Export running metrics

I think the only file format that includes all the metrics, is the FIT file format ("Original" in the GC Web menu). It is a binary file format, and you need an appropriate tool for reading or converting it.

... as for the FIT file tools - the free one is for example at https://developer.garmin.com/fit/overview/, but there are several 3rd party alternatives, usually more user-friendly, like for example the FIT File Repair Tool (http://fitfilerepairtool.info/)

Thanks for the quick reply trux.

Unfortunatly, the fitrepairtool page gives an http 500 error.

I have had a quick look at the fit tools provided by Garmin, but--and I'm sorry if I'm going of on a rant here--could Garmin not simply have provided this data in a simple user readable format, rather than providing an esoteric libary for various programming languages. If they would just give it out in an .xml file, anybody with a text editor and awk, python, excel, whatever, would be able to do what they like with the data they have litterally broken sweat over making. I will see if I can use these libraries, so generously provided by Garmin, and if I manage to put together anything of any use, I'll put it up as open software for anyone to use. I do suspect, however, that it will take longer than simply piping a text file into some graphing software. And maybe I'll just give up on it, and my data will only be available to me via the closed environment Garmin wants me to stay in, because apparently, their main motivation is not providing top quality instruments for measuring running data, but rather to keep money-paying customers' eyes fixed on the pretty colors on their website. Jeez.

They went to great lengths to create the "Flexible and Interoperable Data Transfer" format wich is neither flexible nor Interoperable, while leaving alone the option of a universally readable, and very much interoperable ASCII text file. What is going on with these people?

5758450 said:

the fitrepairtool page gives an http 500 error.

Surely just a temporary problem on the server. Check it out later. It is frequently used, and well supported

5758450 said:

could Garmin not simply have provided this data in a simple user readable format

It is there too, it is enough to look more than just the home page  - check out the option FIT CSV Tool - and convert the FIT files easily to CSV.

Hi again,

So, I have found some solutions that should work for the most part. Perhaps the people here are well familiar with the software mentioned below, but I'll document my findings for anyone in my previous shoes.

First of all, there is a python library called fitparse, which I tried out and works pretty well. You can easily get all the data that you want and pipe it into gnuplot or whatever. The library, and some simple documentation can be found on github:

github.com/.../python-fitparse

Using this library, I was able to verify that all the data I was looking for, was indeed contained in the .fit file. Hurrah!

I also found that there is a program called Golden Cheetah (www.goldencheetah.org/) which can analyze this kind of data, and can in fact open .fit files. It displays nice graphs and summaries of the data. This program does seem to be designed by bikers rather than runners, and this can be noticed in the interface, but it does its job quite well nonetheless. So well, in fact, that I might not have to put on my python hat after all.

At first, I wasn't sure if all the data was included in the .fit file, since in the Golden Cheetah interface, there is a datafield called 'Cadance', which turned out to be empty. I also didn't see ground contact time or vertical oscillation anywhere. Since the other filetypes do not include all the data (and this can be checked easily with a text editor!) I suspected that maybe the .fit file didn't include all the data that was displayed in the web interface. However, after importing the .fit file, Golden Cheetah quickly displays a lot of data, and one field is called 'Ride' (note the biker slant) where some of the data is graphed up in a nice way. By clicking 'More...' in the upper left corner, and then 'Chart Settings...', a box shows up where you can tick 'Vertical Oscillation', 'Ground Contact Time', 'Cadence', and a bunch of other stuff (in particular, I keep the bike stuff unchecked).

I should mention that installing Golden Cheeta was a bit of a pain. At first, I found that there is an AUR package for the program in the Arch Linux user repositories, but compiling the code gave some errors that I'm not familiar with. Simply downloading the source code from their webpage and trying to compile it gave the same result. However, there is also an AUR package called golden-cheetah-appimage, and that somehow worked.

Finally, a programmer out there has pythoned their way around the web interface on Garmin's servers, and published the result on github:

github.com/.../garmin-connect-export

Thanks dude! This program is pretty straightforward, and it is well documented.

Cheers,
Baldur