Garmin Fenix 5 - TrainerRoad

True Up works for steps, etc. as you say.

Physio True Up (a more recent addition to GC) works for syncing activities RECORDED ON GARMIN DEVICES. It doesn’t work for activities imported from Strava, TR, etc.

2 Likes

I’m using a 5x and my method is to connect TR to garmin via ride sync but only allow the option for garmin > TR NOT the other way round

I use my 5x to record TR sessions and a 520+ to record outside sessions. This means I get all my true-up data correct in the Garmin world and I get ‘credit’ for outside rides in TR.

I’ve been doing this for some time don’t get duplicates in Garmin because TR isn’t set to sync to garmin and I don’t get duplicates in TR because I believe TR filters these out when it spots a match.

ALTHOUGH I did get my first duplicate in TR this morning for the ramp test and I think this is because I stopped the watch when I stopped the test but left TR running for a few more minutes. This meant that TR didn’t see it as I matching ride…I think

4 Likes

Hey, thanks for posting this. I couldn’t see how to do a one-way sync. So following your post, I re-authorised the connection of GC and TR, and found the one-way sync option as part of the authorisation process. I guess I’ll see tomorrow whether this eliminates duplicates in GC.

1 Like

Man, thanks for correcting me. I wasn’t aware at all about this enhanced version of true up. I just checked here and it is available for the edge 520 which surprised me because it doesn’t provide as much fitness data as the most recent devices.

1 Like

not all Garmins have the same physio trueup features and don’t all display the same firstbeat data.

If you have the option of a fenix 5 compared to 520 (or 520+) to record your indoor TR rides then use the F5 - it has more Garmin stats than the 520 such as training effect. So you will have slightly more true-up data than if you use the 520 for indoor rides.

I always use a 520+ outdoors but indoors it’s a 5x for me.

PS - checked with TR support and the method I outlined above with one-way sync means you should never get duplicates if you only use TR/Garmin…I long since stopped uploading from TR to Strava.

I already use my f5 in parallel with TR indoor so I can keep advanced first beat metrics and also have a contingency for training in case either my V3 or kikr breaks.
I tought of using physio true up more as a solution to simplify my outdoor set up. Instead of having 2 GC+1TR accounts I would have only 1GC account feeding my outdoor rides to TR using the method you described. Would that generate duplicate indoor rides on TR?

should work just fine - make sure you only allow 1 way sync when you authorise the garmin connection

1 Like

Thanks everyone for so the great information. I will be doing a few tweaks to my setup before I head to the shed for the next workout

Unfortunately the fenix does not include the F-EC protocol, so it doesn’t get distance from the trainer. For me, tracking the cumulative use of the chain and cassette is a greater priority than the Training Effect metric, so I record on the 520+. But that’s just a personal preference.

Just did a ride using both TR & F5. Allowed the double just to be sure it worked. Glad I did because TR showed what I would expect compared with the F5 that had me doing 135km in the hour workout, now although I would love that to be true clearly something is not right. Could it be that the F5 is reading the cadence from my Garmin sensor on pedal and they intride one at the same time. Will have a good look through later on this afternoon

Depends on the trainer - kickr snap encodes the speed as part of the ANT+ power data so you get “virtual” distance auto calculated. Not really sure how virtual distance is useful to check wear, as it depends on the gearing if you are using erg mode. I would have thought time on the bike was more important but it’s your call obviously.

Not sure why cadence would make a difference here.

Might be a gearing issue ? What trainer/power meter ? How do you have it paired ? Where is speed/distance being generated/broadcast ?

I have a KK rock and roll(dumb trainer) with the inride sensor and magnet attached to give me power and cadence. These were all running through an iPad or my Pixel2xl depending which one i connected to on the day. it is [aired via bluetooth

This morning I used the iPad for TR and the F5 so i can get the training status on the F5. the F5 automatically picked up power and cadence when i used it for a short time the day i bought it vut today is first time i have used it for the whole session

So I checked yesterday and, although I can see an option for turning physio true on on GC for the edge 520, it will always go back to off after syncing. Garmin’s website it is clear that it is only available for the 520+ but I just don’t understand why giving this option for the Old 520.
Anyway, what im really interested is having one way sync from GC and TR because I do 90% of my training indoor and it would be a pain to delete duplicates on TR. I’ll try it tomorrow.

1 Like

@mcalista that’s not entirely true. Zwift rides and runs have synched for me whereas TrainerRoad doesn’t. According to Garmin there’s some part of the file TrainerRoad sends thats missing to enable the functionality. I have no idea what that development effort is but my workaround is to have TrainerRoad push to Strava and I just save the same workout with my Edge 530 which pushes to Garmin Connect. I don’t get any duplicates and get the physio true-up functionality and training status.

1 Like

That’s exactly the behavior I would expect with a modern Edge device (which does include FE-C), and what
I get with my 520+. My point was that the Fenix 5 does NOT include FE-C, and does not get all the metrics from a smart trainer.

@mcalista what metric would you expect to be missing using a F5 ?- I don’t see anything missing in mine, although I use a separate cadence meter as the kickr snap doesn’t broadcast it. The snap is paired to the f5 as a power meter. With the wahoo devices the power ant+ broadcast has distance baked in too.

We discussed above about the validity of distance when it comes to indoor riding. I’m not convinced it’s even a metric that has any meaning.

I’m not even sure you’d want two devices trying to pair via FE-C. You only need one to be controlling the trainer, which would be TR.

As always, just IMO :slight_smile:

Agree that in the context of the effectiveness of an indoor workout, it is a meaningless metric. However, as noted above, I do track overall distance in terms of chain and cassette wear (I use the same bike outdoors and on the trainer) and like to rotate and wax my chains every 300km.

I use TR to control the trainer, and just use Garmin to passively record my workout.

I use a direct drive trainer (Tacx Flux S) and cannot get distance on my Fenix 5 (paired as an indoor trainer), but can get it on an Edge. Obviously “distance” can be measured directly with a wheel-on trainer like the Snap - I’m not sure if that has something to do with our different experiences.

This is the trouble I am having. Same ride same time, one is with the F5 and the other is the TR workout. Can’t figure it what is causing the difference

Why wouldn’t you just turn off the sync between TR and GC then?