Garmin Cycle Coach Plan and/or Associated Race suddenly screwed up

I am in week 8 of 16 for a Garmin Cycle Coach plan, linked to an upcoming race on Oct 27 (Whaka100).  Last night my watch stopped showing any suggested workouts for the race, and there appears to be a problem with the plan and/or the attached race. On Garmin Connect Web the plan is still active, says week 8 of 16 and all the details are correct. The Workout Schedule shows bike icons for rest of this week (6 days), but clicking on to the schedule to see the workouts just loads a blank page.   The plan also looks correct on Connect App, but the Workout Schedule is completely blank for every week in the future (and the past).  Tapping on "Plan Overview" in the Connect App crashes the app and goes back to the app home screen/dashboard.  The race shows up correctly in Connect (web and app) and all the details are correct.

On the watch, the Primary race glance now says "No Race".  The Race Calendar glance does show the race, but it only displays the name and 0:00. Selecting the race from the race calendar glance just shows a gold trophy with time 0:00 and distance 0km, as if it has finished. See screen shots. From the Garmin Coach glance on the watch, all daily suggestions for the upcoming week are for running (!).

I can't tell whether it's a problem with the coaching plan that is affecting the race event, or the other way around. Or both.  Either way, I can't see any way that might sort it out other than deleting the race (which will also end the coach plan) and re-creating it. But then I will lose the 8 weeks of training data, which was the entire base phase and the start of the build phase - and the new plan will presumably start with a new shortened base phase, or may not even create at all as I am now less than 8 weeks from the race.  I would really like to avoid this outcome.

Naturally I have already tried all the standard processes, soft reset of the watch, uninstall/reinstall connect app, uninstall/reinstall Express, remove device from connect and express and add back in, reset glances, edited some properties of the race and garmin coach plan and re-saved them, manually sent the race to the watch, etc, etc.

I don't mind trying a full factory reset just to see if it helps, but only if this won't reset all my historic data and training metrics, such as training load/readiness, VO2, ftp tests - is all of this stored on Connect or is some of it only on the watch?  If all the metrics reset, any subsequent suggested workouts are going to be heavily compromised.

  • Ive had a similar problem with my Garmin Coach cycling plan. It would show on my Fenix 7 (that was a primary device at the time). it would show in my calendar both on connect app and web page. As I have Tacx it would not show on my TACX app (It is meant to under scheduled workouts), or my Garmin Fenix 6 or Garmin Edge 830 which are all compatible for training plans and should all be syncable for using with my indoor TACX trainer. My Fenix 7 is in the middle of be replaced so back to Fenix 6 as primary device. That still won't show the calendar entries from a coach plan. When I go to indoor cycle it comes up with the watches own suggestions. 

    I thought I'd end my coach plan, by cancelling it. Which I did . I then thought I'd set up a new cycling coaching plan under the "improve my fitness" tab but now it won't work. just keep get oppps something went wrong. All is logged with the Helpdesk, and has been with the Helpdesk since the 20th Aug.

  • I needed to get something going again asap, so I gave in and deleted the race event, which ended the Garmin Coach plan.  Then I created a new event and a new cycle coach plan, and I am back up and running again.  Fortunately, it has not had a significant overall effect on the plan schedule.  The new plan has just given me one week of Base training, before going straight back into the Build phase (which I had just started on the old plan), and the intensities look similar to those I was expecting this week from the old plan.  I may just be lucky based on the timing of the event, and the stage of the plan I was in, but certainly in this case it ended up not being a big deal.

    Of course, I am just a mediocre but enthusiastic cyclist, so the minor disruption to the training plan will likely have exactly zero effect on my performance in the upcoming race Laughing but I could see this being a much bigger issue for a competitive or professional athlete.  If you believe all the marketing hype, then these are exactly Garmin's target audience for their high-end watches (965, Epix, Fenix, Mars) etc.  I would argue that a professional athlete is surely not using Garmin coaching plans - they would have their own personal team of experts - but it is easy to see there is a conflict somewhere.  If the Epix is, indeed, targeting serious athletes then the "serious" features that it is pushing should be flawless.  Especially since these are the very features that separate it from mid-tier devices such as the Forerunner 265, and also the main competitors.  My wife has a 265, and unless you are a serious athlete, the only difference you would notice is the cosmetic look of the case.  And of course the 265 has the new-style UI that is not coming to the Epix Wink.

    Anyway, I am sure the issue for me was that the race date was corrupt somewhere in the bowels of the event definition.  All the symptoms pointed to the watch (and Garmin Connect) thinking that the race had taken place on Sunday 1 Sep (exactly 8 weeks early), but the coach plan was correctly expecting to run for another 8 weeks and didn't know what to do with itself.    I doubt that is going to help anyone else in the future but at least I have a likely explanation for what went wrong.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member 8 months ago

    Hi!
    I am experiencing exactly the same thing on my Edge 1050 and MARQ Gen2. Somehow the cycling coach defaulted my sport to running on my coach widget, and the app (and web) does not show any future workout even though the plan is still active… Has yours been stable since you reset the coaching plan?

  • Yes, the plan and workouts have been stable since I stopped it and started a new one.  But I don't trust it at all now, which is a real shame.  And I am just using it as a supplement rather than the primary training tool.

    I think it will take several more plan cycles without any hiccups before I will feel comfortable to rely on the Garmin cycle coach again.  

  • My plan has also been ok since stopping and starting it, though pairing it up with my Fenix 8 today seemed troublesome as it wouldn’t control the power setting of my smart trainer. 

  • I have experienced several .... let's call them nuances rather than bugs .... when using my Epix to control the smart trainer for workouts.   It works fine for me though if I make sure the trainer is connected, then select "Follow workout" for the control trainer option and then start the workout.  The watch correctly controls the trainer using erg mode.

  • I spoke too soon.  Woke up this morning to find that the plan had crapped out again.  Watch showing the same Medal with a 0:00 for the race, and no more Cycle Coach workouts scheduled, either in Connect or on the watch.  It's a joke really.  I would have to say based on my experience that the Cycle Coach adaptive plan simply is not fit for purpose.  I highly recommend *not* relying on it for any serious training.

    Fortunately I was expecting it to fail again so I'm following a plan entirely outside of the Garmin ecosystem.

  • I had a similar experience with the Garmin Run Coach plan on my FR965. It was triggered when I did a cycling activity, the run coach plan then got confused and stopped working in a similar way as you describe. I deleted the race and plan and started again. I may try another cycle activity to see if it is reproducible. 

  • I've just had a similar issue where my Garmin Cycling Coach plan (the adaptative one) set on "Improve fitness" goal completely disappeared from my Garmin Connect web or Android app. The schedule of previous and future workouts suddenly disappears as I reported via https://forums.garmin.com/apps-software/mobile-apps-web/f/garmin-connect-web/389367/garmin-cycling-coach-workouts-disappeared-today/1852416.

    I identified the issue in my case which is definitely a bug with Garmin hardware. Basically when I completely turn off my Garmin Edge 1040, start it and open the Garmin Connect app, when the Edge 1040 sync, all the scheduled workouts get erased. The only option I have is to delete the plan and re-create it.

    I guess I now need to make sure to not restart my Edge 1040 to avoid that and only let it go into sleep mode.