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Garmin Coach

According to this blog post, Garmin Coach is released: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/fitness/garmin-coach/

The Garmin Coach widget that appeared in a previous beta is no longer on the watch, presumably we can expect a new release or beta soon. It is a nice feature, but I am little underwhelmed to see that there is only a 5k option. Hopefully they'll add more plans.

0 nmyeti over 6 years ago

I'm currently paying for an adaptive training plan. I'm willing to pay a bit for one that works well and I think Garmin is in a good position to fill the middle ground for people like me who are not ready to pop for a full coach. I'm running mostly because I enjoy it. I want structured workouts because it helps me make sure that my time is well spent. I also like the idea of the AI consuming the info from my runs and spitting out my next workout. What I'd like to see more of is integrating recovery information into the that AI. Right now TrainAsOne https://www.trainasone.com/ seems to have its own ideas about recovery, and from my experience those decisions seem to be made before a workout is even attempted. Where Garmin has an advantage is in the 24x7 HR and HRV monitoring as well as the recovery advisor data that is on the watch. It would be awesome for a plan to integrate that on the fly to tell me that today is a great day to let it rip (with a suggested structured workout) or to slow it down (recovery jog workout).

TrainAsOne is interesting to me and the cost is low enough to justify. If Garmin offered a better product, even at a similar cost, I'd be interested.

0 KJE5059 over 6 years ago

nmyeti, I totally agree with you. While I currently don't have anything from TrainAsOne, I've definitely thought about signing up to try it out. Just as you mentioned, it would seem Garmin would be in a great position to create a package to analyze it's own data created by a 935 (or similar), to produce custom plans, based on ones preferences. I would definitely be interested, especially if it's all within the watch and GC or GCM.

0 chrisdr2 over 6 years ago

I too was hoping that the coach function would utilise firstbeat metrics in some way. However, it is a step forward and quite a handy training tool if you don't want to study the numbers. It'll be interesting to see what happens with training status during the plan.

I did actually start the 5K plan last night, just a 10 min benchmark run to start with - at the end of the run, you get to grade the effort. Presumably, this is fed back to the training algorithm. The workout is similar to using a GC workout, with one interesting difference: the timer stops at the end of the workout, rather than having to manually stop the timer.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

That's a lot dismissive of runners who do not run 5k below 25' irregardless of how long they've been running. As I see it these, plans are a great way for people who perhaps do not run regularly, perhaps starting out, perhaps recovering from injury (1), perhaps wanting to increase their pace to run below 25'. There are perhaps many people out there who do run regularly but do not know how to get there 5k pace down below 25mins. These plans are a start point.

It seems to me, that the people dismissing these plans are looking for a free service to take the place of a paid coach (2). Nothing wrong with that, we all like free stuff. But remember, many coaches have invested time and money developing a skill set that you either value or you don't. I know from experience that many people do not. There are services out there that already provide adaptive plans. You just have to be prepared to pay for them. It would appear that a number of 'expert' runners are not.

1. But that is not running regularly. I totally get how people want to improve their 5K time, but why offer the same plans no matter what "Fitness Level" you choose at the beginning?

2. Exactly why I wrote the second paragraph. Those coaches offer a wealth of experience, and it is their job to come up with personalized plans. That is the reason, in my opinion, why Garmin couldn't/wouldn't get more goal times, it would take away from selling the more sophisticated plans (a 25' plan for a 5K is a pretty generic plan, while it takes a much more diverse approach to break the 18' wall). I bought a whole lot of plans from McMillan, VDOT (Daniels), Canaday over the years, plus hundreds of Euros worth of literature (not to mention the - for an amateur like me - unreasonable amount for 1-on-1 coaching, PT, lab tests), but I gladly did so because as much as I want people to value my profession and be ready to pay for my service, I value the professional work of others. I don't want free plans, quite on the contrary, I just think that the way Garmin did it is an eyewash to offer a seemingly new feature, while it's nothing more than giving center stage to their Training Plans feature maybe because it's Summer? Maybe because it didn't see much use? Sorry, but that smells like marketing to me.

0 Dr Phil over 6 years ago

that smells like marketing to me.

And the problem with that is what? Of course it's marketing aimed at driving up sales of the products. What else would you expect from Garmin? There are likely to be a large number of people who are unaware of what their device can do. This is a great way to introduce them to that functionality.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I think I'll try it just for fun. And I've been running for 10 years and can only just get to a 5k time around 25 minutes. We are not all gifted runners.

BTW, do I need to do anything to make the training plan recognize my next run as the planned run according to the program?

0 chrisdr2 over 6 years ago

No, it is pretty well integrated. The easiest way is to start the plan run through the widget. It'll prompt you to choose which profile to use. You could also open the profile as per normal and start the run from run settings->training->Training Calendar. For all intents and purposes, it is just like running a GC workout. The only difference is that you are prompted to rate the workout intensity upon completion.

Edit: One down side that I found is that once the workout is selected, you don't get to see the GPS/HR/footpod connection screen. Last night I started to run before GPS connected - probably best to wait a minute or so before pressing start.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Would love to try this coach thing but unfortunately I get errors while accessing training tabs either on Garmin Connect website ir Garmin Connect Mobile:

On GC I get: "Sorry, we're having trouble with this page"
On GCM I get: "Whoops! Something went wrong. It's not you, it's us. Let's give it another shot"

It's been like that for me for all past week. Any ideas why it doesn't work for me?

Everything is updated to latest. Data & Privacy agreed to use Coaching.

HELP! :) [h=1][/h]

0 chrisdr2 over 6 years ago

Is that GC/GCM in English or another language? If not English, perhaps not all the content is ready yet. Additionally, Garmin uses CDN, so it possible that content hasn't finished propogating yet.

I got a similar message yesterday on GC but now seems OK.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Everything I use is in English although I am located in Lithuania.