Something that has started popping up on my watch for a bit now is a Suggested Run for the day. I have a Forerunner 245 Music, and based on the YouTube Garmin channel it looks like it has been available since the Fall of 2021 for those of us with that particular watch.

The feature itself has been referenced since some time in 2020, so this may be old news to some of you!

I’m in the middle of training for a half marathon at the moment, so I’ve turned off the feature, but I was using it when I was just running without a race event.

What is it?

The suggested workout for the day is just that.

Your Garmin will give you a workout to do based on your current fitness (which they get from the data on the watch).

Just like the Garmin Coach feature, this is based on you and whatever algorithm is used to decide what your body needs and can handle as a workout to help you become a better runner.

How Did I Use it?

For the most part it was a lot of Base work suggestions and days that I should rest or do active recovery.

Since I hadn’t been doing any training for anything since Covid cancelled most marathons for a while, I was not even close to a “good for me” fitness level.

Even though I knew I had lost a lot of running fitness, it was not fun to have my watch tell me I was needing to play catch up.

I know that when we take off from running, we need to start back where we are. It is tempting to try and jump back in, but never a good idea if the break is longer than a week or 10 days.

Even though I never took totally off, I haven’t been 5 days a week consistent. When I am in training for something, I get my runs in even on vacation. The past year or so when visiting kids or on vacation, I’d still run some…but it was always just as easy not to.

What are the Pro’s?

If you aren’t training for anything at the moment, this can be a great way to have a “plan” that is based on your own data.

The workouts are varied, so you aren’t running the same thing everyday. When we don’t have a plan, it can be easy to go out for 4 miles every day and not change anything up.

Our bodies are amazing with how they can adapt, and doing the same thing all the time means we eventually stop progressing. So even if we don’t have a plan or aren’t training, it is good to have a framework of varied runs. This feature can give us that variation.

The workout suggestion gives you a pace range. Sometimes we don’t give ourselves enough credit for what we can do. Especially if you don’t have a coach, it can be hard to know what paces should be on different runs. Since this is based on your data, the paces suggested are ones you should be able to do.

The “workout” can be as simple as “take a rest day”. Many times we need that nudge to do just that. Again, having something based on our data that tells us to do that can be a big benefit for those of us who tend to do too much.

What are the Con’s?

Since the suggested workout isn’t visible until the day of, it can be hard to know if the run is something you will be able to do that day. My husband has a lot tighter of a time frame and needs to know the night before what time he needs to get up to get the run in before work. Something I am guessing a lot of runners need to know.

So if you get up at 6AM with the expectation you will run for 40 minutes, and the watch suggests an hour and a half…well, that plan goes out the window and then you need to plan a run on the fly.

If you have a bit more flexibility in your schedule that may not be an issue. You can look at the workout when you get up in the morning and plan your run around the time frame.

Runners who go all out may also run into trouble if they should be taking a rest day. The watch may say to run for an hour at a faster pace or do a VO2 max workout.

Those who like to do what a plan tells them no matter what may get injured if (not only with this feature, but any plan) they aren’t in tuned enough to their bodies to know when they need a rest.

Pay attention to the signs that you may need a rest day.

Here are Some “Things to Know”

Keep in mind, these suggested workouts won’t show up right away on a new Garmin. You need to log in some runs and it can take up to a week for the feature to kick in.

When my watch started giving me suggestions, they just popped up one morning. I didn’t toggle it on, so I’m not sure what triggered it. I assume it is an automatic feature, and was maybe introduced to my particular version of watch.

If you have a training plan in your watch…either put there by a coach from Garmin Clipboard or one you have entered in, or any other workout that can be uploaded to the watch…that will take priority over the Daily Suggestion and you won’t be shown that as an option when you go to the Run screen to start a run.

Mini Tutorial

Not super in depth, since I’m not using it at this time

To turn it On : Hit the start button, then hit it again to see “Options”

Select “Workouts” from the Options Menu, and select “Today’s Suggestion”

You can then select the workout, see the steps, select the target type (change the workout goal from pace to heart rate) or “Enable Prompt” which will toggle the feature to automatically suggest a workout every day

To disable the daily prompt, do the same process as above, but select “Disable Prompt”
If you are looking at the workout, you can view the purpose by hitting the down button.

You can look at the workout first thing in the morning using the calendar on your watch as well. Using the down button, scroll through the “widgets” until you find the calendar.

The next few images are some of the steps, so you can see what you are doing before heading out (something I always recommend doing before every workout).

To see the steps, you use the “down” button to scroll through them all.

Finally…

Based on what the watch is suggesting for today, my fitness has definitely improved since I have been “in training”. I like that it is suggesting a more complicated workout than what I had before.

But like I said before, since I already ran a 4 miler this morning, doing a VO2 Max workout would not fit into my current training. Know when to ignore everything but what your body is telling you!