Five ways to use Garmin Coach on your watch
Whether you’re focusing on running, cycling, triathlon, strength training or overall fitness, Garmin Coach has your back.
You don’t always know what to do next when you’re training. You’ve got a goal in mind — maybe you want to finish a race, set a PR or improve your fitness — but you don’t quite know how to get there.
That’s where Garmin Coach comes in.
When you sign up for Garmin Coach in the Garmin Connect™ app, you’ll get a free custom plan to improve your fitness, train for an event or reach a personal milestone. With options for runners, cyclists, triathletes, strength training and overall fitness, select smart training plans adapt based on your recovery and performance metrics from your compatible Garmin smartwatch or cycling computer.
Here’s how they break down.
1: Garmin Coach for runners
Ready to train for your first 5K or half marathon? Garmin Coach has your back with two options for runners (both are adaptive and adjust to how you perform). Runners can choose between plans from professional running coaches and adaptable plans from Garmin Run Coach.
Training plans from experts: If you’re looking for professional help for your running plan, you’ll find it here. Select your race goal, running level and one of three experienced coaches to serve as your personal guide: Olympian and best-selling author Jeff Galloway, physiologist and online running coach Greg McMillan, or physical therapist and running expert Amy Parkerson-Mitchell. These workouts adjust based on your performance.
Garmin Run Coach: With compatible Garmin smartwatches, you can use Garmin Run Coach to adapt your training to your individual health metrics. Select an end date or goal and the days you want to train, and Garmin Run Coach will build a personalized training plan that adjusts to your performance, recovery and health metrics. It factors in metrics, including your VO2 max1, lactate threshold, training history and more. Plus, if you enter your race and course information, Garmin Run Coach will make sure the training plan gets you ready for that specific race. If you’re training for multiple races, you can set one as your primary event and Garmin Run Coach will keep you on track.
2: Garmin Coach for cyclists
Preparing for a gran fondo or want to boost your endurance for those long weekend rides with friends? We’ve got you. Garmin Coach training plans for cyclists — including prebuilt plans and Garmin Cycling Coach — can help you crush your next goal.
Prebuilt cycling plans: Cyclists of any skill level can use our prebuilt cycling plans. These focus on distance (including 100 miles, 75+ miles and 100 kilometers) or ride-type goals (short race, time trial or mountain biking).
Garmin Cycling Coach: Have a goal with a deadline? Looking to reach a personal milestone or improve your fitness? Whether that’s a specific race, your longest ride or increasing your VO2 max, Garmin Cycling Coach adapts as you progress and provides personalized workouts to keep you on track. This adaptive training plan helps optimize your fitness and prepares you for your goal. Garmin Cycling Coach will take into account your training status, training load and load focus, VO2 max, recovery time and recently completed workouts in order to adapt your training and help you peak in time for your event.
If you sign up for multiple events in a year, you can choose one as a primary event. Garmin Cycling Coach will keep you on track for other events on your calendar while still focusing on the primary event. To get the full benefit of this plan, you’ll need a compatible Garmin Edge® cycling computer, a heart rate monitor or compatible Garmin smartwatch, and power meter. Plus, when you track your health off the bike with a compatible Garmin smartwatch, you’ll get smarter training recommendations.
3: Garmin Coach for triathletes
You’re a multisport athlete ready to take your training to the next level. But figuring out how to balance training for three sports at once is challenging. How much time do you need to spend cycling, running or in the pool? How do you work in two-a-days? Should you try brick workouts? Garmin Triathlon Coach has the answers (and Garmin products for triathletes can help too).
Garmin Triathlon Coach: This adaptive program is designed to help you maximize your performance with swimming, cycling and running workouts. Garmin Triathlon Coach emphasizes balance and smart training progressions, while considering sleep quality1, recovery needs and your overall fitness. This program can help you train for a variety of triathlon formats, including sprint, standard, and half or middle triathlon distances, as well as for multiple events in a year. Don’t have a specific event targeted yet? Garmin Triathlon Coach can still help you stay in shape with general triathlon-oriented workouts. You can also add gym and bodyweight — or bodyweight-only — strength workouts to your plan that sync with your swim-bike-run schedule.
4: Garmin Coach for strength training
Maybe you’ve always been a bit of a gym rat, but you’re looking for a new strength routine focused on lifting heavy. Or maybe you’re new to working out and want to get stronger but only want dumbbells or bodyweight exercises. Enter Garmin Coach for strength training.
Garmin Coach strength training plans: These adaptable plans can help you increase strength, build muscle or get fitter. It will provide recommendations based on your goals, the muscles you want to target and your available equipment.
5: Garmin Coach for improving your fitness
If you like variety when it comes to getting fit, consider Garmin Fitness Coach. You don’t have to focus just on running, cycling or strength. Instead, you can choose from more than two dozen activities, including several for running and cycling, as well as elliptical, stair stepper, cross country skiing, rowing, boxing, HIIT and more. This training plan recommends daily cardio activities based on duration and heart rate. These workout suggestions adapt based on your activity history, sleep and recovery. That means, for example, if you get a great night of sleep, it may deliver a tougher workout suggestion. In the Garmin Connect app, you can see a progress report that shows the average weekly and total for calories, time and intensity minutes. It also shows a breakdown of the activities you’ve completed, training load and more. Plus, you can add optional strength-specific training sessions to this plan.
We can’t promise a victory, but we can help you push yourself to get there. Learn more about Garmin Coach and browse our full collection of fitness smartwatches to start your training journey today.
1See Garmin.com/ataccuracy
