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Tracking indoor training (e.g., The Sufferfest) with Garmin 530 to get Firstbeat data

sublimity
over 5 years ago

Hey all,

It's getting to be the time again to train indoors, which I do with a Tacx Neo. Of course, having the new Garmin as a toy, I would love to continue to get data that comes from the device like Vo2max updates and aerobic/anaerobic load indicators that feed into Garmin Connect. If I run The Sufferfest on my computer, however, and have my Garmin tracking the data as well, I get duplicated activity entries in Strava and Connect.

How do all of you handle that duplication of effort? At the moment I just delete the Garmin activity from Strava and the Sufferfest activity from Garmin and it works. But is there a more elegant solution that lets one track things more completely?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    If you are going to routinely record the workout on the Garmin, perhaps disconnect Sufferfest from Strava and GC? 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Tedious isn't it.

    If you are definately recording the activity twice (app + Garmin Device) then you don't need to disconnect the applications.  Instead you can go to Connect - Account Settings - Account Information and selecitvly choose what type of data is shared between the apps and Connect by using the sliders.

    Also, for the Sufferfest, when you save the activity you can  deselect which apps to share the activity with. I deselect Connect but leave Strava so that the badge from SF appears. This does mean I get a duplicate in Strava but its easy to just delete that one.  Zwift and TrainerRoad don't offer this option unfortunately.  
    As for a more long-term fix then I can offer the following suggestions/feature requests.

    1. We all lobby Zwift, TrainerRoad, TheSufferfest, Rouvy and any others to include FirstBeat metrics and licensing in their applications. However, this would likely result in an increase to the subscription costs for each of those to cover the FirstBeat license costs.  I've no idea if FirstBeat would entertain licensing apps rather than devices as their model seems to geared around the later.
    2. I’ve previously floated the idea of a Garmin Connect “Premium” Service. This paid for addition to Garmin Connect could include the licenses for the FirstBeat metrics and the calcs performed on the backend rather than on the device. The Premium Service could mop up other features like Physio True Up etc at Garmin’s discretion to add value to the service although I completely understand that there may be some reluctance to take away features that you have at the present time. This might also change the revenue model that Garmin have in place from one whereby they use the new features to generate sales in new devices to more of a regular recurring revenue model based on subscriptions rather than irregular device purchases.
    3. Garmin just buy’s FirstBeat and locks out other competitors. They can choose what to do with the algorithm’s and functionality that they see fit. I’ve no idea what the market value of FirstBeat is or how realistic this one is at all.
    4. Suck it up and delete the duplicates because none of the above are ever going to happened Frowning2

    Just some ideas you understand.