Feb 07, 2017

Genius Wrist + SportTracks

Wirelessly send custom workouts from SportTracks to your Garmin

Wouldn't it be great to make custom workouts in SportTracks and have them sent to your Garmin wirelessly without having to connect with a USB cable? Thanks to our new partnership with Genius Wrist, this is now possible!

Last month we announced the ability to create structured workouts in SportTracks and export them as FIT files (so you could then load them on to your Garmin via USB). With today's announcement, if you have an active Genius Wrist account, you can now ignore your USB cable until it's time to charge. 

Genius Wrist is a software company that makes Garmin Connect IQ apps, and the app that you need to take advantage of this integration is called Workout Builder.

This is how it works: you create custom workouts in the SportTracks calendar, then you open the Workout Builder app on a compatible Garmin watch, then you go into the settings of that app and select Online Sync. A few seconds later your custom workouts magically appear in your watch, and they're ready for action.

How to get this running...

1) Install Workout Builder

Because different Garmin watches have different attributes, there are separate versions of Workout Builder for different watch models. Here are the links you need:

2) Link your watch to the Genius Wrist website

You need an account at the Genius Wrist website in order to use this SportTracks integration. Genius Wrist charges an annual subscription of $8 USD. You can it try for a full month, and if you decide that it isn't something you want, you can get an immediate refund with the click of a button:

You can easily create a Genius Wrist account here, and then link your app here.

3) Authorize link between Workout Builder and SportTracks

From the Workout Builder page on the Genus Wrist website, you should see a section where you can authorize the link with SportTracks:

Making the magic happen...

After you’ve got that set up, create a few custom workouts in your SportTracks Calendar. It may be helpful to give them unique names so they're easier to identify in your watch (example name: 02/16/17 Pace Intervals). When you’re done, you don’t need to export them as FIT files. Instead, do this:

1) Launch the Workout Builder app on your watch.

2) After the app launches, access the settings of the Workout Builder app. Depending on the model of watch you have, this is achieved with different button pushes:

  • 230, 235 and 735XT: Hold the up button for three seconds
  • 630: Press menu button at the bottom of the watch display
  • 920: Press the bottom left button for three seconds
  • Vívoactive: Press menu button at the bottom right of the watch display 
  • Vívoactive HR: Hold the bottom right button for three seconds
  • Fenix: Hold the middle left button for three seconds

3) Select the Online Sync option from the settings menu.

4) When the sync is complete, go into the settings of the Workout Builder app again and choose Select Workout.

5) The custom workouts you created are now accessible in your watch!

6) Use the Workout Builder app to execute your workout.

If you create multi-step structured workouts, the Workout Builder app will guide you through your plan as it's happening. I recently completed a pace interval run with Workout Builder, and the app would notify me to speed up when I fell below my desired pace range. The app never needed to tell me to slow down, however. ;) There's a lot more Workout Builder can do, so it's definitely worth checking out.

We sincerely hope you enjoy this new integration! If you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear them in the Comments section below...  

Article written by Sam Mallery, Director of Marketing, Zone Five Software Inc.

Comments

works till "Online Sync", then I get an Error: 500

Hi Dieter,

Please contact us using http://www.geniuswrist.com/Home/Contact

Don't forget to login into the website before sending the message, so we can have more information on your account and device model to help you figure out what is going on.

Cheers!

We figured out what is going on; you are running a very outdated version of the app on your watch. Just update to the latest version!

Structured workouts on the Vivoactive? What? This is like the holy grail for VA users. Can you tell us a little more before I dive in? Specifically:

Is this an app that I use in place of the standard running/cycling apps?

How do they work on the vivoactive? Vibration alerts signal the change in workout and then high/low metrics (i.e pace too fast, HR too high etc) are also vibration triggered?

I have power connected to my VA via the Stryd footpod. Can I do power based workouts using this app?

Appreciate the info, this is really great news if it works as described.

Hi Bri,

Yes, it is a replacement app.

The app supports alerts and the vibration patterns, and sounds are different for every type of alert. That means most of the time you don't need to look at the watch to know what is going on.

Currently, the app does not support STRID, but it does a lot of things the STRID app can't do. So this is a matter of deciding what is more important in each of your workouts.

Give it a try. You have nothing to lose. We have a 30 days money back guarantee policy .

I strongly suggest you take a look at:
http://www.geniuswrist.com/WorkoutBuilder/About
for a detailed description of everything, the app can do.

Hi Robinson - This looks great, thanks for the detailed response. If it's possible to add the ability to use the Stryd power meter going forward (I see that the app already has power meter support - presumably for cycling), that would be a huge bonus because I could create power-based workouts on the Vivoactive, as well as alerts, etc based on Power which is currently not possible on the VA.

The standard Garmin Running App supports Stryd so maybe it's possible to add to your app as well through the same channels.

Of course, that is on the Roadmap, but the list of ideas is huge!!! :D
I cannot specify when it will be available.

Apologies, I followed the navigation to the following link and all of my above questions were answered there. This looks really promising, I will definitely be trying the app out:

http://www.geniuswrist.com/WorkoutBuilder/About#datafields