Garmin, Strava, TP, TR…Oh My!

Training
#1

Hoping to get some veteran advice. I’m 52 and have been dabbling in Running/Riding for quite a while. I’ve never really formally trained to improve, just sort of put a random schedule together and went. As I delve into the area of training, I’m completely overwhelmed by the online options. I’m a die-hard Garmin guy recording my HIIT workouts and Runs on my Fenix 5 and my rides on an Edge 1030.

The goal is to become a better Road cyclist and runner. I have a subscription to Zwift and Strava but I’ve been hearing a lot about Training Peaks and Trainer Road. It seems so many of these services are duplicative. Garmin and Strava seem to provide the same basic information while Training Peaks seems to be a combo of the two on steroids.

My question is: what’s a good combo of services that provides decent plans and analysis without a helluva a lot of duplication (and added expense)? Do I ditch Strava and go with TR for plans? Keep Strava and use Internals for analysis (I just signed up for Internals and I’m completely overwhelmed by all the data)? I’m really just trying to get better and monitor how I’m responding to the training (when to rest, etc). Any insight would be appreciated.

#2

Hi, It seems complicated but it is not. (sorry for my English, I speak spanish) I am a coach who is currently using TP with my athletes. Training peaks is great for planning and analizing. The best way to become a better cyclist and runner is to get a coach. There is no point in having all the data and analyzing ir if you dont know what to do with it. For what I have seen in terms of analyzing and planning all the training Intervals seems the best option, in fact I am considering migrate from TP to Intervals. In training peaks you can find plans but you will have to pay for them and they are not very personalized.
If you are not convinced of getting a coach then I guess Srtava is the best option to analize. It is the most clear and easy way to understand your training. Also GC has very nice features like decent training programs and analisis.
Hope this helps

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#3

Strava - just a Facebook for active people, good for sharing your efforts and motivate yourself by other people, good social place to find group rides, meet athletes, share your best efforts, most of people are very supportive it really helps sometimes. Paid subscription is good if you won’t use any other training service and just need some simple graphs and things like strava segments to have some fun during your rides. If you have Garmin, paid Strava is kind of pointless.

TrainingPeaks - training calendar and a hub to connect with a coach, very good to plan your training in terms of a weekly monthly or seasonal schedule, only platform which can easily send workouts to wahoo computer (but you use Garmin), if you plan to work with a coach, most of them will use TP to schedule your training, so if you think about being coached just ask your future coach what platform he prefers

Trainerroad - kind of similar to training peaks but with more emphasis on self coaching, worth checkin
btw they have a nice podcast on youtube with many training infos

Good combos:

  1. if you prefer being coached: free Strava+TP+Intervals
  2. if you prefer self coaching: free Strava+TR+Intervals
  3. if you prefer self coaching and have some knowledge how to plan and so on just free Strava and Intervals

Intervals is just the best in gathering all the info in one place so you can just quickly see whats going on. A must have regardless which other platform you use.
PS. Intervals can be overwhelming but just at the beginning, it provides a lot of posibilities so you can choose and trim it to your needs.
PS2. HR and a power meter are most important things to have if you think about improving

cheerz :grinning:

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#4

ciao,
sono quasi del tutto d accordo con Tomas.
aggiungo però che se effettivamente si vuole migliorare, acquisire una conoscenza è imprescindibile, quindi studiare insieme all allenatore diventa essenziale.
sapere cosa si deve fare, di rimando mail, ma ignorare il perchè lo si fa e dove porta quel tipo di allenamento lo considero riduttivo.
pertanto lo studio costante rende il tutto più affascinante e poi, forse, più semplice.
allenarsi coi misuratori di potenza è un mondo in continua scoperta.
il gruppo TP è autorevole e gli ideatori oggi sono formatori di analisti in merito.
un grande successo e un traguardo dal quale tutti noi siamo partiti.
se ti piace l aspetto semplicistico e spesso ingannevole, allora STRAVA , rappresenta un buon compromesso. ma non per quelli come me.
sostengo e trovo INTERVAL S, all 'altezza di tantissime aspettative di analisi. poi creare grafici custom, è veramente interessante.
ad maiora

#5

Thank you for the feedback. Given that I’ll start with self-coaching, I’ll look at TR. As for paid vs. free Strava, there seems to be a good deal of value in the paid version. I do wonder if connecting both Garmin and Strava to Intervals is a good idea. Garmin feeds Strava and then both Garmin and Strava feed Intervals.

#6

Thank you for the feedback. I have quite a bit to learn about Intervals. I’ve asked another respondant as well but is there harm in connecting both Garmin and Strava? Is there an advantage/disadvantage to this approach?

#7

Apologies. I don’t speak Spanish but I do appreciate your reply

#8

The Garmin activities will replace the Strava ones on Intervals.icu. The advantage of getting activities from Garmin is that Intervals.icu gets the raw files with things not supplied by Strava (e.g. L/R balance). Also if you ever disconnect Intervals.icu from Strava or Strava revokes Intervals.icu API access then I have to delete all of your data originating from Strava. Garmin doesn’t do that. It is nice to have your own data.

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#9

Thank you for the clarification. I will go ahead and disconnect Strava and rely solely on Garmin. Does weight auto-sync from Garmin?

#10

BTW: is it easier to simply delete my account and recreate a new one or can I just wipe out all data and re-sync? I’ve requested my full Garmin history so plan to upload everything

#11

No need to delete your account. The Garmin history load will replace Strava activities. Weight will sync from Garmin if you tick that box in the wellness list in Garmin Settings.

#12

Hi david, I would prefer if Intervals would retain Strava data after a user has revoked access to Strava (maybe default to optional? it seems best practice for data to be persistent). I know other applications behave this way and it seems consistent with Strava API Agreement, relevant section here:

  1. Unless otherwise required by applicable law or agreement with the applicable user to retain such data, if a user revokes the authorization previously granted for your Developer Applications to access to their Strava account, you must ensure that all Personal Data pertaining to that user is deleted from your Developer Applications and related networks, systems and servers. If you stop using the Strava API Materials altogether or if your Strava API Materials access is revoked, you must delete all Personal Data in the same way.
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#13

To me that says that if you revoke Intervals.icu access to your Strava data then I need to delete all of that data? I would certainly prefer to retain it and let the user choose to delete the data themselves.

#14

I’m not a lawyer but pretty sure that if you share your data with Strava it’s not your data anymore. So if Intervals.icu gathers data from Strava, it"s Stravas data not users so it’s no longer users thing to decide about. Probably to be on a safer side of lawish life, I would delete that data automaticaly. To be sure, you must check Stravas terms of use but i bet it’s similar to other social networks like facebook etc. They live from gathering and selling our data :confused:

#15
  1. Unless otherwise required by applicable law or agreement with the applicable user to retain such data, if a user revokes the authorization previously granted for your Developer Applications to access to their Strava account, you must ensure that all Personal Data pertaining to that user is deleted from your Developer Applications and related networks, systems and servers. If you stop using the Strava API Materials altogether or if your Strava API Materials access is revoked, you must delete all Personal Data in the same way.

Considering the text in bold. I read this as in either scenario where a user or Strava revokes access you may retain data where required by applicable law or via an agreement to retain the data with the applicable user.

In my opinion, you could require the right to retain Strava data in TOS. Your site already allows a user to delete the data or account. An alternative would be to create the agreement when a user connects Strava, with a check box for something like “retain Strava data if Strava access is revoked” - I find this preferable as it gives a user more choice. Persistent data seems like best practice and more predictable for the user, so the check box could default to checked to avoid mistakes where a user looses data.

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