threshold has improved in the last 10 weeks.

I’m not sure if I can still reach the max heart rate from my last test.

Do you think that this 2 values are important for the daily suggested workout algorithm?

0 jbarelds over 4 years ago in reply to Ralf_23

It makes sense. There are basicly two ways to increase your fitness:

Increase variety of type of effort (low, med aerobic, anaerobic)
Increase the work load

You have probably reached the max amount of variety long time ago. Garmin DSW probably have offered you all the workout variety it has available.

As for workload. Under the hood their it is just the TRIMP model with 7 and 42 days averages trying to increase your fitness level. Drawback of the TRIMP is that the model doesnt have a ceiling but your body does. You cant just go on forever increasing your workload. There is a max of what your body can take.

The advantage of the Garmin ecosystem is that they can measure realtime 24x7 how your body (heart) is performing. That way they can still determine, more or less, your ceiling.

But this all applies only for the cardiorespiratoir system. There is ofcourse also the limitations of your tendons and muscles which are not taken into account in this whole system.

0 jbarelds over 4 years ago in reply to Ralf_23

I would say yes. Take the Lactate Treshold test on a regular base. Your training zones depend on it. And the AI engine of the DSW is using these zones for new workout suggestions. As for Max Heart rate. This doesnt change so quickly. I would try to test it ones every year or so.

0 Ralf_23 over 4 years ago in reply to jbarelds

jbarelds said:
Garmin DSW probably have offered you all the workout variety it has available.

Hello jbarelds,

I can confirm you that even after 10 weeks of Daily suggested workout, I have not seen by far all the level of variety that Garmin workouts offer. There is still a lot to discover for me.

0 jbarelds over 4 years ago in reply to Ralf_23

That's nice! Not sure if there will be more room in variety between the different zones but variety in every sense is always nice :-).

0 Ralf_23 over 4 years ago in reply to jbarelds

jbarelds said:
Not sure if there will be more room in variety between the different zones

Just started with anaerob sessions. There is also still a lot of room for the duration of anaerob and high aerob sections. Gamin mentioned in his doc several sessions which I still have not done https://discover.garmin.com/en-US/performance-data/running/#training-effect-samples

0 Ralf_23 over 4 years ago

Today I’m really not sure if the proposal is correct.

It is my first week that the algorithm does not care about my Garmin Recovery Times.

I still have 29 hours recovery time open with “Recovering as Expected” from my sprint session yesterday.

Therefore I was expecting a Rest Day, Recovery Run or Base Run.

But the suggested workout is a 55min Threshold with TE Aerobic 3,7 and TE Aner. 2.0 like 3 days ago!

Body Battery is 100% and Resting Heart Rate 46 instead of 43.

Can someone comment, which has more experience with training planning?

Is it correct that my open Recovery Time is ignored?

Should I really increase my training load so fast?

0 Dr Phil over 4 years ago in reply to Ralf_23

This is a bit like second guessing a 'real' coach. You either choose to follow the program or you don't. Provided you are only doing the suggested workouts then I believe you should be fine. Note that I say believe as I have no idea of your background or history. Neither does Garmin.

IMVHO, these are conservative workouts aimed at giving novice trainers some guidance as about periodising training. If you have experience, or are exercising regularly then these works might be of little utility.

At the end of the day, in a nutshell, when all is said and done, you choose what you do. If you feel it is too much then back off. If you are happy then continue. If you want more then you probably want a to work with a real coach.

0 Fredrik_Coulter over 4 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

I'm not sure that "conservative" is the right description. Today my suggested workout is one and a half hours at a 10:30/mile pace. I've never run close to that pace for that long. It's also twenty five minutes longer than any previous suggested workout.

I'm sure as heck going to try it, but it's hardly "conservative".

0 jbarelds over 4 years ago

Anyone any experience to share concerning Garmin Daily Suggested Workouts?
I ignored them for a while since I found them to easy. Also if they didn't seem to delivered what was planned.

For example: A cycling DSW with short sprints aimed for 2.5 aerobic and 2.5 anaerobic load. But due to the sprints where only 8 second my heartrate hardly seem to bother and didn't reach the anaerobic zones at all. As a result the workout only delivered 2.2 aerobic and 0 anaerobic load. Even after doing the workout several times there didnt seem to be any AI learning effect which makes me think that the AI algorithm is poorly designed. Apparently there isnt any feedback of what an workout is scheduled for and what the actual result is.

Anyone experienced the same?