Send workouts to your athlete's Garmin and get the session back
Updated:
The coach writes the plan, the athlete trains with a Garmin watch, and the result has to come back to the coach. Without an integration that loop means files, screenshots and retyping. In EasyTrackly the Garmin Connect connection works both ways: the planned workout goes down to the athlete's watch, and the completed session comes back to the calendar you see as a coach. This page explains exactly what flows in which direction, what the athlete does, what you do - and where the limits are.
What flows where
From EasyTrackly to the watch
A published workout with steps lands in the athlete's Garmin Connect calendar on the same date and reaches the watch at its next sync. Runs, rides and swims built from steps - warm-up, intervals, recoveries, repeats - go to the watch, and so does every strength workout. The athlete picks the workout on the watch, which then guides them step by step: it shows the pace, heart rate or power target and counts the repeats.
A workout with only a description and no steps stays in the app calendar - the watch does not get it. A draft does not go to the watch either: sending starts the moment you publish.
From the watch to EasyTrackly
The completed session comes back to the calendar by itself after the watch syncs with the Garmin app on the phone - usually within minutes. The athlete uploads no files. You see the route, laps, pace, heart rate, power and cadence, and the app calculates time in zones and training load from them. When a plan in the same sport is waiting on the same day, the athlete gets a suggestion to match the activity to the plan.
Changes to the plan
Moving the date, editing the steps and deleting the workout reach Garmin Connect without any action from you. Unpublishing removes the workout from the watch. You never have to remember which version of the plan is on the athlete's wrist.
Which sports
Running, cycling and swimming workouts built from steps, plus strength workouts, go to the watch. Activities come back to the calendar for the sports the athlete kept enabled in the import settings - all of them are enabled right after connecting. Turning a sport off stops importing new sessions of that discipline; what already arrived stays.
What the coach sees
- The athlete's calendar with plan and execution side by side, with comments and the effort rating.
- The activity panel with charts, laps and time in heart rate and power zones.
- The sending status of every workout. A workout with a problem has a red mark in the calendar that opens the panel straight on the sync tab - with a sentence on what went wrong and who should fix it.
- Health data from the watch - sleep, HRV, resting heart rate - only when the athlete shares it with you.
What the athlete does
The connection is on the athlete's side and takes a few minutes. The coach cannot connect a watch on the athlete's behalf - the account and the consent belong to the athlete.
- In the profile, on the integrations tab, they click connect on the Garmin Connect card.
- They sign in on the Garmin site and approve the permissions.
- They check which sports should arrive in the calendar.
- They leave sending workouts to the watch on - it is on right after connecting.
The step-by-step guide with screenshots is on the Garmin page in the Help Center.
Limits and consents
- History only with consent. Older sessions reach the calendar only if the athlete keeps the historical data permission checked while connecting. A manual sync fetches missing sessions from the last 30 days.
- Health data separately. Importing sleep, HRV and other measurements needs a separate consent from the athlete, and sharing them with the coach needs another one. The athlete can withdraw either at any time.
- One Garmin account, one EasyTrackly account. A Garmin account can be connected to only one account in the app.
- Two watches, the same session twice. If the athlete connects two accounts and the same session lands on both, it appears twice in the calendar. Turning that sport off in one of the cards fixes it.
Frequently asked questions
The workout did not reach the watch. What should I check?
Open the workout and its sync tab first - it shows the reason and who needs to act. The most common causes are a workout without steps, a draft instead of a published workout, sending turned off by the athlete, or an account that needs reconnecting. The watch also has to sync with the Garmin app on the phone. The full list is on the Common sync problems page.
Does the athlete have to click anything for every workout?
No. After connecting once, the plan reaches the watch and the completed session comes back to the calendar without their help. The athlete only syncs the watch with the phone, as they do every day.
Can I see the athlete's older sessions?
Yes, if they kept the historical data permission while connecting. Without it the calendar starts on the day of connecting, with a manual pull of the last 30 days.
What if the athlete has no Garmin?
Other watches also send completed sessions to the calendar, and an athlete without a connected watch can upload a file or log the session manually. The How import works page explains import from every source.
Start with one athlete
Create a coach account, invite an athlete with a Garmin watch and publish one workout with steps. You will see it on their watch, and after the run - the completed session in your calendar. There is more about working with runners on the running coaches page. Create a coach account.
