I am still relatively new to Zwifting and have been thoroughly enjoying myself so far.
Now, since the beginning, I have been suing my Garmin Epix 2 together with Zwift. However, lately I have been wondering if the setup that I am currently running might actually be messing with my data on Garmin.
Since Zwift sadly doesn’t pass all data to Garmin, I usually run a “Bike Indoor” workout on the watch while Zwifting. I also do this because Garmin does not count driven km inside of Zwift to any of the Garmin Challenges. This means my setup looks like this:
Zwift Hub, connected to my Garmin watch
Garmin watch running activity “Bike Indoor” incl. broadcasting of HR to the Zwift Hub/Companion App
Zwift uploading my rides to Garmin when I finish.
What this leads to is Garmin always having to entries for my workouts. One recorded in Zwift, which is then uploaded, one recorded on the Watch directly.
I was now wondering if this messes with my stats/performance rating in Garmin. For example, my VO2 has literally not moved one bit, even though I have been actively Zwifting 3-5x/Week for almost 4 months now. It also keeps telling me that I do not have any Anaerobic benefit from my workouts, even though they do definitely take a lot from me in most cases. It’s things like these that make me wonder if this double recording might actually be breaking some things.
While I write this I realize this might be more of a question for a Garmin Forum instead of here, still, I will try my luck since maybe someone here has had similar experiences and can advice me on what to do.
Maybe the only/best option is to just not get any of the Garmin challenges done when Zwifting and only use the Zwift upload?
Double log, edit your Garmin entry after the fact to make the distance and elevation match the Zwift totals. Add a screenshot of the Zwift Companion app log entry for posterity.
There’s no other way to get the physio data and have Garmin credit your distance/elevation toward Garmin challenges.
This is a Garmin decision and short of them giving full credit for Zwift activities, there’s no workaround other than editing the .FIT file with FitFileTools - which is a bigger pain in the saddle than just doing what I’d suggested above.
Where do I get the FitFiles from on Zwift? I suppose I could also retroactively do that for past workouts and that will fix some of the data I have on Garmin?
I like this approach. Will give it a try first and then try the FitFile thing recommended by you and the other poster
Just to clarify: I record it as “Bike Indoor” on my Garmin, do NOT let Zwift upload to Garmin and instead add the elevation & distance data that I see on the end screen on Zwift and upload a Screenshot to that workout, thats it. Did I get that right?
I go to FitFileTools Device Changer and change the device to a Garmin (I change mine to an Edge 520 as I don’t have one of those, making any future searching easier), then Import the file I downloaded.
I record my activities via Garmin Edge (previously with Fenix watch). It always has the right training effect, FTP detection or Threshold HR detection as well as training load etc. Then it reflects in the body battery, training status etc. correctly. Garmin cycling challenges are cherry on the cake wo/ elevation challenges.
I turned the Zwift upload to Garmin off. The distance would be irrelevant anyways since one goes much faster in Zwift than real life.
Did this in the end now. Went back and did it for all Rides I have done so far. Lucky that I only started Zwifting 3 months ago xD Took me quite a while but not I got spammed with Badge unlocks on Garmin, so seems like this worked fine! Ty very much
I use RunGap to import my Zwift rides into Connect instead of directly from Zwift. RunGap inserts a fake device (Tacx) onto the activity so they count towards challenges. I also log the ride with Garmin but delete it instead of saving at the end. This way, I get all my training load and recovery metrics updated in Connect.
I’m struggling with this still. I’ve tried downloading the .FIT file from Zwift and Strava (I have Zwift automatically uplaoding to Strava), editing it with FIT File Tools to change it to a Garmin Edge 520, then manually uploading the file to Garmin Connect. It updates cycling miles but that is it (it does show it as coming from a 520). Body battery, recovery, calories etc. do not change at all from the activity. Pretty annoying, outdoor rides using my actual Edge 520 seem to work fine, but can’t get my Zwift rides to affect any stats. Also the old (4 years+?) Connect update to get Zwift stats to count doesn’t work now apparently, connected Zwift to Garmin Connect and as I said before, doesn’t update any of the stats after the activity is added.
Edit: Forgot to say I’ve tried recording an activity on my Vivioactive 5 at the same time, calories were about doubled from what Zwift calculated, I guess I could just record at the same time and update all fields to what Zwift has? Seems like a pita, I’d rather manually upload a file over that.
The way I use zwift to garmin connect is this…
I run zwift as normal which records to Strava and garmin connect when I finish.
But…
I also run my 1030 on indoor ride at same time. It’s connected to my Elite trainer at same time.
I manually start n stop the Garmin when I start to ride and finish on zwift.
I then save the Garmin ride as normal. It downloads to Strava as well as connect, so I delete the 2nd Strava entry for the ride.
I then go into connect and see the 2 rides recorded.
There is a difference in miles recorded as Garmin records less Miles per ride.
I then edit the Garmin ride to match the Zwift ride details and title and save it.
Then delete the Zwift ride from connect.
1 ride on Strava from zwift. 1 ride on Connect from Garmin device, both from the same ride.
It’s easy when you get used to the edit facility on connect and also add photos from your phone/pc.
Sorry for late reply on this, and thank you for the suggestion. I tried this tonight, just a summary:
Have Zwift linked to Garmin Connect, did a ride, downloaded the .FIT file from Garmin, edited device with FIT File Tools to Edge 520, deleted original activity on Connect, uploaded modified .FIT file to Connect.
The only thing that seems to have changed is that it shows it was done on the Edge 520, all other stats still don’t update. It did still name it as a virtual ride, I tried renaming it to something else and setting the activity type (to fitness), didn’t seem to affect anything.
Edit: I manually edited the activity in Connect afterwards to put something hugely obvious (+1,000 burned calories) in it, it DOES seem to change calories, but not body battery/recovery at all which is what I’m more concerned with (I use the Strava entry in Cronometer for calorie tracking). Sigh…
