I have been tracking various workout metrics like nutrition on the bike, liquid intake, time in aero, calorie intake, carb intake, calorie deficit, etc. Up until now I have used workout annotations, but for several reasons, I think I have grown out of it. Extracting data from it is a pain and I have to do several calculations by hand that I could automate in a simple spreadsheet or so. I’d like to see trends in nutrition (e. g. have I been fueling correctly, what about my calorie deficit). Ideally, I’d something quite flexible that allows me to add more fields in the future.
I know there are feature requests, but I have no idea whether and when TR will release these. So I’d like to roll my own solution.
Before I create my own spreadsheet or use Notes, I wanted to ask the combined wisdom of the forum and see what y’all have been using.
TrainingPeaks allows you to export data for free. You can connect the TrainerRoad sync and add whatever you need as annotations in the description/post workout info.
The resulting dataset can be analyzed in a spreadsheet. Data from the description can be pulled with regular expressions if you need it.
I’ve been doing this a while ago as I also wanted better data tracking for runs and swims. It’s a mess all together. I wish TrainerRoad was better with this.
Just to add a little detail, at the end of every ride, the Garmin will ask you how much liquid you drank and how many calories you consumed, which is what fills that data in.
@WindWarrior
I’m a Wahooligan, unfortunately. But nice to know that this is an option, too.
@ellotheth
Thanks. That looks very similar to what you can do with TrainingPeaks. How do you get the data out of it? Or can you graph these data points yourself from within the app?
Also, I am surprised nobody has mentioned the use of spreadsheets yet.
I am a sports science analyst by trade so building dashboards around my own data has become a pastime! Haha. One method I have personally liked using is a GoogleSheets document integrated with JotForm. After some initial setting up, it now just takes me 1 minute daily to enter vital info, and then the dashboard does all the work for me.
The JotForm allowed me to take the highlights from various data streams (a couple data points from Oura, a couple from TrainingPeaks, my lifting loads, a couple of wellness questions, and Sessions RPEs) and enter them with one survey each day. JotForm has an integration with GoogleSheets, so you can link it to your dashboard spreadsheet, and every time you hit submit on a survey, it will dump the data onto a sheet in the doc.
Then, I set up the spreadsheet to run calculations in the background so I never have to touch it. Every day it updates on its own. I just pop open the survey, punch in the vitals, hit submit, and then use the Sheets app on my phone to see the visualizations. If I need to do a deeper dive into any one area (say, sleep data), I go to the source and check out Oura’s app or export the CSV.
You can graph it in the app on the /fitness page, and compare different periods on the /compare page. There are some CSVs you can download but I’m not sure if everything is included.
I’d be happy to share a copy of the GoogleSheet and a copy of the JotForm survey if you’d like. Of course, the back end stuff is a little messy, so it may need some explaining!
I have built my dashes on Excel, Sheets, and Tableau (the latter of which used an API to automatically pull Strava data). But, Sheets has been the most practical. My next goal is to use my own data streams to learn R and get my Garmin (or Strava) and Oura data pulling via APIs so I literally don’t have to do anything each day except work my butt off and wear the devices (the dream! haha)
I also have a Continuous Glucose Monitor coming in for a 2-week trial this upcoming week, so I am trying to figure out how to integrate that data.
In principle, I’d love that, but I think it is missing some of the granularity I’d wish for. (I really wish TR would integrate with Apple Health to pull e. g. weight and heart rate data.)
Agreed. That should be table stakes, and I can see sooo many use cases.
Central tracking of your calorie expenditure
Rest heart rate and HRV tracking (at least the latter was supposedly among the health data the TR team wanted to include in AT)
Weight tracking (I hate and constantly forget to update my weight, and usually only do it when I do a ramp test) —> how else would you be able to compute your W/kg accurately
Tracking for multi sport athletes (no native TR solution exists here)
Yes! This has definitely been communicated to the team that this feature is wanted.
To speak to features like this moving up on the roadmap, it’s not that the team thinks these features aren’t important or useful, we definitely agree that it is!
We just have to prioritize updates that are the most effective at helping the greatest number of athletes possible get faster in the immediate future (such as incorporating unstructured rides into Adaptive Training, FTP Detection, and refining Adaptive Training as a whole).
This podcast excerpt from Nate and Jon reiterates our messaging about how the timeline of feature requests work, its definitely worth a listen.
