Earlier this year I registered for a 10K in the Portland Marathon. I’ve been
running fairly consistently for a few years and figured this would be a fun
addition.
A few weeks in, I decided to try out the Garmin adaptive training plan. You
have the option of selecting the event, date, and a time goal. I had no idea
what was realistic, so I put 48:00, figuring I can train toward just under 8
minutes per mile - slightly faster than my usual workouts.
During setup, you have the option of choosing which days are long-run days
versus rest days and I picked Saturday for long runs and Sundays for rest.
The program is broken down into four phases, which you can view in Garmin Connect.
- Base
- Build
- Peak
- Taper
During the program, some of my long runs were as long as 1:52:00 (13+ miles)
even though I would only be racing 10K (6.2 miles). The idea, of course, is
that you train at longer distances / slower paces, so that your engine is
capable of high-intensity shorter distances.
I am not sure exactly how it decides, but the recommended workouts move around
based on performance and other data recorded by your watch, hence “adaptive.”
Some days I would be mentally prepared for a long run only to find that the
recommended workout had changed.
I was still lifting weights and doing calisthenics 3-4x/week during this
training and that likely impacted the recommendations. It definitely impacted
the difficulty!
I ended up running a 43:55 at the event despite a slow start due to the crowds.
The average pace was 7:04/mile with significantly negative splits. I had
energy to spare so I want to try again and go all-out.
A couple of weeks later I decided to run a local half marathon and completed it
in 1:34:26 - 7:12/mile (killer hills on this one!)
As someone who runs casually, I’m happy with both of these results and look
forward to improving on them.