Yes, same here. I noticed a notable left-right imbalance when I switched from a left-only 4iiii power meter to a Quarq DZero. Apparently my body found out that it is way more “efficient” to produce only 1 additional Watt if it wants to increase the displayed power output by 2 W.
I would have loved to track my progress here, but no dice. TR, please add this feature. 
Based on previous TR comments, don’t get your hopes up on this being implemented. TR has previously said they don’t see how L/R power makes people faster.
I’m in agreement that I wish TR would capture this, even if it doesn’t see a need. Ideally TR would capture / report all metrics that each sensor supports.
When using Training Peaks, my structured workouts were sent to Garmin Connect which then synced the workout to my Garmin Edge 1030 Plus. This enabled me to do a structured workout which would a) command the trainer wattage, b) recorded the trainer sensed power, c) record left & right power data, d) record heart rate data, all from a single device and without the need for a laptop/desktop/tablet/phone. While the display of the Edge and UI is obviously not as rich as what is possible on one of those platforms, the convenience of having a single device to interact with and which collects all the data into a single file with a consistent start/stop is very valuable in my opinion. My understanding is that when the Garmin edge is doing this it is using ANT+, though I don’t know any reason why it alternatively couldn’t be done over Bluetooth (which is consistently available on iOS/Android whereas ANT+ is typically not).
As far as I can tell, Trainer Road doesn’t permit structured workouts to be exported to Garmin Connect so that a device like an Edge can be in control of the trainer instead of the Trainer Road application.
Given the inability to record the L/R data, and the inability to export a prescribed power vs time to another device to command to the trainer, the only option that is available as far as I can tell is to use two devices: 1) running trainer road and recording whatever it will and commanding the trainer, and 2) a separate device to capture L/R power pedal data. This is consistent with specific guidance from Trainer Road support:
That being said, we can have the left and right data be recorded so you can see it during or after the workout through your Garmin Edge. To do this, we’ll want to have all your training devices connected to the TrainerRoad app so it can control the workout. Then we’ll want to pair your Garmin Edge to your pedals over ANT+ to record your power and the left/right data.
After completing the workout, you’ll want to close and save the TrainerRoad workout and then a few minutes after close and save the workout on your Garmin Edge so that the workout from TrainerRoad can sync before the workout on your Garmin Edge syncs to the other applications. =)
I think @Nate_Pearson said they aren’t even recording L/R balance. Which is a pity, because if you don’t even track it, you can’t know whether it is important.
I can think of a multitude of reasons here, even forgetting performance: e. g. if I am coming back from an injury, it gives me an indication on how far things have gone back to normal. Some left/right imbalances are not natural (as mine was), so tracking this number could help improve performance (just glancing at this number during indoor workouts has had a huge effect, I went from 44/56–45/55 to 49/51–50/50).
I agree completely. It’s also the case that if you don’t track it, you can’t evaluate if you could derive helpful information from the data. Personally, I’d like to know if my L/R balance changes the longer I’m riding or by power levels. For example: am I pretty even up to just under threshold, but then the balance starts drifting one way consistently? If so, then maybe doing one legged strengthening work would help at higher wattage levels.
For me exhaustion might trigger going back to my uneven split. But since all the information is fleeting, it is hard to make out any trends, neither across intervals nor across workouts.
I completely agree. For me, one of the main benefits of using a trainer indoors is that it affords me the time/safety to look more carefully at my L/R balance while I ride. Doing this outdoors on the road is typically not as feasible because of traffic, other riders, road conditions, etc. I have data screens on my Garmin Edge 1030 specifically to see how I’m doing on 3s, 10s, and lap average L/R balance and I really need this information to be able to know whether what I think I’m telling my legs to do is actually getting done.
While I agree that there is likely no need to try to get precisely 50/50 because there will always be some imbalances (skeletal or nuero-muscular), when you have an injury or some other major imbalance (like 60/40), I find it hard to believe that TR would die on the hill of saying this simply isn’t important – especially if you were close to 50/50 pre-injury and would like to know how much more you have to go before getting back to “normal”.
The amount of time debating this is ludicrous. Collecting and logging the data, and literally doing nothing with it in the real-time display or the post ride view within Trainer Road simply cannot be a large task. If they implemented that, then they could take their time looking at how many people using TR have a power meter capable of L/R measurement and whether it would be worth their time to add some analysis/visualization to the UI or not. Even if they don’t choose to analyze/visualize, there is a pretty clear signal from their users in this thread to simply record the data so that their users can take a look elsewhere.
@Nate_Pearson While you might not think it matters, there are clearly many here who do think it matters. Do you have a large imbalance or have you had to recover from an injury that took you from whatever your baseline L/R balance is to something drastically far from it? If so, did you look at L/R balance? If not, what would you tell somebody who used to be 50/50 (or whatever – doesn’t have to be 50/50), got injured, and is now 60/40 or worse?
The goal isn’t to get to exactly 50/50. If “normally” you are 52/48 and you have an injury (or a break in training, or switch bikes or fit) that puts you at 60/40, I find it helpful to know when you are back to normal (or whether that new bike or fit is something you will ever adapt to or not). Trainer Road doesn’t enable this, and I find this disappointing.
