Why is Garmin indoor data inconsistent?

Equipment
1

Does anyone know why Garmin sometimes records miles for my indoor workouts and other times does not? You can see here that I did the exact same workout in TR two days in a row.

Both times I:

  1. Started the TR ride on my laptop, then started the Garmin after that.
  2. Finished the TR ride on my laptop and stopped the Garmin after.

I use Strava as my hub, so TR feeds Strava and Strava feeds Garmin. TR DOES NOT feed Garmin.

Also, since there are a few extra seconds, you can see that both sets of data seem to be Garmin sets, not TR which ends on the exact second.

Why do some days have miles and other days not? I don’t care which happens, I just want it to be consistent.

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2

What were your power sources for each of these rides? I had the exact same thing happen when I switched from my trainer (which provides distance) to a power meter (which has no knowledge of distance).

3

It might have something to do with a GPS fix ? Perhaps if you start the ride before a GPS fix it uses the turbo theoretical free wheel distance. If you start the ride after the GPS fix, GPS overrides the theoretical freewheel distance and uses the actual distance which 0 (or near as with GPS flutter). I have my gps set up to an indoor profile, so it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day though theoretical speed and distance on a turbo is irrelevant and the only thing that really matters is power :+1:

4

With some trainers (e.g. neo) you can connect to either the trainer (which includes power, but also speed) or to only the power meter. Maybe in the rides with distance you connected to the full trainer, and the other ride only to the power meter?

5

Both rides were the same. Just connecting using the existing connections on the laptop and garmin. No changes. Just turn on and ride.

Interesting thought on the GPS fix.

6

I’ll try paying attention to which device I power on first and see if that matters.

7

I use:

  • an Indoor profile on my Garmin with gps disabled
  • Garmin is only connected to Stages power meter and not Wahoo Kickr

The only indoor rides with distance have “Uploaded from TrainerRoad” on Garmin Connect’s activity page.

The Kickr will send power, cadence, and ‘speed’ data, and therefore I assume if connected to my Garmin (instead of Stages PM) it would record distance.

As far as I know Strava will only share Courses/Routes with Garmin:
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So I don’t think its which device is powered on first. Could be wrong, but everything I’ve read indicates Strava doesn’t send workouts to Garmin.

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