I’m fairly new to TrainerRoad but I’ve noticed that when I do a workout using the app on my phone the miles that end up getting reported to Strava seem accurate but the same ride is reported to Garmin Connect as being about 8 to 10 miles longer. So for example if I do a 2 hour interval workout it reports to Strava as being a 36 mile ride, which seems close to what it would be as a real world ride, while Garmin will show it being a 44 mile ride and of course the speeds and everything else are all off. So far I’ve just been looking up what Strava shows and editing the Garmin ride accordingly but I’d love to know if there’s some setting or something I need to adjust to get everything accurate and synced correctly.
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TR uses a simulated estimate of speed and distance based on your power to weight and that’s exported to Strava, whereas garmin takes them (speed and distance) directly off your trainer freewheel speed. If you want them to be the exact same disable the TR estimation (its in your account settings somewhere). Speed and distance however is irrelevant on the trainer anyway and the only constants are time and power. If you were to use a virtual package such as Zwift or RGT that estimates speed and distance on gradient and virtual drafting etc, you’ll get a different answer again.
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I personally don’t think of time on the trainer as “miles” any more. There are just too many variables between systems, trainers, power meters, software, etc. for me. I know too many people who average 17mph outdoors and 23mph indoors to take speed or miles or elevation on the trainer seriously any more.
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I track trainer miles mostly for maintaining the bike. I realize the accuracy is a bit wanting but since most, if not all, bike servicing intervals go off of mileage vs hours I still like to have some kind of ball park idea of how much wear and tear is on everything. I also need total miles to make the case with the wife that I should get a new bike. I told her I’d get 20,000 or so on the current one before I started shopping again.
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Haha. Those are very good reasons. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t worry too much about the true-up. I’d just pick one of the systems as the source of truth and stick with it.
In that case pick the biggest number 
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How do you set Garmin to calculate distance?
My Indoor Bike always record zero distance.
Im not exactly sure why but if I record on the PC app TR pushes through to GC a file which has speed and distance which is the exact same (within 0.1 of a mile anyway) of my Garmin which reads the trainer flywheel. I don’t think Ive done anything special on the laptop other than set up in TR the GC Ride sync in the settings and pair the Suito for resistance control (I read off a PM). If I record on the app it usually doesn’t but I tend to be usually running another app (RGT) on the PC controlling the trainer. For that to me would suggest that you need to have the Garmin Ride sync authorised in the TR settings and having TR paired to your trainer (if only for resistance).
@billda2336 I’ve just realised you can have Strava set up to use the flywheel data and be the same as GC. Although the default estimation based on w/kg is more realistic.