I think we can all agree that long term injury avoidance is a shared goal. I have to believe “large” (e.g., 60/40 or worse – yes there are folks out there like this) imbalances need to be investigated, monitored, and potentially addressed. Trainer Road simply doesn’t even offer the potential to address them, which I find disappointing.
I also work in software and get that everything needs to be prioritized based on what most customers are asking for (or complaining about) and what you believe to be the right direction for the company. I also appreciate that not all L/R power meters systems are created equal and that each specific product may have annoying nuances that you would have to deal with – so it isn’t a simple one line change. But establishing the ability to log it, and then incrementally adding support for different platforms and pedals/cranks seems like a reasonable thing that could be done “in the background” while you are developing the bigger sexier features of TR. I know I would appreciate it and a lot of folks on this thread would as well.
I’ve had a knee replacement and use L/R balance to help with my recovery. It would be nice to see it on TR but I just have my Karoo running and showing power balance as I ride (and also use TP for analysing outdoor rides).
Another wrinkle in this feature request is that some pedals (Garmin Vector 3 and newer Rally pedals) only support sending L/R data via ANT+, not Bluetooth. See page 7 and 19 of the Garmin Rally user manual.
This would mean that Trainer Road could only support this on devices which had ANT+ radios; on laptops/desktops this would be a simple USB ANT+ device, on tablets/phones it gets considerably messier:
True, but I wouldn’t hold that against TR if they supported for keeping track of left/right balance. That’s a weird limitation of Garmin’s pedals, one that might be lifted with a software update.
I’d basically make a simple technical decision if I were TR: just keep all the data recorded by all sensors even if you don’t intend to incorporate that into your algorithms or if you don’t surface this to the user. I don’t really see any downsides and it could have big upsides. For if it turns out that a certain metric is useful after all, you could not just train your new algorithms on that, but you could also let TR users explore past workouts with the new tools. One example might be left-right balance: what was my L/R balance 5 years ago? Has it shifted subtly over the years (e. g. with overuse injuries)?
Agreed.
For the Garmin Vector/Rally users out there, please request that Garmin enable L/R balance data be made available via Bluetooth by making a request here:
https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/
I’ve made the request, maybe if enough people mention it, Garmin will take note and prioritize. This would then at least solve the problem of the data not being available for logging via Bluetooth, and the ball would then be in Trainer Road’s court. I would be totally fine if they just logged it during my workout and I could examine after the fact elsewhere, though I do think if it was available in Trainer Road I would have no reason to ever use anything else (Connect, Training Peaks, etc).
iirc it was just the ANT+ Cycling Dynamics that isn’t transmitted over BLE. L/R balance should be. I can check on a set of XC200 shortly and review the FIT file contents.
Interesting, that would be great to know. How do you check that, Golden Cheetah or some other utility?
TrainerRoad does support this via “outside workouts”.
Once the workout is on your Garmin device you can use it indoors and the Garmin can control your smart trainer.
Interesting, that is a neat little hack. So first step would be to convert the TR workout to Outside; once that is done, how do you get the workout into Connect and on the Garmin device? Should it just show up under the training plan workouts calendar on the device if everything is properly synced?
Ok, I think I figured it out, the Pushing an Outside Workout to Garmin article has helpful information. For my workout tomorrow, I converted it to outside and it has shown up in Garmin Connect on my phone and the Garmin Connect website. I’ll see how it looks on the Edge 1030 Plus tomorrow when I give this a try.
I actually prefer the idea of having everything controlled by my Edge so that I don’t have to fiddle with any extra devices and it is identical to what I would interact with on a real life ride.
Do you know if there is a way to avoid having to push the lap button to transition to the next power segment? Not a big deal but if that was possible it would be effectively identical to the TR app.
Edge 1030 Plus → Rally XC200 (device preferences, switch to BLE). Power Balance showing as I expected. No ANT+ Cycling Dynamics (also as expected over BLE). FITFileExplorer shows the left_right_balance is recorded the same as when paired over ANT+.
On the topic of data recording, I had a similar rant recently about the Karoo/2. They’re not recording gear information making SRAM AXS Web useless. Storage is CHEAP. Data should always be recorded if it’s available. There’s always a chance it could be used in the future. Maybe for things we haven’t even thought of yet.
Not sure if I’m understanding correctly but most of the intervals are timed and switch automatically. Think it’s usually just the initial warm up that waits for the lap button input? Don’t think there is a way around it because TR don’t allow the workouts to be edited after syncing.
Bear in mind, if someone is 60/40, that is NOT a 10% difference, or even a 20% difference If one leg is giving out 60% of the effort, whilst the other is 40%. At 200W total output, 60/40 suggests that one leg is contributing 120W, (60% of 200W) the other contributing 80W. (40% of 200) That 40% leg would have to increase it power by 50% (another 40W) to reach the same power as the 60% leg. That is actually a 50% deficiency in the leg increasing from 80W to 120W.
That is a lot!!!.
Persionally I have a 53/47 imbalance. I am working really hard on hip flexor strength and flexibility around that area, to free up that extra percentage difference.
I am less convinced by having this real time, but it would be interesting. I get this from Garmin connect on my Vector 3 duals. It is useful as when on my road bike I am much more 50/50 but on the TT bike I have that imbalance.
Seriously, please don’t tell me sorting this out will not make me faster on my TT bike.
