Garmin training effect dat

General Discussion
21

I haven’t tested this yet but from the comments on @Shane_Miller_GPLama 's video, it seems Garmin still doesn’t use Zwift distance and elevation gained toward Garmin Challenges.

As such, if I want to fully participate in the “social” as of Garmin’s platform (I do - I have family and friends there who don’t Zwift). I’m still left with double-logging: once in Zwift, and a second log separately in Garmin via a device like a Garmin watch or bike computer, editing the latter after saving to reflect the total distance and elevation gain from the Zwift log entry.

It’s a step closer but not fully baked. (edit - to be clear: this is on Garmin, not Zwift)

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22

Yeah, I use Zwift almost every day, and the activity shows in Garmin Connect, including heart rate, power etc.

However, these activities don’t show at all in Training Status or Training Effect.

They do show in Power Curve. It’s really annoying, since Zwift is my primary form of exercise.

23

I can confirm this. I use a tool to manipulate the Zwift .fit file, changing the device type to a Garmin, then Import that to Connect.

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24

OK, I think I have it working…

I did a search on the internet, and someone said that, according to Garmin Support, you have to have a seed bike ride recorded on your watch for this to work. That is, you have to track a bike ride outside, or track an indoor bike ride.

So, at lunchtime today, I set my watch to transmit my heart rate to Zwift as usual, but also tracked my indoor bike ride on the watch. In Garmin Connect, this gave me two activities - the one from the watch had time, heart rate, calories etc., and also had Training Effect (it didn’t have any power data).
The one from Zwift had all the data from Zwift, including power data, but no Training Effect.

This evening, I did the same thing with another ride on Zwift. Again, I had two activities in Garmin Connect. The one recorded on the watch was the same as before. However, now the one from Zwift had Training Effect data - Primary Benefit, Aerobic, Anaerobic, and Exercise Load.

So, that looks like it’s working. Tomorrow, I’ll try without tracking the ride on the watch, and see if it still works.

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25

Glad you figured it out. Not at all intuitive!

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26

Yeah, fairly random. Hopefully anybody else with the same issue will find the answer here.

27

Final test today, and it all works without tracking the virtual bike ride on the watch - I just broadcast my heart rate from the watch. Very happy to have got it working.

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28

What about metrics such as VO2, Lactate Threshold, FTP values? Do they also update when you only use Zwift to record the activity?

29

Garmin VO2 updates based on Zwift rides. Not sure about lactate threshold or FTP.

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30

Thanks for sharing this. So all you had to do was record a ride using the watch? I have a Fenix 7s and I have only Zwifted since I got the watch, and none of my rides go towards Training Load, etc. I will try this.

31

Are we sure about this, this is the only thing I haven’t seen yet (Zwift to Edge 530)

32

I get consistent updates to my VO2Max on Garmin Connect from my Zwift rides. I think an earlier response in this thread mentioned the need to have an initial VO2Max based on an outdoor ride.

33

I have a VO2 max set via an indoor ride recorded on my Edge 530 so I’ll test this out. Had previously been double recording to get the VO2 effect. Thanks for the clarity

34

Looking back on this thread, the prior discussion about a seed ride involved a ride recorded on a Garmin watch, not the 530. In my case, I also had a ride recorded on my Garmin watch — so no promises this will work with the 530!

35

So I think it does work, in fact I seem to have 2 VO2 max readings now, one just generic and one related to Cycling :grinning: