Nstoltzner

Hey all,


Not sure if this is the right place to post this. If not I apologize in advance.


Has anyone tried the Garmin Connect training plans? Starting the Century one today and I am quite curious to see how well it works. It will be nice to have some structure because I really need it.

TrojanHorse

Interesting, that's the only cycling training plan they have! Every ride is "easy pace" and it's a pretty standard ratcheting up of the distance.

The first week's long ride is 25 miles. If that is a challenge for you, I think the century training plan will be too difficult. I mean... they ramp up from 25 to 70 miles in 5 weeks!

Anyway, it's as good a starting spot as any. I wouldn't sweat it if you miss a day - just do the ride a different day and try to keep your weekly mileage total climbing.

Nstoltzner

25 is my longest ride at the moment. I plan on using it as a guide to get close mileage wise. Either that or create a plan from an online source.

TrojanHorse

As far as a guide, it should be fine. Most of the century training plans all feature the same sort of mileage up-stepping but I think your shorter, mid-week rides should be at a harder pace, keep it sane on the long ride and keep it SUPER EASY on the recovery ride (put it in your low gear and leave it there, even if you feel ridiculous). The easy pace will be what you need to get you through your long rides but obviously the fitter you get, the harder you can go.

Strava also has some gran fondo plans if you are a premium member over there. I'm sure you can find 100 variations on the internet as well.

Bottom line requirements: you need miles in your legs, and you need to know you can ride 70+ miles (and how to eat / drink to get that far). The garmin plan will get you there.

You may also need to sort out your equipment - what is comfy on a 20 mile ride may be excruciating on a 50 mile ride but the old saw is don't wear or use new gear on your first century, so figure it out fast and use it on your last long rides.

Seattle Forrest

Have not used. Looked at the running plans, but I just worked it out on my own instead.

One thing I know about these, is that they'll add to your Garmin Connect calendar, but that's not the one your phone is connected to. If you're using your phone or smart watch to drive appointments, you can make that work: the top-right button opens a menu, one item is "publish calendar," then you can import it into whichever one is relevant to you.

Nstoltzner

Thank you. I did my first ride last night and did go hard, the easy pace just doesn't make sense for 14 miles. I figured I have a nice bike that I want to put to the test and haven't pushed myself super hard yet as I am still a heavy rider at 289 down from 306. I am ready to push myself though and I feel this will be a good ruler to go by.

70Degrees

Not only does this appear to be Garmin's sole cycling training plan, but I think it was recently added. Before there were any for cycling, I used (and more or less stuck to) Daniel Healey's 12 week century training plan (available here: https://www.powerbar.com/sites/defau...ngplan_bmc.pdf). The pace and week-to-week increases were good for me, although I wasn't terribly disciplined with the strength and power components. I did learn a lot of good technique through practice and outside advice. Mostly, it was valuable to develop much better cardio fitness for endurance and knowing how to pace myself.

Happy training!

Edit: Learning how, when, and how much to eat and drink during the ride is critical. I was only able to learn that through trial and error.