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Garmin Connect not capturing intensity minutes correctly on activities coming from Zwift

Jurriën
2 months ago

I did a Zwift ride yesterday and today. The ride is recorded with data from my Wahoo KICKR and Wahoo HRM via the Zwift app on my Apple TV. The activity is sent to Strava and Garmin Connect.

yesterday’s ride was 30 minutes long and I was awarded 29 intensity minutes for that workout.

Today’s ride was 90 minutes long and I was only awarded 25 intensity minutes for that workout.

I was wearing my Fenix 8 during both activities but did not record anything from the watch.

Something seems to be broken?


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  • 0 2 months ago

    How does the all-day HR graph look like? Typically you'll need to connect your chest strap to the watch and start an activity on it (even if you discard it at the end), in order to get accurate Intensity Minutes, otherwise the watch works in low-power mode with slow HR sampling, so the HR on the all-day graph will usually be much lower than what Zwift records, using the strap. And it is the watch, not Zwift that calculates the IMs.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to trux

    That is disappointing. I am quite new to the watch and Garmin Connect, but I assumed that Garmin Training Status Now Includes Zwift meant that all relevant metrics would be added from Zwift so that you do not have to record on the watch. Because that seems to be the point, ease of use. But based on what you said this is only a partial solution which won’t populate all relevant metrics. 

    Is this by design? They have the heart rate data so why not use it for calculating Intensity minutes?

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to Jurriën
    Jurriën said:
    They have the heart rate data so why not use it for calculating Intensity minutes?

    Because Intensity Minutes are calculated by the watch, not by the app.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to trux

    [edited]

    after reading the Q&A about training status:

    Why didn’t my Zwift/TR/Sufferfest/Tacx ride instantly update the training load on Garmin Connect Mobile?

    Remember, it has to talk to your Garmin device. That’s especially notable for the Edge series devices, which you probably left powered off. Thus, if you want it to update training load in Garmin Connect, you need to power that device on and let it sync (both directions, or basically, twice). For watches, this happens pretty quickly in the background, so it’s less obvious.

    It seems that Training load is also calculated on the watch. So if they can do this for Training load, they could do it for Intensity minutes as well? 

    [/edit]

    Since my HRM is already paired with Zwift, I am not 100% sure if I can pair it with the watch at the same time. But maybe that’s not needed and I can use the watch heartrate sensor. 

    i will just need to remember to start an activity and delete it as well at the end on the watch. I’ll try it.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to Jurriën
    Jurriën said:
    I am not 100% sure if I can pair it with the watch at the same time.

    You can.

    Jurriën said:
    But maybe that’s not needed and I can use the watch heartrate sensor. 

    I would not recommend it. A chest strap is WAY more accurate than any optical wrist sensor ever can be.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to Jurriën
    Jurriën said:
    they could do it for Intensity minutes as well?

    They could, but they do not do, so you better use the method I mentioned.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to trux

    I will try your recommendation Grinning.

    i’ve now also read How Are Intensity Minutes Earned? which was also helpful.

    thank you!