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Garmin Precursor 265 was the first modern racing watch with which I spent a lot of time – you can read My examination On the way it pushed me to follow all my execution data, for better or for worse. But there are things that, with hindsight, I would have liked to understand better at the start of the trip.
By the way, most of these points apply to everything in the precursor line. This includes Forerunner 570, which replaced the 265 this year, and the Forerunners 255 and 955, which are older models which are always excellent in their work and therefore excellent budget choices. And if you are confused about all these model numbers, I have an explanator that goes in more detail. Basically, the first figure is how fanciful the watch is, and the last two figures tell you how generation it belongs.
Why he has so many dang buttons
The 265 (and other recent precursors) seem to have too many pimples. What do we need five Among them for, when we do most things on the touch screen anyway? Garmin Vivo The line is done with only two, just as the Coros Pace 3 and Pace Prowho all have the same main functions as the 265.
But as soon as I saw the previous generation – the precursor 255 – I understood it. The 265 is held on the giant shoulders because the Forersner 2xx series has long been loved by the runners. Remember when Strava reported That the 235, then an eight -year -old watch, was the most popular race watch in the world?
The 255 and his ancestors did not have a touch screen, and they did not have demonstrations either. They used a “light” button at the top left to light the backlight so that you can read their MIP screen in the dark, and two buttons below (“UP” and “Down”) to scroll the menu options. And once you have five buttons, why not give them additional functions? A long pressing the Light button now lifts a shortcut menu, a long press on the “UP” button lifts parameters and a long pressing the lower button can reveal your musical controls.
Once you know what buttons are used – or attribute your own shortcuts, which you can do in the settings – they are quite practical.
Why he thinks I need so many time of “recovery”
After each training session, the 265 (and many other boys) will tell you how many hours of recovery that he thinks he needs. This gives the impression that you should rest until the time has passed – so if I have a 24 -hour recovery time, I should wait until my next training. Makes sense, because I was probably going to do it anyway.
But sometimes, after a hard effort, the watch will give me a recovery time of, let’s say, 78 hours. Am I really not supposed to run again for so long? Not even an easy race?
This is not what it means, of course. Like Garmin explainThe recovery time is time until you will benefit to the maximum the other just as hardening. So, if I had an hour of brutal track intervals, I will not get a lot of profits from the same training session tomorrow. I could Go ahead and make an easy race tomorrow and plan another track session in a few days.
In other words, the time of “recovery” is to know how long you need to wait before doing another very hard training, not before you can train at all.
Daily suggested training sessions should only be taken as suggestions
Daily suggested training sessions are a large characteristic of the precursor 265 and several other Garmin watches. DSW, as I call them, I live on the watch and cannot be accessible directly from the Garmin Connect application, at least in theory.
What do you think so far?
There is a “Garmin Coach” feature that you can set up in the application, which works in the same way as the DSW, offering you a training session every day depending on what he thinks he needs. The factors that go to this area include your recovery and the races you have on your calendar. I have more here on the different types of Garmin training plans and how to choose one.
I love the DSW when I do not know what the race does one day given, or if I know that I want a certain type of training but I do not want to conceive it myself. But I do not follow them, for two reasons.
The first is that you cannot plan DSW. You might see that Saturday is supposed to be a seven -mile race, but then you wake up to find that it was gone to a two -thousand recovery race because you did not sleep so well. These days, go there anyway, and don’t worry about what Garmin says. Or preview the next training sessions (under Training > Training sessions > Daily suggestions) and choose a future training that speaks to you. Most likely, the long -term missing was exchanged around Sunday, so you can simply select it from the menu and run it a day earlier.
The other problem is that, without long -term planning, you do not know if the DSW will prepare you for the race for which you train. Garmin’s forums and sureddits are full of people who get closer to their marathon date and have not yet had long races. You need The mileage is ready for a long distance race, both in terms of long shopping and your total weekly workload.
If you want to use Garmin training sessions to train for a long race, do a favor and take a proven marathon plan, as One of them Hal HigdonAnd use it as verification of reality. Make sure you get a similar amount of mileage every week, whether your Garmin tells you or not.
You can download fairly soft watch faces
I do not know why I spent so long using the faces of the original watch, even if I found them a little boring. The 265 does not have as much color options for them as the subsequent watches like the 570, so there is only a handful of designs and a handful of color options (mainly neon) to choose.
But if you are ready to venture into the Connect IQ StoreYou have more options. It seems a little summary if you buy a watch face-the payment is not managed directly via the platform, but there are real gems in there, including some that are made by Garmin and some who are free or have a free version. Around Christmas, I went for This cheese crownAnd my favorite everyday is Great With the blue theme. This is the one you can see in the photo above, and unlike most third-party faces, it can show all my favorite complications, including the weekly race mileage, which I have at the bottom.
