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Advanced Training Metrics

DanielWent1985
over 1 year ago

My wife and I both have Venu Sq watches but, since we got them, we have both got a lot more into running and would now benefit from more advanced stats like training effect and recovery time. We can't justify the cost of each having a second watch just for running so we are using Runalyze to get this data for now. It's a pretty good solution given that it's free but it would be nice to have everything under one roof. Being able to do this for the one-off cost of one basic running watch might be acceptable.

I seem to recall seeing somewhere that you don't need to actually use a training effect capable watch for a run in order to get the training effect data for it to appear in connect - you just need to have one linked to your account. If that's the case, would buying one old training effect-capable watch on eBay, linking it to both accounts and then confining it to a draw (so we don't have any sync issues caused by us actually using it while it's linked to two accounts) solve this problem? If it would, does anyone know what the cheapest training effect capable watch is? Or what the first watch to carry the feature was so I can look for discontinued models online?

Thanks

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    You can only link a watch to one account. Switching accounts can easily mess up your data so you will probably have to factory reset the watch every time you switch account. I'm not sure if you will get the correct stats if the watch hasn't "learned" your body. Some will download from Garmin Connect, but not all.

    I'm not sure if it will work like you want it to. That needs to be tested. Will other devices connected to the same account download the data and calculate the values and then upload it to Garmin Connect?

    I would look at the Forerunner 245. It got lots of running stats.

  • 0 over 1 year ago
    DanielWent1985 said:
    I seem to recall seeing somewhere that you don't need to actually use a training effect capable watch for a run in order to get the training effect data for it to appear in connect - you just need to have one linked to your account.

    That may be true to some extent, because for example activities recorded with the Zwift app (and with couple of other 3rd party apps) are indeed capable of contributing to the Training Effect even if you do not use a Garmin watch for recording them. However, the watch must be linked to the respective Garmin Connect account, available for the data postprocessing. I share the opinion of  that it won't be possible if you link the same watch to two different accounts.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Echoing the other replies, I can't see any way that this would work. (Note my experience is with Edge 530 for cycling.) Training Effect is a function embedded in the device's firmware, and is calculated in realtime during an activity, and Training Status when the activity is ended. Garmin Connect doesn't play any role in it.

    In the case of the relatively short list of third party apps that Garmin first began supporting about 2 years ago (~June 2021), such as Zwift, etc., the activity is uploaded from the 3rd party service to Garmin Connect, then it's sent to the device during a sync, the activity is post-processed on the device to get Training Effect and Status, then a second sync brings those metrics back to Garmin Connect.

    So in both cases the metrics are still computed on the device itself, and Garmin Connect is only displaying / tracking the results from the device. (Again though, that's for cycling Edges, and I'm not familiar with the watches.)

    (EDIT: As of Spring 2023, the double sync to a Garmin device is no longer required for activities from 3rd party apps, Garmin Connect calculates the fitness metrics directly without needing a device sync. You must still own an eligible device however.)

    Even if however it would work between a supported and non supported device, via the Physio True-Up feature for example (and I can only speculate), it would be a trainwreck to try sharing it between 2 people. By definition the metrics are cumlulative and it assumes it's always the same person.

    So I'm fairly certain this doesn't fit Garmin's business model of selling devices and collecting user data Wink haha

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Thanks for the quick responses - I'm glad I asked this here before buying another watch if that's the way things work.

    It's not a disaster because, as I said to begin with, the Venu Sq does calculate the training effects and recovery times I am interested in and save them to the fit file - the company has clearly just decided that I didn't pay enough money for my watch to be allowed to view these metrics in connect. Luckily Runalyze is not so picky with which fit file details it does and does not display so I'll just stick with my third party work around for now.

    Thanks again for the inputs.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to DanielWent1985

    Oh! My bad, sorry I missed that your watch does it on device, and it's just missing in Garmin Connect. I suggest reporting it to Garmin Support. It does happen that some devices haven't been fully implemented in GC. For example the Edge 530 was definitely one of them -- it wouldn't show Load Focus or Training Status in GC app or website. After reporting it to them it was eventually fixed on both. That said, people who had both a watch and an Edge could see it, it was only Edge-only owners that couldn't. That might be similar to what you heard about the watches. But a second watch definitely shouldn't be necessary -- if it's on the device, it should also be in GC. Reporting it to Garmin Support might get it fixed (eventually).