A few months ago, I noticed an odd thing about my Garmin Enduro 2 watch. At the start of my Saturday run, instead of immediately searching for satellites, it displayed a new screen, an AI-generated suggested workout customized just for me. I was planning to do a long run, but my watch said I should do intervals instead.
Initially, I scoffed. How could this wrist device know what my body needs, better than me? The longer I sat with it, the more curious I got.
In the last few years, running watches have made substantial leaps forward. They are now able to collect and analyze a wealth of information, stuff like heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, respiration rates, sleep cycles, stress, acclimatization, stride mechanics, and other metrics. Even midpack models offer a robust feature set that would’ve been hard to imagine a decade ago. Most major watch brands like Suunto, Coros, and Polar now offer a suite of recovery recommendations, load tracking, and basic workout suggestions.
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Could my Garmin watch actually know something I don’t about my training progress? Could it,…
