Combining Activities

Sounds like fun!

This should be possible using .TCX files, if you're careful. I've created and modified .TCX files quite a bit, but I haven't done exactly what you're asking. Here's what I'd try, and I recommend that you do a test run of this well before the race, to be sure it works:

1) For simplicity, I'm assuming that the race has transition points, such as in a relay, where you hand off to someone else. Or if you're the only person, many long-distance races have transition points from one part of the race to the next. But you can also do something close to this procedure without transition points.

2) I'd also be sure that all the user settings on both devices are the same, to avoid confusion during the race.

3) Delete all activities from both devices. You may want to also delete all totals from both devices so that you can easily get a running total during the race by adding the current totals from both devices.

4) Be sure that the clock time on both devices is accurate to the second. This shouldn't be a problem if they're locked onto the same satellites. I'm not sure how important this step really is, but it seems best.

5) When you start the race, hit the start button on the first device.

6) At least 5 minutes before you get to the transition point where you'd like to swap devices, turn on the charged device so that it has time to lock onto the satellites and adjust the clock time.

7) When you get to the transition point, hit the stop button on the spent device and hit the start button on the charged device. Try to hit both of these buttons at the same exact time to be sure the data is aligned as closely as possible.

8) (Have your support person do this, since you're racing.) Save the activity on the spent device. You may need to upload the activity to Garmin Connect at that point and then delete it from the device, if the device doesn't have sufficient memory to store the full 15 hours of data. I've had many data corruption issues on several Forerunner 310XT devices with less than 15 hours of data, even though it's advertised to store 20 hours of data. Garmin tells me that they're looking into that, and they recommend uploading each activity immediately and then deleting it from the device. Also, if you don't have internet connectivity, you may need to upload the activity to Garmin Training Center instead of to Garmin Connect. This entire procedure is very similar in Garmin Training Center, and it has the benefit of not requiring internet connectivity. Garmin tells me that soon they'll no longer update Garmin Training Center, but I'm trying to convince them to keep it alive.

9) (Have your support person do this, since you're racing.) Charge the spent device.

10) Repeat steps 6-9 until the end of the race.

11) At the end of the race, hit the stop button on the device you're currently using. Save the activity on the device and upload it to Garmin Connect.

12) Be sure that all the activities from both devices have been uploaded into Garmin Connect.

13) In Garmin Connect, go to the details screen of each activity of the race and select Export, then select TCX File. Be sure you save all of the TCX files somewhere that you can find them. After doing this for all of the activities of the race, you will end up with as many TCX files as activities that you uploaded.

14) Make backups of all these TCX files so that in case something goes wrong in this process, you can always upload them back into Garmin Connect.

15) In a text editor, open the TCX file for the first activity of the race. TCX files are XML files, with lots of tagged blocks of data. You'll now merge all the activity files by copying all of the lap data from all of the other activity files into the first activity file. Here's how:

16) In another window of the text editor, open the next TCX file in sequence. Find the first lap tag in the file, which looks something like this:

<Lap StartTime="2012-04-27T11:05:13.000Z">

17) Find the last </Lap> tag in the same file. Select all the lines from the first <Lap...> tag to the last </Lap> tag, including these two lines. Copy them to the clipboard.

18) Go back to the window in the text editor containing the TCX file for the first activity. Find the very last </Lap> tag in it. Put the cursor in the first column of the following line. Paste from the clipboard.

19) Repeat steps 16-18 until you run out of TCX files for the race.

20) Save the TCX file for the first activity of the race. If you've done everything correctly, that is the file that now contains all the data for the entire race.

21) Garmin Connect currently doesn't allow multiple activities with the same date and time. So, in Garmin Connect, delete all the separate activities for the race. You're about to replace them all with a single activity for the entire race anyway. Remember that in step 14 you made backups of the TCX files for these activities, so you can always upload them again if needed.

22) Select the Upload button on the top right of the Garmin Connect Dashboard. Then select Manual Upload.

23) Select Choose File and then choose the TCX file for the first activity of the race, which as you'll recall is the one that now contains all the data for the entire race.

24) Select Upload Activities from File. Garmin Connect should now have a single activity for the entire race.

I didn't realize this would be so long. But I hope it's clear and accurate. Please let me know how it goes.

Hi,

Thanks for the incredibly detailed reply! I'm happy to say that I've tried it out this week with the two devices and was able to successfully combine and import a new event without issue (only thing to watch out for is that the Laps are listed in increasing date order to avoid the trail on the map from jumping around).

Thanks again, and I'm now looking forward to Friday's event knowing I'll be able to easily view all the data afterwards!

-- Andy

Excellent! I'm glad it works for you. Have a great race!