# Garmin Connect - Cycling Training Plans?



## ZmyDust (May 13, 2011)

Hi All,

I'm brand new to Garmin Connect and the brand in general. My wife just gave me a Garmin Forerunner 110 watch for cycling. I don't think this model is dedicated to cycling so much as it is running, but thats ok, it picks up a ride well enough and gives me a good heart rate reading.

My question is in regards to Garmin Connect. I was hoping it could help me out with a cycling training plan. On the front page of "Training Plans" it gives an example of running and shows a drop down menu for cycling plans (1st screenshot). However after clicking on "Browse Training Plans", there are only running options (2nd screenshot). What am I missing - where are the cycling plans?


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## mwilson7 (Aug 16, 2007)

This is a relatively new feature and they rolled out the running plans first. I'd expect to see cycling plans pretty soon.


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## heyyall (Nov 10, 2011)

I've gone searching for them too. Garmin just rolled out a new calendar, so maybe the elusive cycling training plans are next.


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## aguia77 (Aug 14, 2013)

ZmyDust said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I'm brand new to Garmin Connect and the brand in general. My wife just gave me a Garmin Forerunner 110 watch for cycling. I don't think this model is dedicated to cycling so much as it is running, but thats ok, it picks up a ride well enough and gives me a good heart rate reading.
> 
> ...


I don't know if you still experience this problem, but it should show up when you click "explore - training plans". Then you have 3 icons on the left, running, cycling and triathlon. Clicking on cycling gives 1 plan only, century. I wouldn't count on garmin to release more free plans... :\


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## bikershrink (Mar 6, 2013)

Is Garmin expecting folks to make up and then upload their own plans to share?


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

bikershrink said:


> Is Garmin expecting folks to make up and then upload their own plans to share?


If you think about it, a training plan needs a goal. For running, there are a lot of options out there that are pretty standardized...5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, ultra-marathon, etc.

There aren't a whole lot of standardized cycling goals out there. Training for centuries is probably the closest you're going to find. What else do you expect to find on there?


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## aguia77 (Aug 14, 2013)

I've tried to build my own plan on garmin connect, copying a very simple free plan I saw online, but it's not practical. I don't think you can even "save" the whole plan, let alone share it. You can create workouts and then schedule them, but it takes forever to do this for a lot of weeks. If something changes (like shifting the starting date of the plan) you have to re-schedule workout by workout. And you can't re-use it. It's not worth it.

training peaks has a library of mtb training plans suitable to all levels and goals, but it's very expensive... 200$ for a plan you probably will only use once, after you already pay over 100$ for an anual fee for using training peaks... I know you can import garmin center plans to training peaks, but I don't think you can do it the other way arround.

I still think training plans are the way to go for a beginner, for many reasons.


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## ibcoleman (Apr 14, 2012)

Harold said:


> If you think about it, a training plan needs a goal. For running, there are a lot of options out there that are pretty standardized...5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, ultra-marathon, etc.
> 
> There aren't a whole lot of standardized cycling goals out there. Training for centuries is probably the closest you're going to find. What else do you expect to find on there?


Au contraire, mon frere.

https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling-training-plans


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

ibcoleman said:


> Au contraire, mon frere.
> 
> https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling-training-plans


You dug up a 4 year old thread for your first post in FIVE YEARS of being a member of this forum to call me out for inaccurate information because some other company started offering a new feature 4 years after I made my post? Seems to me a more tactful approach would have simply been to share the link and say that it's new.


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## ibcoleman (Apr 14, 2012)

Harold said:


> You dug up a 4 year old thread for your first post in FIVE YEARS of being a member of this forum to call me out for inaccurate information because some other company started offering a new feature 4 years after I made my post? Seems to me a more tactful approach would have simply been to share the link and say that it's new.


Yeah, I found this thread because Garmin still hasn't added any plans other than the Century plan. Should've checked the time stamp. Didn't.

Sorry if I gave you the impression I was calling you out about what Garmin offers; or that I was talking about "some other company starting a new feature".

I was actually responding to your comment that "There aren't a whole lot of standardized cycling goals out there." I just wanted to point out that there are, in fact, an infinite number standardized cycling goals out there. And now the cycling plans to support those goals.

