Ugh, I had just recently figured out the magical dance to keep TR, Strava, Wahoo, and Apple Watch all in sync.
Its funny, I pay for Strava, mostly just because I understand their predicament; I’m there for most of their free features. The only subsriber feature I really use is the Fitness/Freshness chart, because I like to see how my total workload varies over time, which TR doesn’t have.
If Strava isn’t acting as my single source of truth for storing/sharing data with other platforms, I really have no real reason to be there.
Why? That’s exactly what Garmin does. The Garmin Connect API is not open, you can’t just sign up for access, you have to request it and they have zero obligation to grant you or anyone else access to it. And as stated in previous posts in this thread, they don’t push outside activities via their API, which is why Zwift activities pushed to Garmin Connect don’t end up in TrainerRoad. They haven’t even allowed new partners to push activities to Garmin Connect in years. Garmin seems to be doing fine.
They could shape the TOU in such a way that they would essentially stop TR from using their supplied data, but that would also stop many others from doing so as well.
That’s my point, that’s exactly what Strava did and there is nothing stopping Wahoo or Garmin from doing the same thing at any point in the future, so it’s not really fair to “take them to task” for making the decision to integrate with Strava years ago, when a) that streamlined the integration and b) it may have seemed like the safer choice at the time.
Well, Strava ended up being the one who effectively cut TR off. And it wasn’t an either/or choice. There was nothing stopping them from pursuing the Wahoo direct API as a contingency against this scenario. TR simply incorrectly calculated that it wasn’t a high priority. I’m not mad at TR, but am a little disappointed. Wahoo aren’t some fringe device brand. They left themselves exposed and got burned. Now my TR experience stands to be compromised.
It absolutely wasn’t a priority since TR had a completely workable solution in place for years, until Strava decided to pull the rug out from under everyone.
Hindsight is 20/20, but I don’t remember anyone calling for this in great measure prior to this announcement, because it simply worked.
I hope that more integration with Apple Watch and the Apple Fitness app is on the TR roadmap as well.
I often use my watch to record commuting activities when I don’t want to bring my Garmin head unit. But that’s also where I record every other non-cycling activity like walking, yoga, strength training, etc. Those activities go to Strava and then to TR just to keep track of total volume.
And then TR to Apple Fitness would be nice so that TR workouts can be reflected in my daily fitness rings. That currently also takes place via Strava for me.
But based on what everyone else in this thread are discussing it seems like that’s a much lower priority than Wahoo and Intervals.icu.
I’m sorry, but some critical items, like data source vulnerabilities, should be addressed proactively by the developers. Don’t try to shift responsibility to the user base because they didn’t “call for it.”
This is the boat I’m in. Running and strength are both recorded on my Apple Watch and are only pulled in to TR via Strava. Additionally, my TR workouts are pulled into Apple Health and Fitness, again, via Strava. I think it’ll be a bumpy few months for us.
But, I can still mark my scheduled runs and strength sessions on my TR calendar as complete, and they should then feed in to Adaptive Training. Additionally, I can record my TR workouts concurrently on my watch and TR so that my Apple Fitness and Training Load maintain some parity with TR.
First, I went ahead and canceled my Strava premium subscription. I used the “Other” comment box to let them know why, as well as send them an email asking for a prorated refund (not expecting one). In that email I mentioned that it’s actually my data and how they’ve fundamentally changed the services being offered compared to when I signed up. Maybe if they get enough people canceling or emailing them they’ll see just how many people are affected. Maybe not.
Like others have said, this is kind of just the straw that broke the camel’s back with Strava. I don’t use Strava for much of the social aspect. I have followers and follow people, mostly just to be nice if they follow me. I have most people muted so I don’t see their activities and can’t tell you the last time I gave a Kudos to anybody. I almost left when they changed the segment leaderboards, and did stop my premium for a bit after that but came back recently wanting to give them another try. Segments and KOMs are fun but not worth the price of premium.
As of now I mostly use Strava as a data middleman. Analysis is done on intervals.icu and/or WKO5, both of which don’t need Strava. Some other apps I’m not sure about. VeloViewer is a fun one for segment stuff but also their square map. Statshunters is the same. I use the map as a fun way to try new roads and expand my square. I also use a similar app called Wandrer that shows me unique roads. Again, something to find new routes and ride roads I’ve never ridden. Since Wandrer and Statshunters only take the map data and there’s no AI or coaching, I’m hoping they’ll be fine.
Another thought is how many people this will affect. I saw somebody quote 125M users. I’m curious how many of those are real people and actually active. My wife and father have Strava accounts but I know for a fact my wife hasn’t logged an activity there in over 3 years. Same for my dad. So how many of those 125M are real, active users. How many are bots. And then how many of those are premium? My guess is that the non-premium user isn’t going to notice this much. The premium user is more likely to use other third party apps. Which means that I would think that there are more premium users that are going to be angry about this and possibly cancel. Which again comes back to the question of why Strava is doing this. The decision looks to affect the paying customers more than the free users.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this other than to say it just seems like an odd move from Strava. I’m not sure if something else is forcing their hand or they are completely clueless on their userbase and what people want. Also perfect timing for the 25% off TrainingPeaks sale right now. With the aquisition of IndieVelo, TP could become the data center plus offering virtual rides.
He wasn’t doing this. Product roadmaps are often driven by user feedback so why would this have been prioritized if there was little feedback about this?
There was absolutely no indication that this was “critical”. Strava has been a reliable data hub for years and just decided one day to pull the rug under the industry’s feet. No one could have anticipated this.
I have 6 month left on my subscription but will cancel when i get back from my business trip. I can sync rides on my Fenix 7 until the Wahoo integration is figured out. Better to cancel an ask for my $ back now while it is fresh in their minds.
Not sure how much data is stored in the export file but it’s worth a try
“As with many app categories, third-party developers have come to the rescue. HealthFit has one simple job: export Activity app workouts into the FIT file format. It can natively share to a few places, but I love the ability to just save it straight to iCloud Drive and the Files app. From there, you can then upload it wherever you want.”
please prioritize wahoo direct API. Wahoo is not a fringe device group of individuals and I assume it has this functionality… Disappointing that my pixel watch which syncs to strava for hikes and rowing will not be able to be imported into the TR…
Strava seems to have blind sided us all. Had I known this was coming I would have bought a garmin watch and headunit rather than a wahoo and a pixel watch…
Fitness device companies should be pulling back on what they supply to Strava. Maybe just the bare minimum. Time, distance, and elevation. Nothing more. After all Strava could be applying AI to that data… Just sayin’
If you think this was a failing on TR’s part I would highly suggest you peruse the forums for Veloviewer, intervals.icu, etc. Literally no one anticipated this and it is a little unfair to peg TR for something that was ultimately out of their hands.
But luckily TR is already on the case:
I have high confidence the TR team is not going to hang us out to dry and I believe you should too.
As a long time Apple user in a PC dominated business world, I have faith TR will work all this out. Maybe not over night. It took me hours of brain strain trying to make my laptop work with Microsoft, SAP, and other locked in formats, before they saw the light. Being a single individual, my hacks and boot legged software ( probably illegal hahaha ) did not get anyone in hot water. TR will have to do it on the up and up which will take time.
I as many others, will let my Strava sub run out. Years from now people might mention Strava. The response will be : ya I remember them. Weren’t they around when AOL was popular?
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