How to tell your coach about your goal

Give your coach the basics: what you want to work towards, the training you enjoy and the time you really have.

Before you start

• About ten minutes. This is the single biggest upgrade you can give your coach.
• Your resting and maximum heart rate, if you know them.

Step by step

1. On the home screen, tap Performance Questionnaire in the grid.
2. Tap any row to answer it. Pick an option, or type your own answer.
3. Every box has a mic, so you can speak your answer instead.
4. Long boxes also have a camera. Photograph a page of handwritten notes and it turns into text.
5. Short on patience? Each section has its own Grill me. It asks the questions like a conversation and fills in the answers for you. You see what it filled in before it saves.
6. Find the heart rate zone card. Type your resting and max heart rate, then tap Calculate zones. Your five training zones fill in straight away.
7. Got a Garmin? One tap fills in your resting heart rate from your latest data.
8. Add the details that shape your week: a school run, shift work, days you can't train, any niggles.
9. There's no save button to find. Everything saves by itself about two seconds after you change it, and straight away when you leave.

Try this

Where it goes wrong

• Treating it as a one-off. Life changes: a new goal, more time, a niggle gone. Come back and update it. Your plans follow straight away.
• Leaving boxes empty. Empty boxes matter too. Turn on Interrogation in Settings and your coach asks a few quick questions a day until the picture is complete.
• Letting Garmin fill your max heart rate. The app never does this on purpose. Your watch's “daily max” is far lower than your true max. Type your real one, or calculate it.
• Being vague. “Sore left Achilles after hill sessions” makes plans avoid stacking hills and makes your coach watch that leg. “Sometimes sore” teaches it nothing. There are no wrong answers, only honest ones.

Check it worked

• Reopen the questionnaire. Your answers are still there.
• Your five heart rate zones are filled in.
• Your goal and available days are right before you build a plan.