Garmin Forerunner 945 – new firmware

There’s a big chunk of new features in the 945‘s firmware that are available now, here. Most notably is the addition of DAILY SUGGESTED WORKOUTS and TRACK RUN. We saw the former for the first time a few months ago in the Garmin Edge 1030 Plus and I checked out the TRACK RUN mode in the Garmin Forerunner 745 (the smaller, non-PRO 945) last week. These are significant and useful sporty features.

I was also intrigued by the line for “Improved optical heart rate performance.”. I am a bad physiological candidate for oHR and often get bad readings however the current generation of Garmin ELEVATE is probably the best oHR tech, at least as far as my own experience goes. That said, the Apple Watch 6 is perhaps offering ME (just me, you could be different) possibly better results. I used to base all my training load data solely off HR and so people in that same situation might well start to consider watches like Apple Watch if they can more reliably produce more accurate HR stats. So that’s a warning shot across Garmin’s bows and maybe this mysterious new firmware addition for the 945‘s oHR sensor will deliver some notable improvements? Probably not.

Recovery Time is also improved. I DO look at recovery time and consider what Garmin is telling me here. I suspect that what Garmin has introduced are subtle algorithm changes that will still keep the initial recovery time the same but shorten it if your recovery goes well. This would be sensible and will help some of you but, for me, it wouldn’t help as I VERY RARELY consider the remaining recovery time ie I remember what it says at the end of a workout but never return to look at the number of remaining hours until full recovery. Having said that, one day’s recovery (or lack of it) will impact on recovery after the next day’s sessions so, thinking about it, it WILL probably help me too 😉

Daily Suggested workouts is a very nice feature. It’s great in principle and the recommendations look vaguely sensible to me, although they do seem to recommend BASE work too much for my liking. Even at a simple level, it’s sometimes nice to just ‘do something different’ and so why not do what Garmin says from time-to-time? Even if Garmin’s suggested workouts are not the absolute precise optimal recommendation, chances are they will be vaguely appropriate.

Source: Garmin

There seems to be the same update for the comparable F6 models.

• Garmin Fenix 6X Pro: same here
• Garmin Fenix 6: same here
• Garmin Fenix 6s Pro: same here
• Garmin Fenix 6 Pro: same here
• Garmin Fenix 6s: same here

Garmin FR945 – firmware details

• Added support for Daily Suggested Workouts, which are recommended based on previous activities. You can disable this from activity settings. (Run/Bike > Menu > Training > Workouts > Today’s Suggestion.)
• Added support for the Track Run activity, which allows you to record outdoor track data, including lap splits and distance in meters, on a standard shape 400m track.
• Added support for Improved Recovery Time, which takes your stress, sleep, relaxation, and physical activity into consideration.
• Added support for Bouldering and Indoor Climb activity profiles.
• Added support for Grit and Flow features for mountain biking activities. Grit measures the overall difficulty of a ride, and Flow measures how well you maintain your speed throughout the ride.
• Improved optical heart rate performance.
• Updated the look of the Alarm screen.
• Updated the main workout data screen to indicate High, Low, or In Range for the current target.

Garmin 745 vs 945 Comparison | Let’s Get Real | What the Forerunner Differences REALLY are.