Garmin 255 - timer continues after target reached/workout completed. Why doesn't it stop automatically?

IshigakiRich said:

it would be very much appreciated if Garmin would offer users the option of stopping

I agree with this. Even though I prefer it the way it is now. It's easy enough to simply press the stop button on your device after completing the workout. Being somewhat of a Garmin history nerd (see my profile pic from 2003), this setting has gone both ways over the years, but never had it as an option to enable/disable. I'm pretty sure the reason behind not automatically stopping after a course or workout is that the result could be catastrophic. A workout or course would end and the user would be oblivious to the fact that recording had stopped. In this case, there is no chance of recovering the activity to its original state. Sometimes these activities were a once-in-a-lifetime events. Conversely, if you simply forgot to press stop, it's easy enough to use the "Trim Activity" feature in Garmin Connect Web. 

Nonetheless, I totally understand your reasoning behind wanting the option. And thanks for submitting this to the Share Ideas site.  

Thanks for taking the time to consider my position on this. I would point out that in the case of a fixed distance workout the user is unlikely to be oblivious to the timer stopping - as they defined the workout, started it, and were informed when it ended. I suspect that the vast majority of new users would expect the timer to stop under such circumstances.

Thanks for the heads up on the ‘Trim activity’ feature - that might form a useful stopgap until Garmin hopefully add the option to stop the timer automatically. I wonder if it updates the synced activity on the watch. I’ll give it a try.

2003…the internet was barely getting started back then.

IshigakiRich said:

the user is unlikely to be oblivious to the timer stopping - as they defined the workout, started it, and were informed when it ended

You would think that, but I have been one of those knuckleheads. 

It would be very much appreciated if Garmin could add the option to stop the timer automatically at the end of a workout.

I've owned the watch for over 6 months and the current behaviour continues to be incredibly frustrating.

If the user has specifically configured a distance-based workout, then why not provide the option to stop the timer when the workout has ended.

Why don't you create a new workout - for example, this one - warm up for 15 minutes, run 200 m, pause for 3 minutes, repeat everything 5 times? All segments will be automatically marked, saved and all the starts and stops will be signaled to you. Well, at the end you need to save your workout manually. What is the problem? Except for the music player you don't like? ;)

That's not how it works.  You can set up a warm up then say 200m then a warm up but the whole thing is recorded as one separate workout.  Then you would need to go into Garmin Connect and mess about with splicing the times etc....I create a workout- I want the workout to appear at the end.  This is not rocket science.  Why should you have to go into Garmin connect and fiddle about with it?  The whole thing is convoluted and unintuitive.  Why bother?  The music player is like operating MSDOS from 1982, the whole Garmin setup is awful.  You should try their SATNAVS!  Check out the Garmin DRIVE app... unbelievable.  Does anyone check these apps or watches before selling them?  Garmin 745 on the way- looks like that does have the common sense and EASY method! We'll see!

Think about this:  Watch the Olympic Games 200m.  The clock starts when the guys leave the blocks... when they pass the finish line, the clock stops and you can see the times- maybe a new world record!  Why Garmin decides to leave out this simplicity is beyond me- SURELY this is the main aim of a RUNNING watch???? LOL staggering!  OP is absolutely spot on- it's a major flaw.

The problem is that even if you configure a distance-specific workout Garmin provides no option to automatically stop the timer at the end of the workout - no matter how explicit you are about the distance that you want to run.

Yes, you can dig into stats and determine what the time for the interval in question was - but why should you have to do this. Once I've crossed the finish line I would expect the timer to stop - or at least have to option to do this.

I don’t understand why you’d have to splice anything. Every workout I’ve created starts with a warm up and ends with a cool down. After I press “stop” during the cool down and then save the run I can see time and distance for the warm up, workout, and cool down separately. There’s no splicing involved.