But in the winter, when I'm stuck inside training on my bike, I tend to play with my gadgets a bit more.
Now Garmin sports devices come with software called Training Center. This software has some really nice features when using it with the Garmin.
The main one I want to talk about today is the Workouts. If you haven't used this, give it a shot.
I've never used this feature outdoors and not sure that I would bother.
But indoors, it is fantastic!
Why? Because you can set up your workout using the Training Center Software, download it to your Garmin Device, then run the workout when you are on your Bike trainer in the basement watching TV.
Why? Because if you're really tired of using those Training DVDs, you can program the exact same workout into your Garmin and watch 24 or a full length movie and just let your Garmin tell you what to do next.
So how does it work? It's pretty easy, but let me screen scrape one of my workouts and I'll explain how I workout against it....
For this workout (I call it Strength/Speed), I do 2 mins in Heartrate zone 1, 5 minutes in HR2, and 3 mins in HR3 (ok, the graphic doesn't show all of that, but trust me it's there and it does show up on your Garmin). After that warmup, I rest for 2 minutes then go to a big/hard gear keeping my Cadence between 60 and 70 for 3 minutes. I do this 8 times, then I move to the fast feet, where I rest for a minute and kick the cadence up to 100-110 for 2 minutes - I do this 6 times. Then I do a cool down.
Piece of cake! The Garmin beeps at me when it is time to change, and tells me if I'm going to fast or slow. You can set this up for Cadence, Speed, HR, Distance. (You need to add extra Garmin hardware to do all of this - or you can just go by Heart Rate or use the cyclometer and go by time).
So set up some nice workouts on your Garmin and watch something good on TV instead of following those boring training videos!
Next Time - Garmin Training Partner
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