Blended 'Training Status' from multiple Garmin devices

I'm facing the same problem with Fenix 5 and Forerunner 245! I thought about getting the 245 because of he smaller size and some extra features and keep the Fenix for trail running and MTB. I investigated about True Up and it appeared perfect since I would get aggregate data...well I've been using both watches simultaneously for about 1 month and Training Load shows completely different data although everything else syncs perfectly including recovery time. Is it so hard to sum up two different loads Garmin ???

Not sure whether the following link can help, and I cannot test it (not having two devices), but it may be perhaps worth of looking at: https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/8ywl20/got_the_physio_trueup_to_work_on_fenix_5s_and/?utm_source=reddit-android

No help from there...I have True Up activated in Garmin Connect Web also on both devices.

The unfortunate truth is that you don't have a single generalised VO2 max for different activities, so it would never be the same on two devices for different sports even if synchornised.  Garmin already recognises this with different cycling VO2 and running VO2.  You'll use different muscles and have a different core position so your ability to process oxygen will be different in each. Adding them together and dividing by two makes as much sense as adding apples to oranges. The same applies to training load.  

For example, I went for a run this morning - recovery time afterwards: 17 hours. 4 hours later I went for a short bike ride with the same device: recovery time: 2 hours.  That is, recovery time across two activities doesn't even make sense on the same device. So even if Garmin does eventually get the TrueUp synchronisation beween devices to work, it will still be meaningless. 

When I said listen to your body, I didn't mean ignore the Garmin data.  But you have to use the two together and realise that the Garmin data is an indication not a measurement. For example, I use the recovery time to give myself an independent  idea (from my own feeling) of how hard a workout was but I don't take it literally. I also found it useful when I first started using a Garmin and didn't realise that working out everyday wasn't always a good idea. 

You're right that Garmin marketing is wrong to hype the TrueUp feature which not only does not work, it cannot work. At least, that is, not without very considerable investment, of which there's no sign yet and may never be given the return on investment could be quite low.

Hi,

One of the issues which bothers me is that numbers from one device are not transferred correctly to the other. For example, yesterday I did a bike ride which generated a training load of 163. On the Connect website this number was correctly reported on the Edge 830 training status page. However, on the Forerunner training status page the load added was only 135. This has nothing to do with different muscle groups. According to Garmin the numbers should match. I was told back in July that they were working on a fix.

I have an answer to this.  After spending a lot of money on multiple Garmin devices with the promise that Garmin connect will provide a single view of our training status, spend yet more money on a third party app like training peaks to actually get some value out of the standard data they capture.

Thanks a bunch Garmin. Two years on and you haven’t figured out how to add two numbers together and plot them on a graph.

Standardise your data models across all devices make connect app the data master once the activity is synced then write that data to all devices on the account rather than letting individual devices with limited views of your activity dictate what your metrics are.

8746781 said:

I have an answer to this.

Not an answer at all.  You can add the numbers together all you like but they won't mean anything. There's no agreement amongst training professionals about how much training in one sport affects your ability to do another.

That means that, after two years, Garmin haven't worked out how to add apples to oranges. The answer is that Garmin should never have marketed a blending training status in the first place, because it isn't really possible. Maybe they'll do it anyway - it wouldn't be the first time they've released a gimmick because marketing demanded it. 

What's much more promising is the body battery feature, which measures your heart rate at rest rather than during an activity and therefore *might* be a better way of estimating your overall training status - although this is still work in progress and won't take muscular-skeletal strain into account as single-sport training status does by implication.

If you haven't got Body Battery on your device you can get something similar with a chest strap and the HRV stress app.

You're complicating! They just need to add one training load to other...just like Strava (Fitness&Freshness), Training Peaks and many other do...very simple stuff

George, within this thread, you keep on saying the same. However, this is not the issue we face here. We do not speak about different sports! The different sport issue is somehow solved by Garmin and this works if you record just with one Garmin device all the time. I don't argue whether it is solved correctly or not - maybe you would agree that for skiing as an example Garmin heavily underestimates training load. But OK, we got used to it and we don't complain - we understand that Garmin just takes average HR, which is quite low when you ski all the day.

But the issue we have in this thread is another one - we have issue that when you record activities with 2 Garmin devices, it does not merge properly neither in Garmin Connect nor in the devices. And it can even be just single sport - e.g. just cycling and no other sport. Garmin hypes TrueUp feature which should do the job done, but it does not - you see different values in both devices.

I would appreciate that you read what we write here before you post your comments.

Thanks for actually reading it and understanding I was being sarcastic. Heart rate over time for the same activity is heart rate over time. Not hard to plot and analyse. Completely agree, will just use training peaks from now on.