Effective use of Zwift and Garmin Fenix 6

General Discussion
#1

Hey all!

Hoping this is not regarded off-topic, but I was wondering how you effectively use your Fenix watch on Zwift. For me, I would want my Zwift rides to be recorded on the Fenix to make sure the watch keeps an eye on my general fitness metrics (recovery, VO2max, training effect, …). At the same time, I very much like Zwifts ability to upload my rides directly into Garmin Connect - its just way cooler to have the “real” distance and height difference together with map view where I rode.

What I am ending up is two entires in connect. One has complete fitness metrics (the one from the Fenix 6), the other one has more accurate detail on the ride itself. And Garmin connect does not seem to offer the possibility to merge both activities… In the end, this totally spoils my weekly / monthly / yearly stats, such as fitness gear usage. One workaround is to allocate both rides to the gear “Kickr”, knowing that the metrics for “Kickr” have to be roughly divided by two. But that’s not really a solution, adding one ‘correct’ mileage reading to an incorrect one and then dividing by two…

How to you deal with this in a practical manner?

Cheers,

Andreas

#2

I don’t believe that there is a way of doing this in a good way, most people either don’t bother with the Garmin health stats or double down on their rides. I don’t bother because you look like an ■■■■ with double rides in Strava clubs etc.

#3

Thanks Paul, that clarifies what I feared already… So I guess I will have to delete the sessions recorded via the Fenix in Garmin Connect in this case. I’d loose Training Effect and TSS data on individual sessions then. I would not mind about this that much - but this does unfortunately also impact the long-term performance stats in the Garmin connect app. Reads: no Training effect data and other stuff over the entire winter season… Kind of a bummer… :frowning:

#4

Haven’t tried this to see if it screws up the training metrics but why don’t you just edit the Garmin file to 0 distance? That way it won’t double your distance but should still provide the training metrics you want.

Just be aware any activity not recorded with a Garmin or Tacx device won’t count towards Garmin badges.

2 Likes
#5

Brilliant Watson, that’s seems do be a working solution! Eliminating distance, time and calories in the Garmin file avoids double counting, keeps the Connect App from writing crap into my activity data in Apple Health and seems to preserve all the long-term training metrics. And on top of this: its quite easy to do. Thanks a million to both of you, this really helped! Cheers, Andreas

1 Like
#6

It would be interesting to find out the long-term implications (if any) of this method.