Weight loss / 5k-10k-Half Training Questions

What you're describing in your edit is adaptive training which you typically get by working directly with a coach who can adapt your future training by adjusting workouts based on past performance. There aren't really any established adaptive programs that don't involve a coach but there is a service/site called TrainAsOne that is attempting to use AI for the purpose.

I fooled around with it last summer when they were offering it up as a free beta program. I could see some potential to it but it wasn't quite ready for prime-time yet IMO and I went back to my normal training plan. I know they're still working on it and now have a CIQ app that downloads each day's workout to your watch but I don't know how well or how much progress they've made.

Thanks for the reply! I may be asking too much. And yes, i agree, i guess what i'm looking for is a digital coaching app. I just want to make sure that each workout i'm doing is pushing me towards a goal in a meaningful way.......as opposed to me just "going for a run to get in better shape".....though i know that any running is better than nothing (especially at my current fitness level :) )

thank you again......anybody else?

Sign up for TrainAsOne - zero cost. I have been using it for the past year. It will answer the question 'what shall I do today' by pressing a single button on your watch and then create a workout for you to follow along with a training plan for the next 6 weeks.

garmin connect has free running training plans that are a good start. The problem with what you are suggesting is that there are just too many variables if you are skipping days or multiple days. If you do an easy run and then do nothing for a week, you aren't going to have any substantial gain in fitness level that would warrant an increase in distance or pace. A gradual, consistent increase is what you need to do in order to improve without injury. The garmin connect training plans will automatically push onto your calendar and then you can sync them to your watch.

Thank you both,

Are the 'Garmin connect training plans' and the 'TrainAsOne' two different things?

What is the difference between "TrainAsONE (no downloads)" and "TrainAsONE" in the ConnectIQ store??

"Garmin Connect" is the native garmin website where all your data syncs too. You can access it by going to https://connect.garmin.com in your web browser. Once you are logged in, select "training" on the left hand side of the screen, and then "training plans". Then pick your desired plan and start date.

TrainAsOne is a separate and private company that is not affiliated with Garmin. I have no experience with them one way or the other but it sounds like they are a separate website.

Mssollars, I am no expert on this, but from what I have read during the past months, I think the premise for your post is wrong.

If you are training for weight loss and long distances, you should probably not push yourself harder and harder for every run. You should do a lot of slow runs instead, with only occasional fast runs. So skipping the initial parts of a training plan because you think you are better than that may be a very bad idea.

Consequences for weight loss
Fast runs will deplete your sugar depots. This will make you feel hungry after the run because the body wants to refill its sugar depots. So you will have a high risk of eating so much that you cancel out the active calories from the run.
Also, your calories burned over a week will probably be low, because you are doing short run and need a lot of recovery between runs.

Slow runs will burn mostly fat. At least in my case, this will not create any additional hunger. So I get a weight benefit from all active calories burned.
Also, you can burn a lot of calories over a week because you can train almost every day and also do longer runs.

Consequences for speed/endurance
Fast runs will train your anaerobic system, the one which runs on fat. You can get quick improvements this way, but you will also hit a wall where you can't improve any further because your "base" engine, the aerobic system, is underdeveloped. Also, you will hit the wall in a marathon when your sugar depots are emptied and you have to finish the race on fat burning.

Slow runs will train the aerobic system, the one which runs on fat. This is a long, slow pull where improvements take time. But when you have developed a good aerobic engine, you can put some anearobic training on top of it and get faster overall. And you can run a marathon without hitting the wall because the body can go on and on when the energy mainly comes from fat burning.


As I said, I am no expert on this. My own running history has been on and off for 6 years. I did the same as you, pushing harder for every run, usually running slightly above my lactate threshold of 162 BPM and often reaching my max heart rate of 181 BPM. Every time I got better, I got a knee or heel injury and have to take some months or years off. But lately I have been doing the slow stuff, and it has worked very well for weight loss at least. I have gone from 105 kg (around 230 pounds) to 92 kg in 12 weeks. That is more than 1 kg/week or 2.2 pounds/week. I do all my training at a heart rate below 130 BPM. My running improvement is yet to be seen. My aerobic engine is still quite underdeveloped so I have difficulty running without exceeding the 130 BPM. Instead I do a lot of fast walking on hills to get my heart rate up.I hope I will soon be able to run again.

If you want to read a success story from another league, look up Mark Allen, a former Iron Man champion. He tried for several years to win the championship without any luck. Then he went back to building his aerobic base, improved his competition times considerable and won the championship for 6 years. Knowing a story like that helps me think that there is no lost pride in running slow.

I started running 3-4 years ago, not long after joining a slimming club and committing to shifting some weight. I did it without any wearable tech or any grand aspirations. Just wanted to do some exercise and running was cheap and easy to fit into a busy schedule. I basically ran as often as I could, and used basic milestones as gauges for improvement. What I mean is that initially I tasked myself with a run to the park and back, which is roughly a mile. I did this two or three times, and then went for a new milestone, which was down to the junction and back, which was two miles. Again, I did this several times across two weeks and then had a stab at doubling it again. And again.

Over a period of about three months I went from not being able to run a mile to over 10km. All the time I was following a low-fat diet. I gauged my training load on two factors: how much I ached/how fresh I felt and how much time I had. Early on I couldn't really run back to back days, as my legs and hips would ache. So I ran every other day. Occasionally when I jumped from one distance to another, e.g. from 6 to 8 miles, I would need an extra day of rest. After that, I tried to run whenever I could, which usually meant squeezing a lunchtime run, or fitting a run in when one of the kids was at an activity. My focus became time, not distance (or rather, what distance could I run in a given time, and could I improve on it next time or the time after that).

Jump forward three and a half years and I now have a Fenix 5 (recently moved to this from a Fitbit Charge2) and I find that I'm in a good place, but possibly running without any real direction, so am following the training load recommendations on the watch, i.e. trying to run a little slower and maintain aerobic heart rate for an entire run, as opposed to just running (which is what I have been doing for as long as I've been running).

I share this because I started running weighing around 233lbs/106kg and am now around 150lbs/68kg (and out of pocket because I had to buy two new wardrobes of clothes) and fitter than ever before. Diet lost the weight, but running plays a vital part - keeping the weight off, because while I've changed shape considerably, my appetite hasn't changed at all, and I still love and prize food and wine above everything else! :)

My advice is use the training status of the watch. Rest when you ache, and use time not distance to run, e.g. 30, 45 or 60 min runs. Biggest piece of advice I can share is rest. Don't force a run because you missed a day. If you're aching or tired you need to rest. Oh and don't overeat. You don't need any additional fuel until you're running double-digit miles or above an hour, and then you need very little really (it changes when you're at your target weight and shape if you can control your appetite/desire to feed, but not by much really).

Obviously I am not an expert. Just someone who's been on the journey. You just need to know yourself. The features on the watch are interesting and cool and are currently useful for me.

Thank you for the input.

I'm guessing it's definitely going to be a journey. I'm going to start looking into aerobic training or aerobic base development training. A friend is trying to talk me into a half marathon in october (7months). I feel like that could be a realistic goal, I'd just like to approach it in the most efficient way possible. (for both weight loss, and aerobic fitness level increase.)

Any tips or plans you'd point me to for training for a half that is 7 months away....knowing my current abilities and goals??

thanks!
Matt