Still Need Some Recovery I Guess...

Yesterday was a slow (and I mean slow) run around the Newport Back Bay. Did I say slow? Really slow. But, I'm not interested in speed at this point. I'm interested in getting miles and workouts in. It was great running weather - overcast and in the low 60's. The sun popped out just as I was wrapping muy 12 miles up.

Speaking of workouts - today we'll set up a workout on our Garmin. I hope you'll get a flavor for the flexibility that the device has!

First thing we'll do is open the Workout Calendar. Press the "Workout" button in GTC:



Next, right click on "Running", then select "New Workout":


Now it's time to setup your workout. First things first - give it a meaningful name. I've named this one "8 mi GA" for an 8 mile general aerobic run. A workout is comprised of one or more steps, with a duration and a goal for each step. In this case, our duration is 8 miles, so we will select "After I go a certain distance" for our step's duration, and will set the distance at 8 miles:


Next, we will set the goal for this step. Remember setting our speed and heart rate ranges? Here is where they come into play. Since this is a general aerobic run, we will select "Try to keep my heart rate in a certain zone". I'll then select heart rate zone 3 as my goal range. If you run by pace, then you would select "Try to keep my speed in a certain zone", and then select the proper speed zone:


Here's how the workout looks:

The GTC interface lets you set all kinds of different combinations of steps, durations, goals, and repeats. Here is an example of an interval workout (2 mi warm up, 4X800 with 400 rest, 1 mi warm down):

In this workout, I set an initial step of 2 miles at heart rate range 3 (general aerobic). Then I set up a step to repeat four times. This step is comprised of 1/2 mile duration at speed range 7 (10K pace) followed by 1/4 mile with no goal (rest). The final step in this workout is a 1 mile warm down. once again in heart rate range 3. Clear as mud?

Now that we've set up all of our workouts, tomorrow I'll show you how to move them onto your workout calendar and onto your Garmin.