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Monday, October 13, 2014

My 2015 Marathon Project - supported by Garmin Connect



October 28, 2012.  That was the last time I ran the marathon distance through Run United Philippine Marathon.  I finished the whole 42.195 kilometer distance in 7 hours, 20 minutes, and 48 seconds.  I had issues then with ITBS, and just wanted to run the distance to celebrate good health and friends I saw along the route.

As I continue to heal from ITBS, I decided to give my legs some rest and focus on triathlons.  Swim and bike time increased, and deliberately decreased my running sessions.

I was able to finish several triathlon events in the process that lead to my ultimate goal of finishing Cobra Ironman 70.3 Philippines in 2013 and 2014.  I am the type of athlete who only wants to finish every race, and I'm very happy and grateful with my accomplishment.  However, I still have that yearning to run the marathon distance.

Last September, my teammate and compadre Victor Viola encouraged me to join the Condura Skyway Marathon happening on February 1, 2015.  I welcomed the idea, and went to Asics in Greenbelt, Makati City to buy a pair of running shoes and avail their free registration promo.

I went home excited and started drawing the plans for a successful marathon comeback.









Personal Inventory

As with any other race or project that I went through, I always see to it that I conduct a personal inventory of resources available to ensure success.

Running gears are already available since I embraced the sport in 2009.  I rediscovered some valuable running lessons from the book "Run Less, Run Faster" which I got sometime in 2013.  I now live near my favorite running place.  I can now train anytime in the evening.

There's just one challenge that I need to address to: my weight.  I'm not at my best at 200 lbs.  My marathon personal record of 5 hours, 55 minutes was achieved when I was 165 lbs in 2010.  I feel the need to be guided during training, in order to progress correctly, and not jeopardize my overall wellness.

Garmin Connect

I seldom sync my Garmin Forerunner 910xt to Garmin Connect.  Perhaps, I got bored with the previous version, that I saw it as a simple necessity to transfer the data my Garmin recorded during training and races, to free up some memory space.

But things were different when I checked the site last month.  Garmin Connect now sports a more engaging interface that displays your favorite features in one (or multiple) dashboards.  The change made exploring the features of Garmin Connect very easy!

Feature 1: Training Plan

Let me start with the Training Plans available which I didn't know where there.  When you clicked the gear icon on the upper right corner of the Training Plans window, a pull down menu will show and will lead you to find a Training Plan.  Once clicked, the interface will change and present you different training plans for running, biking, and triathlon.  Training plans for swimming is not yet available.  You can also choose from three (3) training levels, and training by heart rate or no heart rate.  After choosing your training plan, you can schedule your training by start date or finish date.

Garmin Connect gave me a 16-week level 1 marathon training plan by heart rate.  I was able to save the training plan into my calendar and Garmin Forerunner 910xt.  Now, all I have to do to suit up on training day, and select the training scheduled for the day from my 910xt.

Training starts today, October 13, 2014.  And the best part is it says "REST" =)

I will share in my future post how I progressed and the other features of Garmin Connect.


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