_ 1. Garmin reps counter (Garmin export)

A long-awaited and exceptionally well-received feature is the introduction of the Garmin reps counter. Since last week, your Garmin tells you the number of reps you’ve executed (for example: 6 out of 10).
It’s a feature that many of you requested for ages, because counting reps during challenging intervals is a PITA. We saw you adopt different counting methods, with the one of switching elastic bands between your left and right wrist as the most striking. From now on, this is no longer needed.

_ 2. A new layer for the pace graph (Peak Pro)

How well did you execute your session? From now on a Peak Pro user will also get a visual on this. We’ve added a ‘planned pace’ layer to the pace graph, which gives you a direct, visual feedback on your session. You can see it as a plotted line of the planned training.

It’s also directly linked to the feedback you get from me: the bigger the area below (lower training load) or above (higher load) the line, the more you deviated from the plan, the likelier the feedback will be a warning message.

_ 3. New margins

A minor adjustment: at this moment I can only attribute one ‘rest’ pace between intervals. While I rarely advise you to walk between intervals, I opted for 12 min/km (walking) to not offend anyone.
Truth is that almost everyone jogs or mixes a jog and a walk (which is perfect!) during rest. That led to a (mathematical) higher training load (12 min/km adds almost no TSS), leading to ‘negative’ feedback on a perfect executed interval session. So, we’ve set a new pace and it’s now at 10 min/km. The aim is to be able to set different rest paces in the future.

And then there’s an adjustment aimed at those using the Garmin export feature. You now get a margin of 10 seconds in plus or minus towards your planned pace (was 5). This broader margin will result in lesser notifications about being out of your pace range.
Trees, buildings, a temporary bad GPS signal: there are different reasons why your Garmin gets it wrong sometimes, you shouldn’t be alerted for this while running at a correct pace.

_ 4. The planning around intermediate goals (Peak Pro)

Important notice: this feature is live, but I haven’t implemented it yet for all possible scenarios. I’ll let you know once I’m ready 😉

Our feature to add intermediate goals (let’s call it a ‘B-race’) wasn’t really up to standards. You could add a B-race, which would lead to an adapted training plan for the week leading up to that race. Problem is that everyone who uses this Peak Pro feature, also uses the ‘set training days’ feature. And the latter feature would override the former. This might’ve resulted in a heavy training session the day before a B-race.
Apart from that, we never took the week after that B-race into account: if the B-race took place on Sunday, you could’ve had an interval training planned the next day.

Now we’ve added the option for me, as your coach, to implement ‘B-race training plan adaptations’. Not the sexiest of terms, but it works like a charm.
Per performance level and per B-race length, I’m now able to design training plans for the week leading up to a B-race and for the week afterwards. With the adjusted taper and recovery period, a B-race will now be seamlessly integrated in your training plan.

_ 5. Conclusion

So, again quite some improvements for you as a runner! This release is the last one before the introduction of our strength training feature. Developments are going smooth and we’ll hopefully start beta testing somewhere next week!