🎯 The Final Test – May 28, 2025
After 17 weeks, I completed the final race of the Garmin Coach 5K Adaptive Training Plan.
- 🕐 Time: 21:50
- 📉 Pace: 4:21 / km
- 🫀 Average HR: 181 (down from 187 in my previous peak cycle)
- 💥 Effort rating: 9/10 – something I’ve only ever marked twice before.
Splits & HR:
- 1 km – 4:21 / HR 173
- 2 km – 4:22 / HR 182
- 3 km – 4:22 / HR 184
- 4 km – 4:23 / HR 185 (minor wall)
- 5 km – 4:18 / HR 185 – strong finish, 150m sprint
It was my 100th run in the plan, and it broke my previous 5K record by 8 seconds.
Small progress? Maybe. But hard-earned.
📈 The Bigger Picture – What This Plan Really Was
This was not just a plan — it was a grind.
From Feb 5 to May 28, I ran:
- 🏃♂️ 100 runs
- 📏 699.7 kilometers
- 🧠 Average HR: 146 bpm
- 🧱 A full base built brick by brick.
At the same time, I was also following Calimove Advanced — a demanding strength program.
Eventually, I shifted to a 10-day microcycle for Calimove instead of 7 days, because the combination of long runs, VO2max efforts, and high-volume work was simply too much.
Despite that? I never overtrained.
Unlike in 2024, I didn’t feel smashed or drained. Quite the opposite — I felt powerful and under control.
⚙️ Pragmatism Over Prestige
I run 5Ks not because they’re easy — but because they’re efficient. I have limited time. I want results.
I’m not chasing marathons. That mindset often leads to testosterone crashes, chronic fatigue, and false pride.
Long runs of 15–17 km? I disliked them, but I completed them.
The 10+ km sessions? Frequent and heavy.
The fatigue? Constant. Fresh legs were a rare luxury.
This plan pushed volume relentlessly — partly due to a setup mistake.
The system asked when I was available to run… I checked every day.
As a result: almost daily running. Brutal.
✅ What Worked
- Truly adaptive – adjusted for flights, illness, and under-recovery.
- Resilient engine – I now cruise through long runs without issue.
- Aerobic base built – slow paces, low HR, smooth efforts.
- I ran on hilly terrain with 2–3 inclines — not structured hill sprints, but it helped fill the gap.
- I had a full-blown cold during the PEAK phase, and still kept going — my body shut it down fast.
❌ What Didn’t
- Sprinting and uphill runs were completely missing.
I ran hills occasionally, but they were not structured efforts — a major gap in the plan. - Pace alerts made me overtrain early on:
base runs became tempo, tempo became threshold, threshold became VO2max.
I fixed that from Week 2 in the Build phase. - Volume was just too high for freshness. Most days, I felt heavy-legged.
🧪 Physiological Gains
- Resting HR dropped from 44 → 40 bpm, with several days at my lifetime best: 39.
- HRV consistently hit 120–130, peaking at 138 on two occasions — a new high.
- These gains weren’t random — I really took care of recovery:
- Smart supplementation
- High-quality diet
- Sleep optimization
- Low-stress daily structure
🔚 Final Thoughts
This cycle wasn’t designed to be “fun.”
It was about discipline, volume, and surviving with intelligence.
- I didn’t skip.
- I didn’t burn out.
- I didn’t follow my ego into injury.
I followed structure, watched signals, and respected adaptation.
I might revisit this plan — but only at 3x/week. That way, I keep the benefits without the wear.
The final time doesn’t matter.
What matters is that I finished 100 runs knowing exactly why.
— Olimp 🏃♂️