:thumbsup:


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

You seem to be missing the definition of standardized. Sure you can get an infinite number of individualized plans based on any goal, but that isn't what I said


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## ibcoleman (Apr 14, 2012)

Harold said:


> You seem to be missing the definition of standardized. Sure you can get an infinite number of individualized plans based on any goal, but that isn't what I said


Sorry, I must've misunderstood. When you said:



> If you think about it, a training plan needs a goal. For running, there are a lot of options out there that are pretty standardized...5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, ultra-marathon, etc.
> 
> There aren't a whole lot of standardized cycling goals out there. Training for centuries is probably the closest you're going to find. What else do you expect to find on there?


I inferred that you meant "a training plan needs a goal" but that "there aren't a whole lot of standardized cycling goals out there" and that "training for centuries is probably the closest thing [to a standardized cycling goal] you're going to find" vis a vis cycling.

When obviously there are as many cycling goals as there are running goals. You're not going to train for a crit anything like you're going to train for a 40k TT, which is going to be nothing like training for competitive marathon XC.

Anyway, happy riding. :thumbsup:


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## hokeypokey (Mar 8, 2004)

Thanks for sharing that "new" site ... but not free, of course.

Now does anyone know how to upload those to GarminConnect so you can then push them to your Garmin? Or (back to the original point of this thread) - are we stuck w/ only a Century plan for cycling?



ibcoleman said:


> Sorry, I must've misunderstood. When you said:
> 
> I inferred that you meant "a training plan needs a goal" but that "there aren't a whole lot of standardized cycling goals out there" and that "training for centuries is probably the closest thing [to a standardized cycling goal] you're going to find" vis a vis cycling.
> 
> ...


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

ibcoleman said:


> When obviously there are as many cycling goals as there are running goals. You're not going to train for a crit anything like you're going to train for a 40k TT, which is going to be nothing like training for competitive marathon XC.


The key word in EVERYTHING I have been saying is "standardized". Running is so much a "thing" that there are multitudes of "standard" distances. 5k, 5mi, 10k, half marathon, full marathon, 50k and 100k ultra marathons, etc. MTB lacks those sorts of standardized distances. What's a marathon xc race distance? Ehhh, it varies. UCI defines 60-160k among other specific characteristics. So really distance depends on where the race is being run and requires the presence of enough trails to run such an event. There are enough 100-ish mile events that you're most likely to find training plans relevant to that distance.

But what about other distances? Are there standard distances? Again, nope. For races around here, distances depend on the trails where the race is run. Distances vary by class, also. Not really standardized, so there aren't going to be a million plans out in "the wild" that are specifically going to get you ready for that distance.

For example, I raced the Iceman last year for the first time. Just shy of 30mi point to point race, which is a somewhat long xc race and the fact that it's point-to-point instead of a loop makes it somewhat nontraditional. What if I want to train for a race of that distance? I can't just walk into the local shop or bookstore and buy a book that's going to give me a plan to specifically improve my time on a race of that distance.

No, it doesn't work that way for bikes so much. There are plenty of training books out there that are going to address the concept specifically enough that you can see gains, but generally enough that you can apply them to the distance that happens to be your goal.

Services like Trainnerroad and Zwift that offer unique training plans because of the advent of the smart trainer that can use that trainer to create specific conditions to facilitate such specific workouts. Conditions you just can't create on a mtb trail. On a mtb trail, you don't get to specify the length of the interval. The trail dictates it to you in many respects, and that makes specific plans difficult.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

hokeypokey said:


> Now does anyone know how to upload those to GarminConnect so you can then push them to your Garmin?


It doesn't work that way. The Garmin head unit isn't used. Basically, your computer becomes your head unit with a service like trainerroad or zwift. You install an ANT+ USB dongle onto your computer so the computer can read your ANT+ sensors. You take it up a notch if you have a smart trainer, because then the computer can tell the trainer when and to what degree it should adjust the resistance. The training plans live within Trainerroad's software in their entirety. Garmin Connect's plans work differently in that they download to your Garmin head unit and the Garmin head unit reports stats and communicates with your smart trainer (if you have one and a Garmin head unit that supports that protocol). So yeah, there's really nothing TO download.


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