Apple Watch Series 11: Key features that help you to train for marathons

At the end of 2025, many would have made a new year 2026 resolution to get in shape. Some even would join a gym to lead a healthy lifestyle. But most of us would have already given up within a week or two into the year.

If you have Apple's Watch Series 11 or even older models, you can still be able to develop a disciplined routine and even try training for a marathon later this year.

"After 15 years of running long distances, I’ve learnt that preparation is all about consistency, not extremes. I focus on structured training blocks, easy miles done truly easy, strength work, and enough recovery between hard sessions. One of the most valuable tools in my training is the Apple Watch - especially heart-rate tracking. It helps me stay within the right training zones, so I don’t turn easy runs into hard ones or overcook my workouts. Training by heart rate has been key to building endurance while staying injury-free," says Reeti Sahai, popular Marathon Runner.

Here are key features of the Apple Watch that can help you to train for a marathon:

Workout buddy

With the watchOS 26 update, Apple introduced the new Workout Buddy, a first-of-its-kind fitness experience powered by Apple Intelligence. It analyses a user’s workout data and fitness history to deliver personalised, spoken motivation throughout their session, based on data like heart rate, pace, distance, Activity rings, personal fitness milestones, and more.

Workout Buddy is currently available in English across some of the most popular workout types, and is available on Apple Watch with Bluetooth headphones, with an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone nearby.

Apple Watch Series 11 support hypertension detection and sleep score.

Call screening with wrist gesture

While jogging, if you get any calls, you can gently raise your hand and see who's calling on the Apple Watch's screen and depending on the priority, you can either choose to ignore or answer with just a hand gesture.

You can use the new one-handed gesture, wrist flick, to dismiss notifications, silence calls, close the Smart Stack, or return to the watch face by quickly turning your wrist over and back.

Sleep Score

WatchOS 26 also introduced the new Sleep Score. Sleep is very important as it has a huge impact on mental wellness, decision-making, not just in personal life but also during office work.

With Sleep Score, users will get deeper insights in terms of duration, bedtime consistency, how often he/she wakes up, and how much time is spent in each sleep stage.

With sleep score, Apple Watch helps track each of these categories to assign transparent and easy-to-understand metrics for a user’s overall sleep quality. After each night, sleep score provides an overall score and classification in the Sleep app on Apple Watch, plus a clear breakdown of the most critical components, so users know what to prioritise to improve their sleep. Users can also choose to easily access their sleep score in a watch face complication or in the Smart Stack, and they can track their sleep scores over time in the Health app on iPhone.

Track your training load on Apple Watch

With Apple Watch, users can see how the intensity of their workouts may impact their bodies over time.

It helps users make more informed decisions about how and when to adjust their workouts—especially when training for a big event like a marathon.

The Training load feature on the Apple Watch compares the intensity and duration of your workouts over the last 7 days to what you’ve done over the previous 28 days.

Here's how to check your vitals:

Step 1: Go to the Activity app on your Apple Watch.

Step 2: Tap the Workload button, then turn the Digital Crown to view your training load over the last 7 days.

Step 3: Tap your training load below the graph, then tap a workout to view its details.

Step 4: To edit your effort on a workout, see Rate your effort.

When viewing your training load on the current day, you can tap the Vitals data at the bottom of the screen to view your overnight vitals in the Vitals app.

Fall Detection

Apple Watches are the most advanced smart wearables in the industry. It uses custom algorithms that analyse the data from the accelerometer and gyroscope to detect if the user taken a hard fall. If it detects a hard fall, an alert is delivered to the Apple Watch, and the user can initiate a call to emergency services or dismiss the alert.

If Apple Watch detects that the user has remained motionless for about a minute, an emergency call can be placed automatically, and a message with GPS location will be sent to the emergency contacts. Your watch can even detect falls during workouts by sensing the unique motion and impact of falls while working out.

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