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Zwift integration best practices?

What's the best way to use Zwift with an Edge 530 and Garmin Connect? I've been doing more indoor rides with a Tacx Neo 2T smart trainer lately due to bad air quality from fires in California. I have my Zwift account linked to Garmin Connect so the activities do show up there. But Training Effect is always 0.0, there are no cycling dynamics, and I don't think it updates my VO2 max.

Should I record an indoor ride on my Edge 530 at the same time as I run Zwift on my laptop? Or is there a better way to do it? It feels like this stuff isn't nearly as well integrated as it ought to be.

  • I always choose Indoor Ride on my Edge. Training Status etc. are calculated on the device, not on Garmin Connect, so you are better off recording on the device and not connect your Garmin account with Zwift.

    In my case, I have dual ANT+/BT Sensors (Wahoo Tickr + Garmin Vector 3 + Kickr Core) and connect them to my Egde via ANT+ and to my iPad via Bluetooth - no problems so far.

  • I agree with ndrs. Record the ride on your Edge and run Zwift on the laptop. Then Training Effect will be calculated by your Edge. 

    You can connect your Zwift account to Strava instead of Connect. That’s how I use it. 

  • I do what Slundmark does but I would love it if my Edge 830 could be aware of the route map I am taking on Zwift.  It does seem close with metrics if I be sure to sync the Edge 830 with the power/speed sensor of the Tacx Neo2

  • If you are looking for an of the advanced metrics that the Edge offers, or if you want to see Training Load, Recovery Advisor, etc. you will need to record the activity on your Edge and not in Zwift alone. 

  • Understood but it would be nice if Garmin could get together with Zwift and build a more integrated solution. This is a common use case now and a lot of your customers have the same issue.

    The latest version of Fit File Repair Tool can merge files from Zwift and an Edge bike computer in a way that preserves training load and other metrics. I'm sure you could find a way to build similar functionality into Garmin Connect.

    www.fitfilerepairtool.info/

  • Facing the same problem ! Hope garmin comes up with a fix 

  • You can link your Zwift account to Garmin Connect and have your Zwift rides automatically uploaded from Zwift to Garmin. I’d leave the 530 out of this loop. I currently upload all Zwift rides to Strava and Garmin and it works great. 

  • Yes it does work directly now this season but still not fully :-( 

    I consider using the old  parallel recording again at least for the more intense Zwift sessions even so that with that method on my trainer I loose the correct distance and speed in Garmin.

    On the other side the imported trainings:

    • don't show time in powerzone on my watch (955)  or the edge . They do in the app.
    • do not show training effect in the ride summary and I am not fully clear if they are properly in the training load.  I see them and also the recovery time but sometimes its a bit strange like the effort is not correctly considered (This is what concerns me the most) 
    • I am also not clear how they are counted on statistics like FTP while they seem to count against VO2max
    • They do not count against the achievements/badges. Not a show stopper but still frustrating and do not understand why.

    So integration is much better then last winter season and you see them and its usable but its still not the same as with the activity recorded on the watch or the edge.