No coding needed. If you're a developer who wants Garmin data in your own app, see Build with Garmin data instead.
Building a structured workout in the Garmin Connect app means a lot of tapping: add a step, pick the type, set the duration, set the target, add a repeat, drag steps into it. For an interval session that's a few minutes; for a strength session with ten exercises, longer.
With the Garmin connector from Part 1, you describe the workout in a sentence instead:
Make me a 6×400 m session at 5k pace with 2-minute jog recoveries, put it on Thursday, and send it to my watch.
This post covers how that works, how to describe workouts so they come out right, and how to change or remove them afterwards.
How it works: nothing is saved until you say so
Every workout goes through the same steps:
- You describe it. In plain words, as detailed or as loose as you like.
- Claude builds a preview. It shows you the workout step by step, with durations, distances and targets. At this point nothing has been saved.
- You check it and confirm (or ask for changes).
- Claude saves it to your Garmin Connect workout library.
- If you asked, it schedules it on your Garmin calendar for the day you named.
- If you asked, it sends it to your watch. The watch picks it up the next time it syncs with the Garmin Connect app on your phone.
Here's what a preview looks like:
Notice the details Claude explains: it turned "4:10/km" into a small range so your watch doesn't beep at every tiny variation, and it points out the last recovery jog runs straight into the cool-down. That's the moment to say "drop the last recovery" or "make the range tighter".
Then on the day, find it on your watch under your workouts or in today's calendar, and start it like any other.
The preview step is built into the connector: Claude is told to show you the workout and wait for your OK before saving anything. If it ever skips straight to saving, say so, and it will stop.
How to describe a workout
You can be loose ("an easy 45-minute run") or exact. The more you specify, the less Claude has to guess.
Running
- "A 6×400 m session at 4:10/km with 2-minute jog recoveries, 15 minutes warm-up and cool-down."
- "A 50-minute tempo run: 15 minutes easy, 20 minutes at 4:45 to 4:55 per km, 15 minutes easy."
- "A 90-minute long run in heart-rate zone 2."
- "Hill repeats: 8 × 90 seconds hard uphill, jog back down to recover."
Targets can be a pace ("4:10/km", "6:40/mile"), a heart-rate zone ("zone 2"), a heart-rate range ("140 to 150 bpm") or cadence. Zones use the zones set up in your Garmin account, so ask "what are my heart-rate zones?" first if you're not sure what they are.
Recovery that ends when you press the lap button works too: "…then recover until I press lap". It's handy for hill repeats or track work where the recovery length varies.
Strength
A 45-minute leg session: 3 rounds of 8 back squats at 60 kg, 10 Romanian deadlifts at 50 kg, and 12 walking lunges, with 90 seconds rest between rounds. Finish with a 60-second plank.
Claude looks each exercise up in Garmin's catalogue of about 1,800 exercises, so each step shows up on your watch with its proper name. If an exercise isn't in the catalogue, Claude usually picks the closest one and tells you, or asks.
Swimming
A pool session in a 25 m pool: 400 m easy freestyle warm-up, then 8 × 100 m freestyle with 15 seconds rest, then 200 m easy.
Always say the pool length. Your watch counts lengths, so it needs to know whether the pool is 25 m, 50 m or 25 yards. Drills (kick, pull) and equipment (paddles, fins, pull buoy) work too.
Cycling, HIIT, yoga and more
Cycling with power zones or watts, HIIT circuits, cardio, yoga, pilates, mobility and rucking all work the same way. So do multi-sport bricks: "A brick: 60 minutes on the bike in zone 2, then a 20-minute run."
One gap: walking and hiking. Garmin has no walking or hiking workout type, so Claude will build those as a "cardio" or "other" workout instead. It records fine; it's just labelled differently on your watch.
Checking the preview
The preview is your chance to catch mistakes before they reach your watch. Check:
- Paces and zones. Is 4:10/km what you meant, or did you mean per mile?
- Rest and recovery. "15 seconds rest" and "15 seconds easy swimming" are different things.
- Repeats. Is it 6 times the 400 m, or 6 times the whole block?
- Weights, for strength.
To change anything, just say it: "Make the recoveries 90 seconds", "Swap the lunges for step-ups". Claude updates the preview, and you check again.
Planning a week
You can ask for several workouts at once:
Plan my next week. I can run Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. I'm about 8 weeks from a half marathon, and my easy pace is around 5:40/km. Tuesday intervals, Thursday tempo, Sunday a long run. Schedule them and send them to my watch.
Claude will usually show you all three previews first, then save and schedule them after you confirm. For a plan like this, it helps to ask Claude to look at your recent training first: "Look at my last four weeks of running before you plan."
If you already follow a Garmin Coach plan, its workouts are on your calendar too. Ask Claude to check the calendar first so it doesn't double-book a day.
Changing and removing workouts
- To change a saved workout: "Change Thursday's tempo run to 25 minutes at tempo pace." This replaces the whole workout, so Claude checks with you first.
- To move it: "Move Thursday's workout to Friday." It removes it from Thursday's calendar and schedules it on Friday.
- To take it off the calendar but keep it: "Unschedule Sunday's long run." It stays in your workout library.
- To delete it: "Delete the 6×400 workout." It's removed from your library for good, so Claude asks before doing it.
Anything that deletes or overwrites data is marked that way in the connector, so Claude asks before doing it. If you ever want to be extra careful, say "don't change anything, just show me".
Troubleshooting
The workout isn't on my watch. It's sent the next time your watch syncs. Open the Garmin Connect app on your phone and sync. Sending the same workout twice is harmless; the second time, Claude may report it was already queued.
Saving fails (EU accounts). If Claude says Garmin refused to save, your account probably hasn't granted upload consent yet. It's a one-time setting in your Garmin Connect account's privacy settings. Grant it, then try again.
A strength exercise shows up blank on the watch. That shouldn't happen through the connector, because exercise names are checked against Garmin's catalogue before saving. If it does, tell Claude which exercise, and report it as an issue on GitHub.
The paces look wrong on the watch. Check the preview again: the most common mix-up is per-km versus per-mile. Ask Claude to show the paces in the unit your watch uses.
What's next
In the last part of this series: making it a habit. A weekly training review you can run with one message, logging weight and other data by chat, and for the more technical, using the same connector from Claude Code to save reports to files and run them on a schedule.
- Set-up guides and example questions: garmin.ficdev.xyz/claude
What workout did you build first? Tell me in the comments, especially if Claude got something wrong. That's how the connector gets better.
Top comments (0)