Garmin Custom Workouts

If you have a Garmin watch, one of the nice features is being able create custom workouts. When you start a custom workout on your watch that has steps and goals, the watch will guide you through each step and ensure you stay on target by beeps or vibration. This is a big help for interval workouts with challenging goals, or if you need to be reminded to warm up and cool down. No more looking at your watch constantly, just wait for the watch to beep to tell you when your recovery interval is over.

You can design these custom workouts in the SportTracks Calendar page, then send them to your Garmin watch. If you're new to SportTracks, first check out these tutorials on creating planned workouts:

• Planned Workouts Part 1
• Planned Workouts Part 2
• Structured Workout Plans

Now that you've got a planned workout you'll want to send it to your watch. An excellent way to do this is to enable our Garmin Training Integration, which automatically sends planned workouts in your SportTracks calendar to your watch or bike computer. You can also manually load your workout by selecting the "More..." button and clicking Export to FIT. If you have an older watch (pre 2010 era) you can also export to TCX:

Directions for uploading a custom workout to your Garmin depend on the model. See one of the two sections below:

For watches you plug directly into your computer by USB (Windows)

1. When you create a workout in your SportTracks Calendar, you may want to give it an original name so it’s easy to identify later
2. Plug your watch into your computer
3. Select the Export: FIT option in the planned workout
4. Select the option to save the file
5. Navigate to the watch drive that appeared when you plugged the watch in
6. Open the Garmin/NewFiles folder
7. Save the file

When you unplug the watch you should see the workout available under the Workouts > Custom menu option (varies by watch model).

For watches you plug directly into your computer by USB (Mac)

1. When you create a workout in your SportTracks Calendar, you may want to give it an original name so it’s easy to identify later.
2. When you’ve finished creating the workout, click the More... button in the bottom left corner of the box.
3. Choose Export:FIT from the pop-up menu.
4. The FIT file will then be downloaded to your computer. If you gave your workout an original name, it will be used in the name of the file.
5. Connect your Garmin to your computer via USB.
6. When the watch is connected, you can access its contents by opening a new Finder window. Your watch will show up on the left side of the Finder window with the name GARMIN.
7. Click on GARMIN in your Finder window, and scroll down so you can see the WORKOUTS folder.
8. Open a second Finder window, and locate the FIT file you created in your Downloads folder.
9. Click on the FIT file that you created and drag it over to the WORKOUTS folder in the other Finder window that you have open.
10. Eject your Garmin from your computer (this is done by dragging its icon from your desktop to the trash, or by clicking on the Eject icon in the Finder window.
11.  After you remove your watch from the computer, it will go into an UPDATING mode. Wait patiently for your watch to complete updating.
12. You can find the custom workout that you created in your watch by going into the activity profile of the workout (Run, Bike, etc.), then scrolling to and selecting the Training screen, then selecting My Workouts, then scrolling and selecting the name of your workout.

For watches using ANT+ or wireless connection (Windows)

1. Select the Export: FIT option in the planned workout
2. Select the option to save the file
3. Type %appdata% into the folder navigation box and hit the ENTER key
4. Open the Garmin/Devices folder
5. Open the Unit ID (should be 10 numbers) folder
6. Open the NewFiles folder
7. Save the file
8. Make sure Garmin Express transfers data to the watch. You may need to click the Sync button on your device in Garmin Express and watch the transfer screen for progress

After transfer is complete you should see the workout available under the Workouts > Custom menu option (varies by watch model).

For watches using ANT+ or wireless connection (Mac OSX)

1. Select the Export: FIT option in the planned workout
2. Select the option to save the file
3. Click Go from the Menu bar
4. Press and hold the Option key on the keyboard
5. Click Library
6. Open Applications Support
7. Open the Garmin/Devices folder
8. Open the Unit ID (should be 10 numbers) folder
9. Open the NewFiles folder
10. Save the file
11. Make sure Garmin Express transfers data to the watch. You may need to click the Sync button on your device in Garmin Express and watch the transfer screen for progress

After transfer is complete you should see the workout available under the Workouts > Custom menu option (varies by watch model).