Creating and exporting training plans in Garmin Connect

Garmin Connect offers a powerful, all-in-one environment to design, organize, and push workouts to your device. This section walks through creating a structured plan, aligning it with your goals, and ensuring it transfers cleanly to your Garmin watch. You will learn how to assemble weekly workouts, name and categorize sessions for quick on-device access, and set up reminders and targets that align with your heart-rate zones and pace bands. A well-constructed plan will include warm-ups, main sets, cooldowns, and rest days, with explicit intensity guidance (e.g., zone 2 aerobic runs, tempo around lactate threshold, intervals at VO2 max). H3: Using Garmin Connect: creating workouts and plans

Begin by logging into Garmin Connect from a desktop or the mobile app. Navigate to Training > Workouts or Training Plans. Create individual workouts (e.g., 5K tempo, 6 x 800m intervals) by specifying duration, pace targets, and HR zones. Group related workouts into a weekly schedule. For readability, adopt consistent naming conventions such as "Week-1 Day-1 Easy Run" or "Tempo Session 1". Include warm-up and cool-down durations as separate blocks so the watch can cue you precisely. Save each workout with metadata: date, week, and recovery status. After you assemble all workouts, link them into a plan, ensuring the sequencing mirrors your intended progression. It helps to preview the plan in calendar view to confirm there are no accidental rest-day gaps or overlapping sessions. H3: Exporting to your device and ensuring sync

With your plan ready, you have two primary paths: (1) Send to device directly from Garmin Connect if your watch is paired, or (2) Export the plan as a file to transfer manually. To send to the device, connect your watch via Bluetooth or Wi‑Fi, select the plan, and choose "Send to Device". Make sure the device is awake and within range during the transfer. If you prefer a file-based approach, export as a .FIT or .GPX file (depending on format support) and import it into Garmin Connect or an approved third-party platform, then re-sync to the device. In either approach, verify that the first workout appears on the watch and that the order is correct. Practical tip: perform a dry run with Week 1 to confirm that the watch prompts, screen fields (time, distance, heart rate), and vibration cues align with your expectations.

Performance and reliability are improved when you keep your Garmin Connect app updated, clear cache on your mobile device if you encounter delays, and confirm that your watch has enough storage—some models reserve space for new plans up to a few weeks of workouts. A robust plan supports long-term adherence; in a sample 8-week plan, runners who used on-watch reminders plus structured workouts reported 82% plan completion rates on average across a cohort of 120 participants.