Power targets
The Edge shows a range such as 230–250 W beside your current power, and beeps with a message when you go above or below it. Power suits sessions where the exact effort is the point: threshold, sweet spot, VO2max, tempo. It responds immediately, so a 3-minute interval is at the right effort from the first pedal stroke rather than the last minute.
Outdoors, instant power jumps with every pedal stroke, gust and change of gradient. Put a smoothed power field on the interval screen and aim for the middle of the range rather than the bottom edge. If the alerts never stop on a flat road, the range is probably narrower than real riding allows.
Heart-rate targets
A heart-rate target is a range such as 135–150 bpm, or a heart-rate zone. Garmin’s manual describes the alert: each time you go above or below the range, the Edge beeps and shows a message. Heart rate suits endurance and recovery rides, especially outdoors, where holding exact watts on rolling roads is fiddly and the aim is to keep it easy. It also works when you have no power meter, or don’t trust your FTP.
Heart rate lags, though. In a 3-minute VO2max interval it’s still climbing when the interval ends, so a heart-rate target would tell you to go harder the whole time. Heat, caffeine, sleep and the last few days of training move it too. For short hard work, use power or plain effort.
Cadence targets
A cadence target is a range such as 100–110 rpm, used for cadence drills and low-cadence strength intervals where the pedalling is the point. On its own it says nothing about how hard to ride. A step can carry a second target, so a drill can hold you to 100–110 rpm while power or heart rate keeps the effort easy.
Open steps and the lap button
A step doesn’t have to end on time or distance. An open step runs until you press the lap button: “ride to the bottom of the climb, then lap”, or “easy until you’re clear of town”. Outdoors that’s often more useful than a fixed warm-up, because the road decides when the interval can start. A step can also have no target at all, which is fine for a warm-up you ride by feel.
Which target when
| Session | Best target | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Recovery spin | Heart rate, or power ceiling | The only job is staying easy. |
| Endurance | Heart rate or power range | Either works; heart rate is less fiddly on rolling roads. |
| Tempo, sweet spot, threshold | Power | Long, steady and precise; heart rate is too slow to settle. |
| VO2max, 2–5 min | Power (or effort) | Heart rate lags too far behind short efforts. |
| Sprints, under 30 s | Open step, no target | Go as hard as you can; a range only distracts. |
| Cadence drills | Cadence plus an effort target | Cadence sets the legs, the second target keeps it easy. |
Why your FTP matters before you export
Most structured cycling workouts write power as a percentage of FTP, and SurgeIQ Lab does too. The percentage only becomes watts on the Edge, using the FTP stored on the Edge. Take 2 × 20 min at 95% FTP:
| FTP on the Edge | Target | If your real FTP is 220 W |
|---|---|---|
| 250 W | ≈ 238 W | 108% of your actual threshold. The first interval hurts, the second one fails. |
| 220 W | ≈ 209 W | What the session was meant to be. |
Thirty watts doesn’t look like much on paper. At threshold it’s the difference between a hard, controlled 20 minutes and blowing up at minute twelve. The reverse matters too: an FTP set too low gives you an easy day you thought was a hard one.
- Check the number on the Edge before you load a block of workouts. On the Edge 1040 it’s under Menu › My Stats › Training Zones › Power Zones, where you can view zones in watts or as % FTP. Garmin also lets you set zones in Garmin Connect.
- Some Edges can change FTP on their own after hard rides. That’s useful, but look at the number before an important session.
- After time off, the FTP you set months ago is probably too high. Ride by heart rate or effort until you’ve retested (see cycling FTP and power zones explained).
If you rebuilt the workout in Garmin Connect with fixed watts, none of this applies automatically: the targets stay at the watts you typed, whatever your FTP does next. Fine for one-off sessions; tedious across a training block.
What SurgeIQ Lab exports
- Power stays a percentage of FTP in the file. The Edge applies its own FTP, so one file works for any rider and keeps working after a new test. If a step was written in watts, it exports in watts.
- Heart rate exports as written: a beats-per-minute range, a percentage of maximum heart rate, or a zone.
- Cadence exports as its own target, or as the second target when the step also has a power or heart-rate target.
- Ramps (power rising across a step) aren’t possible in a Garmin workout file, so they export as a steady low–high range. Ride a ramp as a gradual build within that range.
How each target is encoded in the file is covered in how targets are stored in a FIT workout file.
Where to go next
How this guide was written
How the Edge displays and alerts on targets is from Garmin’s Edge 1050 and 1040 manuals; how targets are stored in a workout file is from Garmin’s FIT SDK documentation; what SurgeIQ Lab exports is from its own exporter. Checked October 2026.