NOTE: project migrated to https://github.com/jpickup/GarminTools/, which has some additional tools (GPX to route). Active development is now on that project rather than here.
Create workouts and workout schedules for Garmin devices using an Excel spreadsheet to define them.
What's the benefit? Why use this rather than Garmin Connect?
Garmin Connect allows you to build workouts and schedule them, however it's quite tedious to use it to build a long training programme, say the sort you would to train for a marathon. It's also not possible to take a programme that you've created and then reuse it to train for the next race.
The idea with this application is to allow the definition of workouts (using a simple text format) and a schedule which can then be transferred to a Garmin watch. This definition is created in Microsoft Excel, so the application simply translates the spreadsheet into a set of Garmin FIT files that can then be copied over to the watch.
Workouts are defined as a series of steps, where a step is either a period of time or a distance. For example 10 minutes or 400 metres. A step can also have a target such as a pace or a heart rate. Steps are written as text, for example:
| Workout | Description |
|---|---|
1mi |
A step of 1 mile |
400m |
A step of 400 metres |
100m@4:00-5:00/km |
A step of 100 metres with a target pace between 4 and 5 minutes per kilometre |
1mi>6mph |
1 mile at a pace faster than 6 miles per hour |
| 800m@Z3 | 800 metres in heart rate Zone 3 |
| 400m@160-180bpm | 400 metres wth a heart rate between 160 and 180 beats per minute |
Steps can also be strung together with a + character, repeated using *n and grouped using brackets, for example:
| Workout | Description |
|---|---|
1mi + (400m@7:00-8:30/mi + 200m@10:00-12:00/mi) * 4 + 1mi |
An interval session comprising 4 repeats of 400m with 200m recoveries plus a mile of warm-up and cool-down |
More examples can be found in ExampleWorkoutSchedule.xls
The grammar for the language is defined in grammar/Workout.g4, which is an ANTLR4 grammar that is used to generate
Java code.
The app expects the input workbook to have specific named sheets and specific column headers within these. Any additional sheets or columns are ignored.
| Sheet | Description |
|---|---|
| Pace | Named page ranges for use as a shorthand in workout definitions |
| Workout | Named workouts in the workout language described above |
| Schedule | A schedule for workouts for specific dates |
| Sheet | Column | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pace | Name | The name for a pace |
| Pace | Value | The pace defined in workout language |
| Workout | Name | The name for a workout |
| Workout | Description | The workout language definition, may include named paces defined in the pace sheet |
| Schedule | Date | The date for a specific workout |
| Schedule | Workout | Either defined in the workout language or the name a named workout from the Workout sheet |
The ant build script is garminworkoutcreator.xml. This creates a macOS bundle with a JRE included meaning that it runs
without the need for a Java installation on the target machine
The app runs as a very simple UI allowing you to select the source Excel workbook and a output target directory for
the FIT files. The default output directory is /Volumes/GARMIN/GARMIN/NEWFILES/, which is the destination when the
watch is connected to a Mac via USB.