Anyone Have Success with the Garmin 800 in Training Mode?
Hi Nation!
I tried this uploading my workout from Training Center to my Edge 800 on an outdoor ride this weekend. Man, that 800 is a wicked mistress! She was constantly beeping: Too high, too low, just right…. repeat. Ohhhh I wanted to slap her! I finally gave up, reset and went from memory.
Has anyone uploaded or input a workout and used it with any success? A few deets: I have it set to average every three seconds and the range was about 10 watts. I wonder if changing the setting to average every 10 seconds would help or if there is something else I’m missing. Also, under Training>Alerts>Power Alert both Max and Min are set to “off” off so I think this is a problem specific to using an actual training range, if that make sense.
As someone who considers herself kind of a Gadget Girl I am wholly disappointed in myself at being unable to figure this out. I am using it with much success in running with my 310XT and really hoping to carry this feature to the 800 so I’m not cycling around with a little wad of sweaty paper tucked in my shorts. Very low on the coolness factor, I’m sure Rich would point out. And it’s 2011 for cryin’ out loud!!!
Hanging head in shame and thanks for any insight you can provide! 
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Comments
I do use workouts all the time on the edge 500 and edge 800. Instead of using target ranges I program everything by time and just name the interval with the target watts. This way it does all the marking of intervals for me and when it beeps is shows me what the target is. All I have to do is hold that target until the next beep.
In other words I would program a workout like this:
1. Warm up until I press lap button
2. Time based interval for 20' with no hr/power/distance target but I name the interal as "XXX for 20'"
3. Time interval for 5' with title as "Recover for 5'"
4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as many times as need.
5. Cool down until I press lap button
Works great for me and I can assign them to days on the calendar so at 0 dark 30 in the morning all I have to do is press start today's workout.
FWIW, while doing an internal I watch real time watts and lap average watts on the same screen at the same time (along with the lap time). This way I can come in as close to the target for the full interval without ever spiking the watts to high or low.
@ Matt - Yay!!!!! This is worthy of a “Real Men of Genius” nomination and will work perfectly for me. I see you get precisely what I’m trying to accomplish. The issue here isn’t actually holding the prescribe watts, it’s knowing what to do and for how long. Having the gadget beep at to say when to shift gears (literally) will help me keep my eyeballs on the road. I already have it uploaded to test out during my indoor ride tomorrow – VERY exciting!
Thank you so kindly!
Three words of warning, however. First, if you have a workout programmed, it might turn off the auto-pause feature. At least the 705 seems to turn it off. If your outside rides don't have stops, that isn't a problem, but if you need to stop during an interval, and it's not a rest section, you have to remember to hit the "stop" button, and start it again when you resume. I have forgotten this a couple of times, and it really skews the data.
Second, when you use a programmed workout, you really can't pull the rip cord if something goes wrong -- adjusting on the fly from a 2x20 to 1x20 and 2x10 is almost impossible. Sometimes, I break up intervals because of descents or when I just plain can't do it, and it's really hard to do that with a programmed workout. You have to either ignore the device entirely or stop the workout, which creates a problem because then you might have to upload 2 workouts rather than 1.
Third, using Matt's suggestion (which I do, by the way), at the beginning you have to remember not to hit the lap button until you are ready for the first real interval. More than once, I have been riding my 5-10 minutes easy to start, and then when I was ready for standard warmup set, hit the lap button. When you are expecting to do 1-2 minutes at a Z3 effort, having the computer tell you to start 20 minutes at Z4 or 2.5 minutes at Z5 can be a shock (and there is no way to fix it unless you abort and start again). If you do the same warmup set every time, you could just program it in too, but I do different warmups depending on time available and how I feel. This isn't a big deal, just something to keep in the back of your mind, so you don't get surprised.
@ Michael. Wow - Excellent information and duly noted on the caveats!