SmartCoach Pacing - General running

toddytyke

24/09/2007 at 13:49

I am liking the smartcoach and was wondering how to set my Garmin to help me with paces. If smartcoach says 3 miles @ 9:10 should I set my Garmin for a 9:00 to 9:20 speed zone? If I aim for 9:10 the alarm would be going off constantly saying I was either too fast or too slow. How are other people interpreting this?

madmike

24/09/2007 at 15:27

TT,

Not had my 305 that long but have used it to PACE myself in a recent race. I set it up to display PACE and average PACE and did not use any alarms. Damn thing would drive me mad if I was trying to keep to an exact PACE, bound to be some ups and downs.

PiggyBack

24/09/2007 at 17:16

If it says 9.10, I would set it to between 9.08 and 9.12. I never have any problems with this kind of range

toddytyke

24/09/2007 at 21:12

Cheers. I have used the macmillan site to calculate a range for the various paces and so will add that to the types of run that smartcoach says and hey presto we have a plan.

welly66

24/09/2007 at 22:17

fantastic - I have been twiddling with a plan for a few days and it wrote it for me.

Didn't think it would do one for me as 5k takes me 46 minutes but it did - fab

Rach E

24/09/2007 at 22:24

I'm not really in agreement with the paces it offers me. Based off my 10k pb of 37:57 it tells me to do all my training runs (with exception of tempo and intervals) and 7:26 pace when training for a half marathon. I wouldn't dream of doing a 17 mile training run for a half marathon at 7:26 pace...!

It also puts the longest run a week before the race, and the training is identical whether I want a "tough" or "easy" training programme.

I used to train fast all the time and got injury after injury, so I'm a little worried others may succumb to the same if they follow this to the t...

welly66

24/09/2007 at 22:46

Thanks for your message Rach, I will bear this in mind, obviously I am a complete novice at this and looked more at the distances than the speed (any being better than none!) and over 16 weeks it moves me very slowly which sounds realistic.

toddytyke

25/09/2007 at 11:22

marian, have a look at macmillan for the paces.................it has been established longer and gives a range. advice is to aim for the slower end of the range to start with and progress towards the faster end. the big benefit of smartcoach for me is the type of training.........the number of easy runs, when to do speed and tempo and to include one long run. this approach is similar to jack daniels. four of my weekly six runs are of 3 miles (constricted by lunch time) and i think i have been running them too quickly. my new plan is now - tempo run (5 miles on Monday), easy 3 miles Tuesday, speed intervals Wednesday (3 miles), form intervals Thursday (3 miles @ easy pace), easy three miles Friday and long run @ easy pace on Saturday (anything from 6 to 10 miles).

rach e - what's gobi's view on smartcoach?

Gobi

25/09/2007 at 11:48

Rapid path to injury looking at the way it organises long runs and predicts pacing.

PhilPub

25/09/2007 at 11:56

I see what you mean. 18m @ 6:59, one week out from a half marathon?! Heehee. No ta!

toddytyke

25/09/2007 at 13:54

Robo-Gobi- My long runs, for a 10 mile race, start at 8 and add a mile every two weeks over a 16 week prgramme. The pacing starts towards the middle of easy (using macmillan as a calculator) and progress towards the faster end. Sounds gradual so I am happy to take your critical input as your posts on here and Fetch are always worth a read.

Gobi

25/09/2007 at 16:58

Toddy

I am surprised that as your long run gets longer it gets you to run faster but if it stays in the easy band I am sure it will be fine.

What sort of race pace/tempo work does it have you doing ?

welly66

25/09/2007 at 21:05

Toddy

Thank you for the tip, the site is great will work on this - thanks again.

toddytyke

26/09/2007 at 06:20

Robo-Gobi - it alternates between tempo in week 1, speed in week 2, tempo in three and easy in four. The cycle repeats. Tempo starts at 10 seconds slower than my fastest tempo speed and quickens the pace every third run whilst also adding a mile on that run. The speedwork starts at the fast end of my interval pace but quickly moves into my mile pace on the second session which is week 6. That sounds a bit fast to me.

Bionic Ironwolf pirate

pirate

26/09/2007 at 06:35

agree, training too fast all the time is a recipe for injury and also burnout.

Joolska

26/09/2007 at 07:57

I got it to come up with a marathon programme and you'd die of boredom. It basically takes a LSR, one 'quality' session in the week and pretty much splits the other mileage equally over the other days. 3 or 4 12 milers (at the same pace) each week pretty much every week for 16 weeks, anyone? Now, maybe the other training programmes I've followed have been wrong, but give me P&D for a bit more variety any day! And yes, the speeds were faster than I would usually train.

Gobi

26/09/2007 at 08:27

Toddy

intervals should be fast :¬)

whose schedule is it ?

toddytyke

26/09/2007 at 09:14

it's the smartcoach schedule on here for a 10 mile race based upon my time in a 6 mile race. the schedule lasts 16 weeks. i aim to use the schedule to plan the different types of run: easy*3, speed*1, tempo*1 and long *1 each week: and the distances but i am using macmillan to work out the speed ranges.

at the moment i am racing each weekend and so it's difficult to stick with a schedule but the long, easy, interval and tempo sessions seem to follow the jack daniels approach.

i was just following up on a comment that you made about the smartcoach schedule being "Rapid path to injury looking at the way it organises long runs and predicts pacing" but if i am using macmillan for paces maybe it's not such a big deal.

Pammie*

26/09/2007 at 11:31

I had a little play with it and as i'm concentrating on 5ks it has me running 13 miles the week before my key race

Gobi

27/09/2007 at 13:43

good luck with it toddy

I think I shall stick to writing plans instead

Just one 13 miler Pammie ? or is that total miles ?