New device set up advice

Hi, you've made a good choice! In my very personal opinion, the 935 is the better, more usable Fenix5.

To get you started, I would recommend to first create an account at Garmin Connect (https://connect.garmin.com) unless you already have one, there you could already set your personal stuff, like age, weight etc.

Once you receive the watch, do the initial setup with Garmin Express (https://www.garmin.com/en-US/software/express/) which will perform all necessary updates on the watch and pair it with your Connect account.
Once done, pair it with your Connect Mobile app and do the final configuration there, like apps on the watch, settings, etc.

Afterwards check all the settings on the watch itself, some are not correctly transferred between the mobile app and the watch sometimes, so it is recommended to do the final check with the watch extra.

Then you should be set

Thanks! Account created. Will do the Express set up when I get the watch.

I understand I can create, for sessions I do regularly, a custom activity and give it a name and specify what it includes. For example: a run followed by a strength session followed by a run. Or a bootcamp session (which is a variety of exercisers). I do not need to follow any prompts, just telling the watch what kind of activity to track and under which name.

Where do I set these up? On the watch? Tried to add ‘bootcamp’ to activities but it did not add such activity to the list of activities available in the app.

I did some reading and now I understand that what I need to create is 'workouts', not activities. However, still got some questions:

1. What is the best way to go about creating a workout representing my regular bootcamp? Which is basically one hour of mixed activities consisting of a short run, then a warm up then 5-6 rounds of 4-5 exercises of mid to high intensity, each round followed by a short run and a rest, some pull-ups at the end and then stretching. All I want is for the FR935 to track it. I do not want to track any of the individual components, just the whole workout in general.

2. I have created a couple of running 'courses'. I thought I would be able, as part of a created 'run workout', to assign one of the courses for it. But when creating a workout in GC I see no option for adding a 'course' to a 'workout'.

it sounds like what you are wanting is actually a multisport workout. You can designate any number of activities with a rest or transition between each activity. You could do "run", then "cardio" for your warmup, then "strength" for the HIIT, then 'Run" again to finish it off. There are individual settings you can set within each of those individual apps to tailor it to your individual needs.

2. Courses are really about navigation, not about workout design - it doesn't sound like this is what you want. It is possible to navigate while doing a workout (eg. doing an interval run in an unfamiliar area) by selecting Run, Settings, Navigate then a Course before starting an activity.
1. You have 2 options here. The first would be to use the Workout creator in Garmin Connect/Mobile - this has the advantage of allowing inbuilt timers, alerts and intensity targets. The other (as Browner40 has suggested) is to create a multisport workout on your watch - the advantage of this approach is that it allows different screens and more appropriate tracking for each activity type. https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webh...E269E9A64.html

Or I guess you could just track it all under a generic "Cardio" or "Other" or custom activity.

Thanks, Browner40 and mcalista. The principles of using the watch are getting clearer with your explanations. I have never used any fitness trackers, not to mention advanced ones.

re 1: As I do not want to track individual activities or have any guidance during the bootcamp (I just want to make sure it is tracked and counts towards active calories, heart rate stats, training load, recovery time etc) it sounds like I just need to initiate tracking of a generic activity as mcalista says.

Can I create an activity title 'bootcamp' and have it on top of the pick list list when initiating tracking manually on the watch?

re 2: I now realise assigning a course is not essential for activity tracking but can be done to an 'activity' (I assume only possible once it is completed), and not to a 'workout'. I think all I wanted was, when looking back at a week or a month, I want to see that I did 'Hyde park run' and 'Battersea park run' rather than just 'runs'.

Getting clearer as I am also reading the GC FAQs.

The watch is arriving today :-)

To answer my own question - yes, a trackable activity type with a custom name can be created and added to favs list - but it can only be done on the watch, not in GC.

I have had the watch for 2 days now and so far so good! Impressed with the features and customisation.

To any new users I would also recommend reading the Firstbeat information for understanding of all the interpretative information the watch gives (e.g. training load, training effect etc).

Here is a good set of info via DC Rainmaker

FirstBeat-GarminFeatures-DCR.pdf

Went for a run/strength session this morning and got confused - wrong set up on my part, so need to understand how to set up the workout to suit:

What I want - is to track a workout that consists of a run, followed by a strength session, followed bu a run.

What actually happened was - So I track the first run, then pause it to 'resume later', assuming that it would let me start a 'strength' workout that I set up previously, and once it is fiished, resume the run. I think that is not possible. At least I was not able to start a strength workout without saving the run.

So what I should be doing - I understand I need to set up a multisport workout, right? So the watch allows me to transition between types of activity without saving. Correct? If so, would appreciate tips on how to set up and use multisport workouts.

Yes, a multisport workout would allow you to do multiple activity types without stopping and saving. You can choose to have a transition/rest period, or just jump right into the next activity. When you complete the one activity type you press the lap button and it will go into either transition or the next activity depending on how you have it set up. Be forewarned that there is no going back though, if you press the lap button too soon or too many times there is no way to go back to the previous step.