Garmin Edge Can Pause, FFWD and RWD outdoor workouts

I’ve heard a lot of folks talking how Garmin edge head units can’t rewind pause or skip steps in an outdoor workout.

Not true. On gamins default main workout screen, the large rolling bars, you can swipe up from the bottom and pause from there.

Not sure if it’s a new update on the edge 830 or not but it’s mighty useful so you don’t have to stop the whole workout. Just wanted to share the revelation with anyone else living in the dark :slight_smile:

Might depend on the model - you certainly couldn’t do that on my 520 which used buttons rather than a touch screen.

I’ve been able to skip steps in outdoor workouts on my edge 130 plus

I think you can skip forward on them all, you pressed the Lap button on the 520 for example but scrubbing backwards isn’t something I was able to do. “Pausing” depends on the workout, some let you do it by not starting the interval until you press the Lap button but you can’t do it for short/short intervals for example only the longer steady state ones.

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This feature was introduced in the 530/830/1030 lineup. Not sure what previous versions or the 130 can do.

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I see… that would definitely be nice to have

Might just be on new “30” models then because I could go backwards intervals and repeat more while still recording.

I’m not sure how to RWD but with the Garmin 1000 the Lap key Fast Forwards it (but a complete step); I’ve done that a few times by mistake :roll_eyes:

A pause would be very useful if you end up at a stop or in more traffic , especially on longer intervals. Did 3x15 SS today , picked a pretty good route but still had a few stops that lowers the lap power a fair bit .

You can press the stop button to pause a workout and again to restart it but you have to be careful you don’t accidentally press save. The other pain IIRC is that if you have switched to a data screen set up to the TR standard it defaults back to the Garmin default workout screen and you have to switch back/swipe again.

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If you use the stop button , will it continue to record the ride if you have to keep going for a few minutes before you’re on a good spot to restart or does it just completely stop recording ?
I’m guessing full stop , which isn’t bad just not great .

Completely pauses it say at traffic lights (thats where I use it) and un pauses it resumes the ride when you restart it. Thats the way I would expext any pause/stop button to work. If you want to delay the pause just wait and press it at that good spot.

On the default workout page you hit the upper right button, and select pause. I don’t use it often but it’s there on a 530. Thought it was on my 520 too.

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I tried this yesterday. You can pause go back or go forward. But when I paused at a set of lights the timer kept running and my interval average kept decreasing. Seems to defeat the purpose.

The only way I’ve found to pause the timer is to actually press stop, then you’ve got to be careful not to press save and you have to go through the hassle of switching screens again from the garmin default. Not ideal :-1:

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@IvyAudrain is there a way we could put a feature request in to have Garmin be able to pause outdoor intervals for traffic stops? Or is that something we have to bring up with Garmin?

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While paused the Edge computer keeps recording data, and pauses the interval timer. Think about it - why would you stop recording power? All of the metrics for power are based on the actual power you output, including zeros.

Let’s say you have a 20 minute sweet spot interval, and you descend for 2 minutes without pedaling (zero power). The correct behavior is to include the zeros in the 20-minute interval. If you extend the interval to 22 minutes, the correct behavior is to includes zeros for the descent. Its the same as sitting at a traffic light.

Don’t fool yourself, the zero power portion of the interval should count in the average. Stopping for a traffic light has the same impact on recovery as coasting. One alternative is to restart the interval.

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I disagree. When I want to count the zeros (eg a descent) I don’t need to hit pause. Yesterdays workout was 50 min Z2 between 169-199w. The 4 min I stopped at the light dropped my average from 175 to 168 and pushed the arrow out of the yellow/green zone and into the red. I then had to work above 200w to get the average back into green. Because who wants a graphical representation of you failing a workout. I’m not going to restart the interval bed use in 20 min in.

It would also be nice to use the lap function (for personal info) which doesn’t work during a workout.

I’d never use the green/yellow/red with average lap power, its counterproductive for the reason you pointed out. I don’t agree with TR decision to use lap average power with Garmin default workout comparison/graph stuff.

An old feature request I made:

I’ve done workouts outside of trainerroad and you could pick 1,3, or 10 sec avg power in that section of the screen. Do you know if you can change it? I was surprised to see avg power there.