Structured Workouts on Your Garmin Watch: How Steps and Targets Land

A structured workout is one your watch can walk you through: it knows the warmup is 15 minutes, the next step is five minutes at threshold, then two minutes easy, five times. It tells you when to start each step and whether you're on target. Here's how a TrainingDojo workout becomes that on a Garmin, and what to check if it doesn't look right.

How the steps map

• Warmup, intervals, recoveries and cooldown become Garmin workout steps of the same kind.
• Repeats become a Garmin repeat group, so the watch counts reps for you.
• Time or distance: each step ends after its duration or distance.
• Ramps are split into their individual steps.

How targets map

• Power as % of FTP on rides becomes a Garmin power target as a percentage, and the watch applies it to the FTP saved on your device.
• Heart rate as % of threshold becomes a heart-rate target the same way, using your watch's threshold heart rate.
• Pace and RPE steps keep the range in the step note, because TrainingDojo doesn't know your absolute paces.
• Cadence on rides is added as a secondary target.

Because the watch does the percentage maths, keep your FTP and threshold heart rate up to date in Garmin Connect. That's what turns "95% of FTP" into the right number of watts.

Getting it onto the watch

1. Connect Garmin Connect in TrainingDojo Settings → Integrations and approve workout import when Garmin asks.
2. Send a workout from the structured builder, a bulk plan, or your connected AI.
3. It appears on your Garmin Connect calendar on that date. Sync your watch and open today's workout from the training menu.

If something looks off

• Workout missing: check it's on the Garmin Connect calendar, then sync the watch. If TrainingDojo says to turn on workout import, enable it for TrainingDojo in your Garmin Connect account settings.
• Wrong watts or heart rate: the percentages are right but your device threshold is out of date. Update FTP or threshold heart rate on the watch or in Garmin Connect.
• A step shows "open": pace and RPE steps have no device target; follow the range in the step note.

Older watches support fewer steps per workout; TrainingDojo refuses workouts longer than 100 steps rather than sending something the watch can't play.

Building plans with an AI? See ChatGPT and Claude to Garmin, or start on the Garmin Connect page.