Where is the Virtual Cycle or Virtual Ride for Zwift Users?

Hi. I have the Garmin Vivomove  HR smart watch which doesn't seem to have to pickup any intensity unless it involves physically moving such as walking or rigorous work around the house. I have recently started to use a smart cycle trainer with Zwift installed on my Surface Pro. However I could not sync my HRM or Cadence sensors, unless I uninstal the Garmin Connect App from my Surface Pro due to conflict.

Like a lot of people my Garmin Vivomove HR doesn't record my intensity when using my smart trainer.

Surely if your heart rate increases above the rate you set it to, no matter what causes you heart rate to increase, then the Garmin watch should record it. Question to Garmin Support is Why Not???

Hi Cheddarman - in order for me to use the built in HR on my fenix 3 hr i have to broadcast this - i do this by selecting settings on watch then selecting sensors - on the next screen i select wrist heart rate  then Broadcast HR - i am also using a surface pro 6 but utilizing a ANT+ usb dongle . this seems to work for me using a dumb trainer with a cadence and a speed sensor. - not sure why your hr isnnt changing even in static postions

So glad I found this thread! I have a Vivoactive 4. When on my Tacx trainer wearing my Garmin Dual Chest strap for Heart rate broadcast to the RGT cycling platform, my heart rate can be up in the 160's but my watch only shows about 90 to 110 BPM! So all metrics based on HR such as calories etc do not reflect the effort put in. If I go on an outdoor ride recording on my Garmin Edge 1000, then the watch magically reflects the HR of the cycling activity. Under both of these scenarios, the watch is in idle mode on my wrist and NOT recording an activity.

When I reported this, Garmin initially suggested that my watch was faulty and replaced it - TWICE! It is now being suggested that this anomoly is 'By Design' but no one seems to know at the moment how that 'design' algorithm works :-( . I am still in contact with Garmin in relation to this and have found a wonderfully helpful agent there to take this seriously and investigate further. I do not wish to provide details of that agent or any case reference at this time.

The only way I can get the HR to read 'correctly' during an indoor activity is to start (say) an indoor cycling workout which is pointless because I'm already recording the data elsewhere! If I send the .fit file (exported from RGT) of my indoor activity on the Tacx, to Garmin Connect I then find that TSS/IF etc are not applied to those rides :-(

The whole 'integration' seems a bit of a mess! The basic premise that HR on the watch will contribute to total calories (and other metrics) for the day, is at best wrong and at worst deceptive in the extreme! Why should I have to start an activity on my watch just to account for vigorous housework/gardening etc (which most Drs would say is good for you) simply to get the watch to record HR above some pre-determined glass ceiling! (as CheddarMan says).

The watch should in my opinion record ALL HR data at ALL values/intensities regardless of if the watch is recording an activity or not!

I can see absolutely no downside to doing this. Activities from other devices are recorded separately and there is no addition of the calorie burn from (say) a Garmin Edge to the daily calories recorded by the watch in Garmin Connect (as far as I can see). If there is an overlap then it should be quite simple to negate it! 

Hi all. I have just learned to live with it.

To be honest I am very disappointed with the functionality of my Garmin watch. My wife has a fit it which works miles better on just about all functionality. The main reason I chose the Garmin Vivomove HR was because I prefer to have a proper looking round faced watch. Guess I have shot myself in the foot. To read text messages is not easy, to set alarms from the watch is not easy, you have to be very careful how you connect the watch to be charged up otherwise you get the garmin symbol appear on the watch and you lose some of your daily achievements for some reason. I think that for the vast amount I paid for the watch that I feel very ripped of bit to late to do anything about it.

I will certainly look somewhere else for my next smart watch.

On the other hand I am very happy with my Garmin Edge 1000. It's just that Garmin have a lot to learn and improve their smart watches if they want to compete in that market. If my experience of a garmin smart watch are anything to go by they should stop competing in the smart watch market and stick with what they are good at.

Thanks for posting this!

Still waiting on something like this. Missed out on a badge over the weekend as my activity didn’t count I found out from support as I did it through Zwift. If I’d used the indoor bike option and not Zwift I would have been alright. Need a way to be able to achieve it all.

Wow, so they now allow rides uploaded from Zwift  to contribute to "training load" and "training status" but not challenges?

Seems reasonable to me.

Why though? All the same data is available through Zwift -> Garmin. Unless something is missing that the Challenges/Badges need to interpret (but I can't think of what would be missing) these virtual cycling sessions should definitely count as any other cycling activity towards challenges/badges.