Indoor Row Connecting to Concept2 FE-C as "Trainer"

Hey all, just wanted to point out that my F6 Sapphire is doing ANT FE-C discovery on Indoor Row - is there an expectation that Indoor Row should be pulling power, stroke, or speed data into the activity from this?

If so, that'd be amazing in the futurejust saying : )

  • Great!! Finally! Amazing! Thank you Garmin!

  • What’s also cool is that I’ve found if you create a Custom type of workout in Connect, with varying distance intervals (basic example in the screen shot below), it executes properly in the Row Indoor app. That, for me, is offering a genuine enhancement to my C2 indoor rower training, as the PM5 can’t readily be programmed for this kind of mixed interval lengths. I’ll have to do some more experimenting, to see how much more can be done with Custom workouts in Connect and the Row Indoor app.  Also cool that the Row Indoor app always does distance in metres (which is the universal standard for indoor rowing), even though my distance setting on the Fenix is in miles (I was worried Row Indoor would show yards, which would have been a pain). So a really good implementation as far as I can tell so far; well done Garmin!

  • That is truly helpful!! Great! Have to try it today ...

  • In case anyone wants to set a target in workout steps, the Custom type of workout accepts pace (not power sadly), but only as min/mile or min/km (depending upon your units settings in Connect).  So I've quickly thrown together the conversion table below, so the rowing min/500m numbers can be quickly converted when creating a workout.

    Rowing Pace Conversion.pdf

  • To wet the appetite of those who are wary of installing beta software (although I've rarely experienced serious issues with the Fenix betas and 12.77 beta seems fine to me so far).  I'm really happy with how this has been implemented by Garmin, having just done a pyramid intervals workout (as per the first screen grab below) on my Concept 2 rower, using a workout from Connect executed on my Fenix 6X Pro Solar; it all 'just worked'! Sweat smile  The data recorded by my Fenix 6X aligns with that recorded by the PM5 and uploaded to the Concept 2 Logbook, so a good confidence check there too.

    I grabbed some screenshots from the Fenix 6X along the way too, to show the sort of functionality that works when executing a workout (target zone gauge was all good).  The only thing that was a little inconsistent is that the workout steps were listed in miles (rather than metres) and the pace shown in the top half of the workout gauge was in mph (rather than min/500m); that said, all of the new data fields were in the correct units for rowing, so the workout step and gauge units are not a particular problem in reality.  I found the distance countdown for each interval (lower half of the gauge screenshots below) displayed correctly in metres and worked perfectly, as did the time countdown for the recovery and cooldown steps.  Even the 500m auto laps kicked in as they should.  For me there's very little to fault and everything to praise on the whole!

    • Pace vs target pace workout 'gauge' with distance count down:

    • Recovery count down:

    • Some of the new data fields (Listed top to bottom and left to right: HR | Power | Strokes/min | Pace in min/500m | Timer | Time of Day | Distance in metres).

    • The result I wanted from a pyramid interval workout!
    • Very nice! Quick question ... Do you need to have the watch on the wrist for strokes? Or is that metric coming from PM5?
  • from the new beta announcement

    There is a difference on how the two apps record the data: 

    - Garmin takes all the time of the activity

    - ErgData/Concept2 logbook takes just the time when you were rowing

    For example, I was so happy that this is working now so I went to do a test(I do not row very often in the last moths due to some health issues i have to address on my back)

    - garmin shows 16min time/avg pace 2.41

    connect.garmin.com/.../5852889749

    - concept2 shows 14 min time/avg pace 2.17

    log.concept2.com/.../48521957

    The difference comes from gamin not considering the pause i've taken after first 7minutes

    The 2nd lap was the pause period - i was moving my hand playing with the music on my phone. 

    Curious how would behave if I would have the watch next to me, not on my hand. 

    Do you need to have the watch on the wrist for strokes? Or is that metric coming from PM5?

    I would suppose  it comes from the PM5 now and you do not have to wear the watch

  • Do you need to have the watch on the wrist for strokes? Or is that metric coming from PM5?

    In a quick test, it appears to be coming from the PM5.  I guess that technically means you could row without the watch on your wrist (but nearby), if you have a HR strap connected; but then you'd have to leave the watch somewhere close enough you can read the screen on it, if you want to do workouts from Connect and the like.

  • I'll need to do a bit more testing to work out the behaviour if you run a workout on the PM5 (rather than on the Fenix 6X).  I do wonder if the PM5 will stop transmitting some/all data during its programmed rest periods.  I often saw a discrepancy between the Concept 2 Logbook data and the same data uploaded to Strava from Concept 2, when I did intervals using the PM5 functions, where Strava included the time and distance during the rests, but Concept 2 Logbook does not; so you will get a difference in summary figures if that is the case.  In my test earlier, my PM5 was in the 'Just Row' mode and the data correlation was excellent (but I did try to start and finish the watch activity as close as physically practical to starting and stopping rowing, otherwise I would have got a much longer time on the Garmin and that would have inevitably led to a lower summary pace than the Concept 2 logbook; not sure there's any way around that for Garmin).