SmartCoach Pacing

Thanks guys good advice. Reassuring when you have others to keep you right. Smartcoach is good but we have to be adaptable too!

Happy running to all

Erm..  I used to like the SmartCoach, but not sure I do anymore since the overall website update. Where is the print-friendly option?

When I try to print out a 16-week training program for my Paris Marathon 2010 preparation, it's all over the place. On page 1 I get the first 10 weeks of the program squeezed over to the left hand side. Pages 2-8 are blank, whilst pages 9 and 10 contain other people's comments. Not exactly what I was after. 

It also takes more mouse-clicks to get to the SmartCoach in the first place now from the main page. 

Can we have a nice printer-friendly version please?

I've been using smart coach for the last year for my various races.  It has to be said I don't do a lot of races but I have found that with a little tweeking, it has worked really well for me.  I had a couple of injuries, one was related to slacking off on strength training and the other was a fall in the gym, of all places.  I have found the schedules challenging but achievable (most of the time).  I tend to put in effort as hard or hardest. The result was that of the 7 races, of variable distances I did last year, there was only one that I didn't achieve a PB in! 

I think you have to be flexible about things as well, I didn't stick rigidly to the schedule if I wasn't 'feeling it'.  I'm hoping this year I can improve further, I'll keep you posted. 

This is probably a really stupid question but what the hell.

 When SmartCoach says "800m at 3.47" or whatever, does it mean 800m at 3.47/km pace, or that you should run 800m in 3.47? (which would be approx 4.34/km pace, if my calculations are correct).

I'm assuming the former, but I'm not 100% sure.

Lovelygirls: Its a bit late and you've probably sussed it yourself now, but if you put your target time in as the most recent time, Smartcoach it works it out nicely on that. 

Nick Stokes 2 & Neil Dryland; The printer friendly option is on the US site: http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/smartcoach/  It has always printed out a lot better than the UK site also.

Sheri 12: I assume you're looking at a speedwork day? If so its 800m IN 3.47mins. 

I use Smartcoach for all my training but I find it has to be tweaked and not taken carte blanche. If i took it as read I'd be really down on myself for not achieving the training times, even though it gets the race results! I recently read in Runners World how research has shown Elite runners all training at the same percentage speeds; about 75% below race speed, 10% at race speed, 12% faster than race speed, and 3% sprinting (or something like that).  It was interesting to see how Speedcoach almost replicates those percentages. 

Sheri 12. Yes! 

I've copied this from the legend at the bottom of the US site program which I prefer to the UK one (why are they different I ask?!).  It differentiates between pace for the run (2 mi @ 12.00) and time for speedwork (3x800 in 4:00) and spells it out (my highlight in bold).

Easy Run
Dist: 2mi @12:00     Run a total distance of 2 miles at a pace of 12 minutes per mile.

Speedwork
Dist: 5mi, inc Warm; 3x800 in 4:00 w/400 jogs; Cool   Run a total distance of 5 miles. Your run should include:  - a warmup of about 1 mile  - 3 repeats of 800 meters each;  each repeat should take 4 minutes  - a 400-meter recovery jog after each repeat  - a cooldown of about 1 mile 

Note: Warmups and cooldowns are generally 1 mile each. But on some days, you'll need to make them longer to reach the total distance for your run.

Thanks Grandadnohair! The US version is much clearer. I wonder why the UK one doesn't explain it the same way.

My only issue now is that switching from miles to metres is confusing, as my Garmin will show the distance in one or the other, but not both at the same time. But 800m is very close to 0.5 mile so I'll do it that way. It would be simpler if, given that everything else is in miles, they gave the speedwork in miles too, unless of course you're running on a track or a treadmill... which many of us probably aren't.

Hi

Just a quick question - I've asked Smartcoach to do a couple of plans for 10k and half marathon. The results show 2 easy runs, a long run, and either a tempo or speedwork session each week.

I expected a tempo run, a speedwork session, a long run and a recovery run each week as that's more like what I'm doing now. Am I over training or  should I add some intervals into the smartcoach sessions?

Thanks in advance.