I’m Kevin, your host here at Garmin’s training video series.
When we train, we need variety - because running or riding the same course, day-in and day-out, can cause us to lose motivation.
Well, we want you to stay motivated.
So today, I’m going to walk you through the step-by-step process of how to create a course through Garmin Connect Web.
By using the Course Creator Tool, you’ll be able to create courses on a map that can be uploaded to your compatible Garmin device,
helping you to jumpstart your training, and keep your workouts fresh and exciting. So, let’s get started.
Using your web browser, navigate to connect.garmin.com and sign into your Garmin Connect Account.
If you haven’t created a Garmin Connect Account already, you can sign up for your free account here as well.
Once you’re logged in, select the arrow in the upper left corner to expand the menu navigation, if it’s not already expanded.
From here, select Training, then select Courses.
Next, you’ll choose your map option from the upper right corner of the map.
If you want to create a private course, you’ll need to choose Google maps.
Open Street Map is open source, so all courses created using Open Street Map must remain public.
For this example, I’m going to select Google Maps.
Then, select Create a Course.
Next, click on the drop-down menu to Select a Course Type.
There are several course types to choose from based on your activity, so for this example we’re going to select Running.
Now you’ll select a Drawing Method.
You’ll have two options here, either Custom or Round Trip.
Custom allows you to create a point-to-point course based on your customized criteria.
Whereas Round Trip allows Garmin Connect to generate a course based on distance and starting direction, and based on popular routes by other Garmin Connect users.
We’ll go through both examples, but let’s start with Round Trip and click Continue.
I like to see my Mile Markers and Popularity Heatmap,
so I’m going to make sure those are turned on as well on the right side of the screen.
If necessary, use the Location search field at the top of the map to center in on the location of your starting point.
In this example, we’re going to start from Garmin Headquarters, so I’m going to type in our address in the Location search field.
Next, type in the desired distance for your round trip course and the start direction.
I’m going to use 3 miles as my distance and East as my start direction.
Now, click on the map to place your first point.
Garmin Connect will generate a round trip course for you, and you can see the course on the map, as well as the course details in the box below.
If you don’t like the route that Garmin Connect generated, you can change your distance, start direction,
or even where you placed your first point on the map.
You can also use the Add Course Point feature to add in custom points such as a rest stop, sprint, or climb.
Course Points and other locations used to build a course will show under the Next Waypoint Data Field on your device.
Once you’re satisfied with the course you’ve created, select the pencil icon to name the course.
When naming courses, keep in mind that most devices have a limit where they can only display the first 15 characters in the name of a course.
If there are multiple courses where the first 15 characters are the same, the device will think they are the same course.
To work around this limitation, make sure the names vary within the first 15 characters.
Once you’ve named the course, select Save New Course.
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Now let’s do the same process, but this time instead of selecting the Round Trip Drawing Method, let’s select Custom and click Continue.
Here again, I’m going to make sure that my Mile Markers and Popularity Heatmap are turned on.
We’re going to start from Garmin Headquarters here as well, so I’m going to type in our address in the Location search field.
Click on the map to place your first point.
Since we’re doing a custom course, we will click on the map to place additional points.
Here, you can use the Add Course Point feature here as well, to add in custom points such as a rest stop, food, water, etc.
Course Points and other locations used to build a course will show under the Next Waypoint Data Field on your device.
Once you’re satisfied with the course you’ve created, select the pencil icon to name the course.
Remember from earlier in the video, when naming courses, make sure the names vary within the first 15 characters.
Once we’ve named the course, we’ll select Save New Course.
And there you have it. Congratulations! You’ve just created both a Round Trip Course and a Custom Course on Garmin Connect Web.
Keep an eye out for a future video where we’ll show you how to send a saved course from Garmin Connect Web to your compatible Garmin device.
Hey, thanks for taking time to learn more about the Garmin Connect Web Course Creator Tool.
This is Kevin from Garmin, wishing you the best wherever your adventure takes you.
And in all that you do, we want to help you beat yesterday.