Is Garmin Watch Getting the New Update with Smarter Training Features?

How Can Garmin’s August 2025 Software Update Help Me Run and Cycle Better?

Are you wondering if your Garmin device is getting the latest features? Or maybe you’re asking, “How can the new Garmin update help me train smarter?”

Garmin is rolling out a fresh software update for some of its smartwatches and cycling computers. This update adds new tools to help you train better and understand your body more. Let’s explore what these new features mean for you.

Understanding Your Body’s Limits with Running Tolerance

A key new feature is Running Tolerance. This tool helps you see how much impact running has on your body. It is designed to help you build up your mileage safely, balancing the risk of injury with your performance goals.

Instead of just tracking how long or far you run, Running Tolerance looks at the biomechanical load on your muscles, joints, and tendons with every step. It considers several factors to measure this impact load :

• Your body weight
• Running speed and intensity
• The steepness of hills you run up or down
• Your running form, including cadence and ground contact time

The feature compares your recent impact load, called acute impact load, to what your body is used to handling. If your recent load is too high, it warns you that you might be in a “caution zone” for injury. This helps you make smarter decisions about when to push harder and when to ease up.

Adaptive Training with the Garmin Triathlon Coach

For those who swim, bike, and run, the new Garmin Triathlon Coach offers adaptive training plans. Whether you’re preparing for a sprint, Olympic, or 70.3 triathlon, this feature creates a balanced schedule tailored to you. It adjusts your daily workouts based on your performance, sleep, and how recovered you are.

The Triathlon Coach includes several key elements:

• Adaptive Swim Workouts: These focus on freestyle swimming with different levels of intensity. You can also use gear like kickboards and pull buoys.
• Two-a-Days: Some days will have two workouts from different sports, like a morning swim and an evening bike ride. The schedule is based on your recovery data.
• Brick Workouts: Every few weeks, you’ll do a bike ride followed immediately by a run. This helps you get used to the transition between sports on race day.
• Optional Strength Workouts: You can add gym or bodyweight exercises to your plan. These are more frequent at the beginning of your training and decrease as your race gets closer.

Advanced Insights with the HRM 600 Heart Rate Monitor

Two new features require the separate HRM 600 heart rate monitor. This device provides more accurate heart rate data and other advanced metrics.

Running Economy Measurement: This analyzes how efficiently you use energy during your runs. By looking at data over multiple runs, it can help you understand how to use less energy while maintaining your pace.

Step Speed Loss Tracking: This new metric shows how much you slow down each time your foot hits the ground. It can give you valuable insights into your running form and where you can make improvements.

The HRM 600 is a rechargeable device that can track heart rate, calories, speed, and distance on its own, even without a watch. This is useful for sports where you can’t wear a watch, like soccer or basketball. It can also store heart rate data during swimming and sync it to your watch later.

More Than Just Workouts

The update also brings features to help with your overall well-being.

• The Evening Report appears before bed, reminding you how much sleep you need. It also gives you a preview of the next day’s workout, weather, and calendar events.
• The Smart Wake Alarm uses gentle vibrations to wake you up at the best time in your sleep cycle, helping you feel more rested.

New Tools for Cyclists

Cyclists with the Edge 1050 computer get their own set of improvements, especially for mountain biking.

• Timing Gates: You can set checkpoints on a trail to track your split times in real-time, helping you see how you’re performing on different sections.
• Improved Forksight Mode: When you come to a fork in the trail, this feature now shows you more details, like the distance left on the trail and the elevation profile.
• New Ride Profiles: There are new profiles for enduro and downhill riding. The enduro profile tracks your ascent and descent on each run, while the downhill profile automatically creates laps for each run and ignores time spent on a ski lift or shuttle.
• Faster GPS Recording: The update adds 5 Hz GPS recording. This provides more detailed trail maps, which is especially useful during fast descents.

Not All Devices Are Included

While these new features offer real benefits, not every Garmin user will get them. The update is for select newer devices, such as the Fenix 8, Venu X1, Forerunner 570, Forerunner 970, and Enduro 3 smartwatches, as well as the Edge 1050 cycling computer.

This has caused some frustration among users of slightly older, but still expensive, devices like the Forerunner 965 and Epix Gen 2. Some who bought their watches recently found they are already considered “legacy” devices and won’t receive the new software.

For those with compatible devices, these free updates add valuable tools for training and recovery. The new features for running tolerance, triathlon coaching, and cycling can help you train more effectively and avoid injury. You can get the update by enabling automatic updates in the Garmin Connect app or by manually updating with Garmin Express.