Using your Garmin most effectively

[thebulldog]

I have a Garmin Forerunner 10. So far i have just used it to track distance and know how to set it to alert me if I go under and 11:30 pace.

I want to do a few track workouts and work on speed but i am not sure of the best ways to use the device to help me with these.

i be typing from me phone. typos and grammer dont count.

[blndsnbrdr]

I've had my Garmin for about 4 years -- just last month I put the effort into putting a speed workout on it. Its not too difficult, just time consuming if you are doing it directly on the watch. I believe it is a lot easier if you plug it into Garmin Connect.

I was running a speed work out with our run group based upon time. I don't recall the entire work out exactly, but it was something like this:

warm up 1.5 miles easy
1 min fast, 1 min slow
1:30 fast, 1 slow
2 fast, 1 slow
2:45 fast, 1 slow
and then back down to 1 min fast.

So...complicated enough that I would forget the overall time splits. I just set it up to beep after each interval and would either slow down or speed up depending upon what I was currently running.

It actually worked pretty nicely - rather than stare at my watch I could just focus on running.

The battery is dead at the moment but I think I just want into Mode > Training > Create New or something similar to that.

I've also run with a "virtual training partner" where you race the little dude on the screen -- it would probably be more effective if I actually told that little screen dude to be fast enough to compete with me...oops!

Hope that helps!

[mrsjthompson]

Jul 25, 2013 13:30:33 GMT -5 thebulldog said:

I have a Garmin Forerunner 10. So far i have just used it to track distance and know how to set it to alert me if I go under and 11:30 pace.

I want to do a few track workouts and work on speed but i am not sure of the best ways to use the device to help me with these.

i be typing from me phone. typos and grammer dont count.

Ooo, would you share how to do that?  

I'm obviously no Garmin guru, but for track workouts I've started to use avg pace or last lap pace instead of current pace, because there's a lag between when I start and the pace catches up, so its not very accurate IMHO.

[InBetweenDays]

When doing track workouts I'd just rely on the timer on your watch. A track has fairly tight turns and the Garmin can't always track those turns accurately. Since you know the distance of the track, just note your time for each lap (or laps depending on your workout) and calculate the pace.

I do use my Garmin for fartleks, tempo runs, or other speed workouts I do that aren't track based though. For the fartlek I'll warm up, then do 3 minutes at a slightly slower (~30 seconds) than race pace, 3 minute slow jog, 2 minutes at race pace, 2 minute jog, 1 minute faster (~30 seconds)than race pace, 1 minute slow jog, then repeat the process two more times. For that I use my Garmin to track my time and my pace.

[clseale]

Jul 25, 2013 14:59:08 GMT -5 mrsjthompson said:

Jul 25, 2013 13:30:33 GMT -5 thebulldog said:

I have a Garmin Forerunner 10. So far i have just used it to track distance and know how to set it to alert me if I go under and 11:30 pace.

I want to do a few track workouts and work on speed but i am not sure of the best ways to use the device to help me with these.

i be typing from me phone. typos and grammer dont count.

Ooo, would you share how to do that?  

I'm obviously no Garmin guru, but for track workouts I've started to use avg pace or last lap pace instead of current pace, because there's a lag between when I start and the pace catches up, so its not very accurate IMHO.

I believe it's the virtual partner feature. My watch has way too many cool things that I don't use. lol

ETA: OP, I guess it probably depends on your watch. For my 610, it's pretty easy. I just set up custom intervals. I manually plug in a warm up & a cool down. Last night, as an example, I programmed 1.5 mile warm up, 1.5 mile cool down, then I set it for 12 x 400 w/a 2 min rest. I hit start, and never had to touch it again. 

[AAM2012]

If you know the distance you want to go (I.e.: 400m) you could use the lap key which is what I do.

Press the triangle button >run options> laps and you can turn on the lap key.

When running after you complete the distance you press the bottom left bottom to mark it.

I hope that makes sense. There's more info on the owners Manuel online.

The FR 10 doesn't allow you create workouts through the garmin connect