Garmin Edge 500 advise

Gavin Cook

I have just bought myself a Garmin Edge 500. Have you any advise or tips to get me started with a more structured training plan for both time trials and road racing ?
Thanks

Pokerface

The Garmin won't really help you with that a whole lot - unless you have a powermeter of some sort to go with it?

But in general - you will want to do some intervals. 2 x 20 mins at 90% Max HR to help with road racing and 4 x 5 mins @ 95% max HR to help with TTing. Rest in between sets (8-10 mins).


Or do a search on the forum for training tips - there are loads on here.

Gavin Cook

Thanks Pokerface

freehub

I can't offer much adviCe but does the 500 not have functions for intervals and all that like the 605/705?

Gavin Cook

Not really sure if it has functions for intervals freehub ??

Pokerface

Sure. It's called a 'lap' button

16simon

Pokerface wrote:

The Garmin won't really help you with that a whole lot - unless you have a powermeter of some sort to go with it?

But in general - you will want to do some intervals. 2 x 20 mins at 90% Max HR to help with road racing and 4 x 5 mins @ 95% max HR to help with TTing. Rest in between sets (8-10 mins).

Hmmm... are you the famous coach Bobby Clamp by any chance? These seem unnecessarily brutal.

For TTing, ride a 10m TT with the Garmin to get your average HR (club events that are held in the evening and don't require entry in adavance are good for this) which will be your threshold HR. Train 5-10BPM under this, it will improve your ability to clear lactic acid and boost your threshold.

Pokerface

16simon wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

The Garmin won't really help you with that a whole lot - unless you have a powermeter of some sort to go with it?

But in general - you will want to do some intervals. 2 x 20 mins at 90% Max HR to help with road racing and 4 x 5 mins @ 95% max HR to help with TTing. Rest in between sets (8-10 mins).

Hmmm... are you the famous coach Bobby Clamp by any chance? These seem unnecessarily brutal.

For TTing, ride a 10m TT with the Garmin to get your average HR (club events that are held in the evening and don't require entry in adavance are good for this) which will be your threshold HR. Train 5-10BPM under this, it will improve your ability to clear lactic acid and boost your threshold.

I ride a TT over threshold (as it's shorter). I believe you have to do efforts above threshold in order to improve. Constantly riding under threshold just gets you good at riding under threshold - it won't help push the threshold up.

paggnr

The 500 is fine for interval training. You just setup the interval workout in Garmin Training Centre (or other compatable SW) and load it into you 500.

freehub

Pokerface wrote:

Sure. It's called a 'lap' button

No it's not. It's called Menu/Training/Workouts/Interval.

It gives a choice, such as; Dist/Rest Time, Dist/Rest Dist, Time/ Rest Time and Time/Rest Dist.

These mean you don't need to keep an eye on timers or lap buttons.

willbevan

the workout function on the garmins is great, you can access it as freehub mentions.

Benefit of the 605/705 is that you can do 'advanced' workouts, which I absolutely lov.

Rathe than based on time/distance, you can create workouts based on cadence, power, hr, time, distance, speed, calories...

For example, the below details some of the features you could use.

1. 5 min warmup with a cadecne of 95-110rpm (it alerts you if you are out of it)
2. 3 mins at 90-95% Functional Threshold Power (again alerts you if your out of it)
3. Recover until your HR drops below 110bpm (Automcially laps and moves you to the next step WHEN your HR drops below 110bpm)
4. Repeat steps 2-3.. 4 times (repeats the steps as mentioned)
5. 5 min cooldown with a cadecne of 95-110rpm (it alerts you if you are of that cadence zone)

Cheers

Will

Gavin Cook

Thanks all

paggnr

Benefit of the 605/705 is that you can do 'advanced' workouts, which I absolutely lov.

Rathe than based on time/distance, you can create workouts based on cadence, power, hr, time, distance, speed, calories...

For example, the below details some of the features you could use.

1. 5 min warmup with a cadecne of 95-110rpm (it alerts you if you are out of it)
2. 3 mins at 90-95% Functional Threshold Power (again alerts you if your out of it)
3. Recover until your HR drops below 110bpm (Automcially laps and moves you to the next step WHEN your HR drops below 110bpm)
4. Repeat steps 2-3.. 4 times (repeats the steps as mentioned)
5. 5 min cooldown with a cadecne of 95-110rpm (it alerts you if you are of that cadence zone)

You can do the same on the 500, just not straight on the device.

rich164h

Is there somewhere that you can download garmin workouts? I know they might need to be tweaked to apply individual MHR etc but it would be a good starting point.

StuBradley

Download Garmin Training Centre from here:

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download ... jsp?id=835

and then input your workouts and send them to your device, for example you could input the workout that is mentioned previously and then send it, its very easy to use and there are some workouts already in the training centre that you can send to your 500

willbevan

paggnr wrote:

You can do the same on the 500, just not straight on the device.

I stand corrected, could of sworn when they first released it, it was not a feature unless they have done an update to enable it.

Hmm interesting, edge 800 listed on garmin:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=160&pID=69043

Just no details!