I have a Garmin Edge 530 and a Fenix watch (which, in addition to having all of the sensor connections of the 530, also measures my HR). I train on TR (and ride outside), run inside and out, and go to the gym for weight training. I also use Strava and Garmin Connect to keep a record of activities.
Any advice on the correct setup of all of this? Should I record and sync cycling activities (TR and outside) on the 530, the fenix, TR, all three, or just two? I’m trying to avoid repeat entries.
If it matters, Garmin Connect is the primary “keeper of activities” (it tracks runs, rides, and weight training sessions, as well as all-day HR, etc.). To me, it is the most important record of activities.
I’ve seen multiple answers on Reddit and Garmin forums for non-TR activities. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of agreement and sometimes even conflicting advice / conclusions.
I have been using TR only for my indoor TR workouts. It syncs to Garmin and to Strava just fine without duplicates. The only issue I’ve encountered is if I have a technological issue…
If you have to end a TR indoor ride and then continue from a different device:
Strava and Garmin will upload the first part of the ride as an activity
Ideally, you delete this activity after continuing your ride from a different device
Then the full ride will upload.
If you can’t get the initial part deleted, you will need to delete from Strava and then upload the data file. Garmin Connect will show both the partial and completed ride; just delete the partial ride.
I am currently using a HR strap, but when I wanted to use my Fenix to measure record my pulse, I just set it to “Broadcast Mode,” and let TR pick that up.
I use the Edge for outside rides, but I’ve only done this twice. I think if I were using the Fenix for HR, I would broadcast my HR, just like with indoor rides.
Same boat. I typically record outside rides on the ForeRunner 935 and the Edge, and then delete one on Garmin Connect. Strava seems to know to combine the two.
Indoor rides I set TR to export to Strava and Garmin connect, and don’t use the watch to record.
It looks like both of you have come to the same conclusion: TR workouts recorded only on TR and synced to Garmin Connect and Strava after; Outdoor rides on one or both (and delete one if both); runs, etc., on Fenix.
If I do this, will the all day battery / recovery time features on the Fenix / in Garmin Connect still work?
I’m surprised Garmin users haven’t encountered this enough that the solution would be built in. I know there is a “true-up” feature, but from the reviews, it looks like it doesn’t work as well as it should.
Well, the all-day battery life is certainly better! All-day pulse monitoring works fine. It uses the pulse to grab intensity minutes, if you care about those.
I have never taken much stock in Garmin’s recovery time estimates. It does irritate me that my Fenix only shows me my latest activity recorded with it, but from a hardware perspective, that seems reasonable to me.
I like the Chrome Extension (and future app) Elevate to get my current Fitness/Fatigue/Form values.
Enable Physio True Up on both devices in Garmin Connect. This will transfer training metrics and most stats between the devices.
Wrist HR samples more frequently and is more accurate if you record an activity than in 24/7 monitoring mode. So if you are going to use wrist HR rather than a chest strap, you probably should record on the Fenix.
If you record on both the Fenix and the Edge, you can discard rather than saving at the end of the workout on one of them to avoid duplicates. Or you can use Extended Display to record on the Fenix and view on the Edge.
I have TR set up to sync one way (from GC to TR) to get outside rides into TR, but not to send TR to GC (to avoid duplication).
Strava and GC are connected, but Strava and TR are not. So everything goes through GC.
I don’t take the number in Garmin’s Recovery Hours to be the literal truth, but it is a guide. If it is less than 24 hours, I probably am good to go. If it is 48 hours, I probably am carrying some fatigue - I may still ride on a Sunday with fatigue, knowing I have a recovery day scheduled for Monday.) 72 hours shows a lot of fatigue, and I should probably only do recovery efforts. Recovery estimates do go a bit wonky when your VO2Max changes - if you are regularly switching between outside and Indoor rides (where your HR can be a lot higher due to heat) then VO2Max can be all over the place.
Body Battery should pick up on high stress after a workout, even if you didn’t record the workout itself on the watch.
Wow. Thanks for taking the time to explain all of that! That is my setup - Edge 530 and Fenix 6.
I’ll follow your lead. Good to know about 24/7 monitoring vs when recording an activity (and makes perfect sense).
As to the accuracy of the recovery and battery measurements, I’m coming from Whoop. Using it for about 8 months gave me a good feel for HRV and recovery. I’ll be curious to see if my experience with Garmin matches up. And I tend to agree on using the results loosely. I’d like to think it’s still valuable information, though.
first of all, i don’t understand why some of you record on 2 Garmin devices to the same time, hope, i understand it right? you have duplicate or wrong Training Load metrics in Garmin, or?
for my case:
TR control my Neo2 and i only upload my TR recording to Strava, not to Garmin, for Garmin i record it twice with Edge 830 and this record i only use in Garmin to get all the Training Load metric ans so.
first i finish my TR record and wait till it is uploaded and synced with Strava, in the meanhile i stopped my Garmin, but i wait 1 or 2 minutes with the activity save, so i haven’t duplicate records on Strava and Training Peaks get the sync from Garmin, again no duplicate records, this works totally fine for me
and of course my FR945 don’t record anything, it only count intensity minutes, but sometimes i get abnormal heartbeat alarms, because the watch don’t check that i do a indoor ride
first, thanks a lot for the detailed instructions.
Does this setting prevent you from pushing workouts from TR to your garmin for outdoors training sesh?
