Sure, you can lace up a pair of shoes and wing it for your first marathon, triathlon, or Ironman, but trust: Having a training coach, or at least a tool, that you can rely on really, really helps. After 28 IRONMAN-distance finishes and fifteen years coaching others, GU3 Training founder Doug Guthrie explains why Garmin’s Fēnix watch is his go-to as a training aid.
Everyone starts somewhere, and nowhere is that more true than in the world of competitive athletic competitions. It might seem as if every marathon, Hyrox, Ironman, or triathlon runner was born with a gift for athletics and a muscular build to match, but behind many of the athletes is a great coach — for example, Doug Guthrie, founder of GU3 Training and a USA Triathlon Level 1 coach, as well as a TrainingPeaks Level 2 and US Masters-certified coach.
After all, he was one himself once, too: His endurance journey began in his mid-30s when a less-than-stellar doctor’s report motivated him to make a change. Today, he helps others hit their PRs — and then some.
“I coach a lot of really good athletes, but the vast majority of the people I coach are beginners,” Guthrie says.
“I really like when somebody sets a meeting with me and lays out a one-, two-, or three-year goal,” he adds. “A lot of times it starts with, ‘All right, we’ve got to go find you a bike and get all the equipment,’ and then to see it through to them finishing the goal.”
But if you can’t have a coach physically by your side as you train for a big event, the next best thing is the tech version. Guthrie’s completed 28 IRONMAN-distance races and qualified for the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona six times, so he’s up on the latest tech for training and race day — and has a pro-level understanding of the tools beginners need to start training.
His go-to pick? Garmin’s Fēnix 8.
After professionally coaching for fifteen years, Guthrie believes one of the most useful tools for endurance training and feats wraps snugly around your wrist.
“They all do basically the same things,” he says. “They track all your sleep data, your pace, heart rate and running metrics. You can [even] load maps in.”
Coach-to-watch training
Having the watch isn’t just about tracking your training: It can become the vehicle for the training itself, thanks to the watch’s tech.
“I’m able to do a structured workout for my athletes that they can import into their watch,” Guthrie says. “I use [TrainingPeaks’] platform to deliver my workouts to the athletes. It’s got all the data from the workout session in there. The athlete can look at those. I can look at those. Depending on the athlete and the equipment that they have, I can structure the workout. I have a library of probably close to 10,000 workouts in my library, and they are set up for either heart-rate-based, power-based, or pace-based training.”
Once that workout is uploaded, the Garmin takes charge. “It’ll prompt them: warm-up, main set, if there are intervals, rest intervals, rest period, and then cooldown. The watch just tells them how to do it,” he says. “It’s a tool to help you negotiate the training aspect.”
However, it’s important to Guthrie that he and his athletes remember that the watch is simply a tool — not the point of the workout.
“I think with some athletes, they rely too dependently on the Garmin,” he says. “I have to tell them, ‘Listen, just go out. Leave the watch at home. Just go out and run for an hour and come back.’ They get too wound up in the metrics at times.”
Tiny details make the difference
“The battery life is really great,” he says. “I can do an entire IRONMAN and still have, you know, 80 percent battery, 75 percent battery at the end of the day.”
That means the watch’s little battery is lasting through a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a marathon.
“It charges super quick,” Guthrie says. “Very reliable.”
Another little detail makes getting out the door in the morning — always the hardest part of the workout — a little more frictionless. “The best feature about it? It’s got a flashlight,” Guthrie says. “That was the number-one feature,” he says. “I got the higher-end version because it had that silly flashlight. I use it to get out of my garage or walk through my house and not wake up my kids in the morning. Yeah, it’s great.”
Triathlon athletes and swimmers, however, might want to note that post-workout, their watch requires a little care, too: “The only issue that Garmin watches have is if you use them in the pool too often and you don’t rinse the watch with fresh water after the chlorine, it’ll screw up the altimeter,” Guthrie says. “You’ll do a run around a track, and it’ll show you have 38,000 feet of gain, which is not the case.”
Despite that slight technical mishap (which, if it happens, Guthrie says Garmin’s customer service is excellent), the capabilities of today’s Garmin watches and other training smartwatches are a stark reminder of just how far tech has come for athletes, whether you’re training for your first marathon or an elite sportsperson.
“When I first started, there was no Garmin,” Guthrie says. “I started with an IRONMAN Timex watch, which did have a heart-rate monitor, I do believe. But the first real innovation was the Garmin smartwatch, which was able to track your distance in running.
“It’s something that people nowadays just take for granted because it does so much more than that. But that was the biggest thing: You could leave the house, go on a run and know exactly how far you ran.”
